Q Ship ACTON

[Sgt Stripes]

Hello. I am looking for information on the Q SHIP HMS ACTON. She was also named Q34,GANDY,and HARELDA. I believe she sunk the German U BOAT U72. Although I would like to hear more on that action, it is ACTON herself that I am really interested in. Many Thanks    

[horatio2]

Also sailed under the name of WOFFINGTON, I believe.

[Malcolm12hl]

Originally the Irish Sea cargo steamer HARELDA, built by Wigham Richardson on the Tyne in 1901 for the Cork Steamship Co. Ltd.  She had a long and varied career, and was eventually sunk by a Japanese submarine in the early days of the Second World War.  See the link below for full details (and a very nice photo).

 

 

www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/H-Ships/harelda1901.html

[little bob]

Acton, alias Q34, Gandy, Harelda , Wolffington. On service 22/3/1917 - 11/11/1918.  Armament.1 x 4 inch, 1x 6 pdr. 4 submerged 18 inch torpedo tubes. 4 x 200lb bomb throwers.

 

Bob

[Michael Lowrey]

The German official history credits Acton with sinking UC 72 on August 20, 1917 in the Bay of Biscay at 47°38’N, 8°19’W.  The German submarine “submerged stern first with most of his conning-tower shot away” in an action the Royal Navy thought “probably sunk” an enemy submarine.

 

However, the U-boat research community has rejected this sinking claim. The next day, a tug and barge were stopped and sunk in an action that only UC 72 could have been responsible for. In 2013, the marine archaeologist Innes McCartney identified the wreck of UC 72 in the Straits of Dover where it had hit a mine while homebound.

[Sgt Stripes]

Thank you all for all your help. That is very interesting Michael about Innes McCartney. I do not know much about damage to submarines but could a submarine still be able to submerge and surface with most of its conning tower blown away.  

[Hyacinth1326]

Unlikely as the conning tower fitted to a U-boat was within the pressure hull.  Most kaleunts preferred to make submerged torpedo attacks from the chamber within the tower. In British submarines the conning tower was outside the pressure hull. Access to the conning tower in a British boat was via a watertight hatch and torpedo attacks, if submerged, were made from the control room.

 

 If a U-boat conning tower was 'shot away' the boat would sink as there was no means of preventing ingress of water into the Zentrale and beyond.  It is highly likely that the RN account has been exaggerated to make damage to the casing into sound fatal.

Edited 6 September , 2019 by Hyacinth1326

[Malcolm12hl]

McCartney's identification of the Channel wreck as UC 72 was partially based on the U-boat number being stamped on the starboard propeller.  While he rightly states that this is not definitive (propellers were sometimes switched between boats when repairs were being made), this certainly makes it probable that the submarine in question is UC 72.  There is a full description of the wreck with a map, a drawing of the boat as it lies on the seabed, and attendant underwater photographs in his book The Maritime Archaeology of a Modern Conflict.  Comparing the Archaeology of German Submarine Wrecks to the Historical Text (Routledge, 2015).  If you are interested in reading it, try and get one from a library as even the Kindle edition costs just over £40!