grateful for any info on this vessel which i understand was torpedoed, my mothers husband was killed plus all the other crew members his name is Lawrence George Pieretti (cook) he travelled to Nottingham to see the ship before signing on and saw it had guns fitted and felt good about the ship.thank you for any help
MV Nottingham
Nottingham' 8.530 tons on her maiden voyage delivered for service end of 1941 and under command of Captain F.C.Perry whose ships company of sixty one officers and seamen, five DEMS naval gunners also Captain Cooper of the Port Line as a passenger. The disasterous loss of 'M.V.Nottingham' on her maiden voyage with all hands on the 7 November 1941. She was the fourteenth ship of the fleet sunk by enemy action in fifteen months. The ship sailed from Glasgow and was routed independently for New York.
The last wireless message received stated, she was being attacked by a U-boat in position Lat.53degs north Long.31degs west, 550miles south-east of Cape Farrel the southernmost point of Greenland. That was the last contact heard from the ship which apparently was torpedoed and sunk without trace.
Whether any of the crew were able to take to the lifeboats will never be known, for there were no survivors. Another unsolved mystery of wartime tragedy, of merchant ships missing without trace.
The last quarter of 1941 was a period of exceedingly tempestuous weather in the North Atlantic with heavy gale force winds, that followed one another in rapid succession, force seven or more were recorded on fifty three days during November, maximum force ten or more gales were also recorded. Convoys were scattered or forced to heave to for survival. Many ships had to put back into port through weather damage. Bad weather also curbed U-boat activity on the surface in these high latitudes.
In this sombre tale of the "Battle of the Atlantic" Britain and her Allies were standing alone, the tragic loss of 'Nottingham' lasted for three weeks, till on 29 November a south bound convoy was attacked near the Azores, one ship being sunk with all hands lost. "The waste of precious cargoes, the destruction of so many noble ships, the loss of heroic crews, all combine to constitute a repulsive and sombre panorama, we cannot rest content with such losses on this scale." Mr Churchill 11 February 1943.
MV Nottingham (1941) was a passenger and cargo vessel operated by the New Zealand Shipping Company in 1941. WIKI
...Laurence George Pieretti, Baker, Age 25....
