Interesting news item yesterday, when it was reported that the
wreck of the wartime merchant vessel the SS Gairsoppa had been
located and positively identified in the Atlantic, at depths of
over 6,000 feet. The Gairsoppa was built in 1919, originally
named War Roebuck. She was taken over by the British India Steam
Navigation Company and renamed the SS Gairsoppa. Weighing in at
5,237 tons, she operated out of Glasgow. Her crew numbered 86,
made up of British Seamen and Indian Lascars. In 1941 she was
returning from Calcutta in India to Britain, via the Cape of
Good Hope, carrying a mixed cargo, but more interestingly,
hundreds of tons of silver bullion. Off Sierra Leone she joined
Convoy SL-64. Slowed down by poor weather and running low on
coal, on 15 February the Gairsoppa detached from the convoy and
headed for Galway in southern Ireland. At 1800 on 16 February
she was spotted by U-101. After trouble keeping up with the
Gairsoppa in the deteriorating weather, at 2328 that evening the
Commander Ernst Mengers