Ships hit by U-boats


Kentar

Dutch Steam merchant



Photo courtesy of arendnet.com

NameKentar
Type:Steam merchant
Tonnage5,878 tons
Completed1920 - Flensburger Schiffsbau-Ges., Flensburg 
OwnerNV Stoomvaart Mij “Nederland”, Amsterdam 
HomeportAmsterdam 
Date of attack1 Aug 1942Nationality:      Dutch
 
FateSunk by U-155 (Adolf Cornelius Piening)
Position11° 52'N, 57° 30'W - Grid EE 8639
Complement79 (17 dead and 62 survivors).
Convoy
RouteBombay (7 Jun) - Durban (6 Jul) - Port of Spain, Trinidad - St. John, New Brunswick 
Cargo1500 tons of manganese ore 
History Completed in September 1920 as German Hamburg for Deutsch-Australische DG, Hamburg. 1927 renamed Naumburg for Hamburg-Amerika Linie (HAPAG), Hamburg. On 10 May 1940 seized by the Netherlands at Sourabaya and renamed Kentar
Notes on event

At 02.20 hours on 1 August 1942 the unescorted Kentar (Master Jan Sieben) was hit on the port side by one of two G7a torpedoes from U-155 while steaming on a zigzag course at 10.5 knots in a dark night with rough sea about 140 miles east-southeast of Barbados. The track of the torpedo was seen about 55 yards from the ship, too late to take evasive action and struck between a bunker and the boiler room. The vessel stopped and the crew of 77 men and two gunners (the ship was armed with one 4in and four machine guns) abandoned ship in two lifeboats and on several rafts within 10 minutes and without sending a distress signal because the radio had been put out of action by the explosion. As Kentar only settled slowly on an even keel, the U-boat fired another G7a torpedo as coup de grâce at 03.10 hours. It struck on starboard side amidships and caused the ship to sink three minutes after being hit. The U-boat then went to one of the rafts to question the survivors but could not understand them and subsequently left the scene. The lifeboat in charge of the chief officer with 26 occupants made landfall near Guayaguayare, Trinidad on 6 August. The master and 25 crew members in the other lifeboat were picked up by the Canadian steam merchant Hamildoc and landed in Georgetown, British Guiana on 7 August, but three men in this boat had died of wounds and exposure before they were found. The Argentinian steam merchant Rio Colorado rescued seven survivors from a raft after almost two weeks adrift on 13 August and took them to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The last survivors reached St. Vincent on another raft.

 
On boardWe have details of 28 people who were on board


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