SS Beatus
SS "Beatus" was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1925, sailed in a number of transatlantic convoys in 1940 and was sunk by a U-boat that October. Building. Ropner Shipbuilding & Repairing Co Ltd of Stockton-on-Tees, England built "Beatus", completing her in February 1925. She had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of that heated three 180 lb/in single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . The boilers fed a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that was rated at 436 NHP and drove a single screw. The engine was  built by Blair and Company, also of Stockton. "Beatus" was registered in Cardiff, managed by W.H. Seager & Co Ltd and owned by another of William Seager's companies, Tempus Shipping Co, Ltd. Second World War career. By early 1940 "Beatus" was sailing in convoys. In February 1940 she joined Convoy SL 20 from Freetown, Sierra Leone to Liverpool with a cargo of wheat. In May and June 1940 she brought a general cargo across the North Atlantic to the UK "via" Bermuda, where she joined Convoy BHX 46. and Halifax, Nova Scotia, where BHX 46 joined Convoy HX 46. In  late July "Beatus" was carrying a cargo of steel and pit props when she joined another HX convoy, HX 60, from Halifax, NS to Liverpool. Between ocean voyages, "Beatus" sailed in a number of North Sea coastal convoys. Convoy SC 7 and sinking. Early in October "Beatus" left Trois-Rivières, Quebec, carrying a cargo of 1,626 tons of steel, 5,874 tons of timber and a deck cargo of crated aircraft bound for Middlesbrough "via" the Tyne. She went "via" Sydney, Nova Scotia, where she joined Convoy SC 7 bound for Liverpool. SC 7 left Sydney on 5 October. At first  the convoy had only one escort ship, the sloop . A wolfpack of U-boats found the convoy on 16 October and quickly overwhelmed it, sinking many ships over the next few days. Between 2058 and 2104 hours on 18 October, SC 7 was about west by south of Barra Head in the Outer Hebrides when , commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Engelbert Endrass, attacked it. Endrass fired four torpedoes: one hit and sank the Swedish freighter ; another hit "Beatus". Frank Holding, Assistant Steward on "Beatus", recalled:""The next thing I heard was this explosion and a sound like breaking glass from down  near the engine room. The ship stood still. When I went to the boat deck one of the lifeboats was already in the water, full of water... We knew we were sinking."" All 37 crew members were rescued by a convoy escort, the , and were later landed at Gourock.