Complement

130 (53 dead and 77 survivors).

Convoy

DN-55 (dispersed)

Route

Glasgow - Durban (5 Aug) - Port Louis, Mauritius

Cargo

6346 tons of general cargo, including 5500 tons of military stores, ammunition and mail

Notes on loss  

At 03.32 hours on 12 Aug, 1943, the Clan Macarthur (Master John Drayton Matthews), dispersed from convoy DN-55, was hit by two G7a torpedoes from U-181 after a hunt of over 15 hours about 350 miles east of Farafangan, Madagascar.

The ship sank by the bow eight minutes after being hit by a coup de grâce at 03.47 hours.

After the ship sank a heavy underwater detonation slightly damaged the U-boat and swamped several lifeboats.

The Germans questioned the survivors before they left the area. 52 crew members and one gunner were lost.

The master, 70 crew members and six passengers were picked up by FFL Savorgnan de Brazza and landed at Port Louis.

Clan Macarthur was launched on 14 October 1935 and completed in January 1936.

Clan Macarthur had capacity for 986,050 cubic feet (27,922 m3) of refrigerated cargo.

She had 24 corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 450 square feet (42 m2) heating six single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 19,428 square feet (1,805 m2) that supplied steam at 220 lbf/in2 to a pair of three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, with steam exhausted from the low-pressure cylinders then driving a pair of low-pressure steam turbines.

The North East Marine Engineering Co of Newcastle upon Tyne built her four engines, whose combined power was rated at 1,552 NHP.

Date of attack

12 Aug 1943  

Fate

Sunk by U-181 (Wolfgang Lüth)

Position 23S, 53.11E - Grid KR 2213