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MV ''Putney Hill'' was a cargo ship completed by William Doxford & Sons Ltd in Sunderland in 1940.〔 She was owned by Putney Hill Steamships Co Ltd and managed by Counties Ship Management Co Ltd of London (CSM), both of which were offshoots of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company. ''Putney Hill'' was a sister ship of , which Doxford built in the same year for another CSM company, Tower Steamships Co Ltd. ==Sinking== ''Putney Hill'' was sailing in ballast and unescorted in the Atlantic about 450 miles east of Puerto Rico when at 0544 hrs on 26 June 1942 the hit her with one torpedo〔 in the port side, breaching her no. 3 hold and port ballast tank.〔 The loss of hundreds of tons of water from the port ballast tank caused ''Putney Hill'' at first to roll to starboard, until the water from her starboard ballast tank flowed through to port, equalised her and balanced the ship again.〔 As she shipped more water, ''Putney Hill''s bow settled lower in the sea.〔 ''Putney Hill''s two port lifeboats were destroyed by the blast so her crew abandoned ship with her two starboard boats and a liferaft.〔 DEMS gunner Jeffrey Banks and Second Cook James Campbell were lost.〔 The sinking of ''Putney Hill''s bow temporarily raised her stern in the water, exposing her propeller, and Campbell was last seen clinging to it.〔 Banks and an apprentice called Hancock were in the water and clung to a floating oar, but it could not support them both and Banks was lost.〔 ''U-203'' then surfaced and fired 53 rounds from her deck gun, sinking ''Putney Hill''.〔 ''U-203'' cruised close to the survivors, trying to find the Master or another officer in order to interrogate them and try to find out any British codes or orders.〔 Hancock, who could not swim, grabbed the submarine's ballast intakes and ''Kriegsmarine'' sailors hauled him aboard.〔 The commander, ''Kapitänleutnant'' Rolf Mützelburg, interrogated Hancock but the apprentice knew nothing useful, so Mützelburg released Hancock to his shipmates on the liferaft.〔 Mützelburg told survivors they were about 485 miles northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico.〔 At dawn the lifeboats sighted the raft and the larger boat took aboard the nine survivors from the raft.〔 The smaller boat had suffered damage to her rudder gear, so the larger one took her in tow.〔 They set sail and tried to make for the West Indies.〔 When ''Putney Hill'' was hit a pipeline burst in the engine room, spraying the Fourth Engineer, Kenneth Cowling, with hot oil that caused him extensive burns.〔 After seven days in one of the lifeboats Cowling died and his shipmates gave him a makeshift burial at sea.〔 On the tenth day the Royal Navy sighted the boats and rescued the survivors: the Master, 29 crew and five DEMS gunners.〔 ''Saxifrage'' landed them at San Juan, whence they were repatriated ''via'' Norfolk, Virginia and New York.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「MV Putney Hill」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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