Cemaes Maritime Collection

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Type Steamship Sunk 28th November 1917
Gross Tonnage 7,832 tons Length 426 feet
Built 1914
 
The APAPA was a twin screw steel steamship and was built in 1914 by Harland & Wolff in Glasgow, as were also the quadruple expansion engines. Capable of fourteen knots, she was one of the largest ships in the Elder Dempster fleet.

It was a clear moonlight night and she had just passed the Middle Mouse on her starboard bow when she suddenly shook from stem to stern. Many passengers were thrown from their bunks and it was obvious that she was sinking. At that time she was still on an even keel and the Captain ordered the engines to be stopped. Close examination showed that a torpedo had rent a huge hole in the starboard side towards the stern of the ship, and Captain Toft then ordered that the boats should be lowered.
 


A washroom tile
from the APAPA
featured in the Gallery.

As the lifeboats were being loaded, a man was seen disappearing down a companion-way. His mission was one from which he never returned. His name was Mr. Harragin, of the Gold Coast Customs, and he was coming home with his wife to spend a well-earned rest in England. She was lying in their cabin, ill with black-water fever and he tried to carry her on deck, but she declared herself too ill and too weak to be moved. And so he stayed with her - just two of the forty passengers who lost their lives.
 
By this time many of the passengers were safely in the lifeboats and the ship had developed a list to starboard. Suddenly, there was a streak in the water and a second torpedo hit the ship, again on the starboard side but this time further forward. Some of the lifeboats were swamped and the ship lurched to starboard. As she did so, the stays supporting the funnel snapped and the funnel collapsed, falling onto a lifeboat that was loaded and was just about to be lowered into the water. It was this second torpedo that contributed to the large number of casualties. A few moments later the ship plunged stern first to the bottom of the sea.


The German Submarine U-Boot 96
that sank the APAPA.
There are other old photographs in the Gallery.

 

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