SS Thistlegorm

Phil Rudin · Issue 74, Sep/Oct 2013 · pp. 42–47

Products mentioned: Nikon D300, SEALUX housing, Inon Z240, Tokina 10-17mm

Near midnight on October, 5 1941 SS Thistlegorm’s night watch Officers were assembled on deck for a change of shift aboard the 126 meter (498 foot) “armed freighter” unaware that within hours their ship would be resting 30 meters (100 feet) below, on the bottom of the Red Sea. Thistlegorm launched in June of 1940, she was a single screw 365 horsepower, 4898 gross ton member of the “Thistle” class of freighters owned and operated by the Albyn Line of Great Britain. Her “Armed Freighter” designation was the result of a gun deck built over the aft section and the instillation of a World War one vintage machine gun and a 4.7 inch (120 mm) breach loading anti-aircraft gun. In May 1941, Thistlegorm was being loaded with “motor transport” supplies for Britain’s Eighth Army which was fighting the German_s in North Africa. The manifest designation of “motor transport” was another way of saying su…