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The Belgian Merchant Navy 1939–1945

Ships › HAINAUT

S/S HAINAUT

Lost during the Second World War

Hainaut. MAS Antwerp, Public domain.
Hainaut. Louis Claes · MAS Antwerp · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
41crew
1lost
5wounded
Type
Steam merchant
Tonnage
4,312 GRT
Built
1905 – Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Owner
Armement Deppe, Antwerp
Home port
Antwerp
Date
5 July 1942
Fate
Sunk by U-132 (Ernst Vogelsang)
Attacker
U-132 (Ernst Vogelsang)
Convoy
QS-15
Voyage
Montreal → United Kingdom
Cargo
General cargo and lorries as deck cargo
Position
49.5000, -66.5000 · grid BA 3911
No chief officer is recorded. The firemen from Yemen, Djibouti and Morocco are named here, unlike the deck crew of the Escaut.

Position of the attack. Click the map to enable zoom.

Crew list (41 names)

The voyage

Departure
Montreal
Destination
United Kingdom · never reached
Sunk
5 July 1942
RankNameNationalityFate
Master (Kapitein)Castelein LeonWounded
2nd Officer (2de officier)Dom JanSurvived
3rd Officer (3de officier)Verleene EmielSurvived
Radio Officer (Marconist)Laurens RobertSurvived
Carpenter (Timmerman)Pano ElieRussiaSurvived
Boatswain (Bootsman)Dokoutchaeff GregoryRussiaWounded
Able Seaman (A.B.)Balderstone JohnUnited KingdomSurvived
Able Seaman (A.B.)Caswell LaurenceUnited KingdomSurvived
Able Seaman (A.B.)Rannamae VoldemarEstoniaSurvived
Able Seaman (A.B.)Remmelkoor EdgarEstoniaSurvived
Able Seaman (A.B.)Vornik MagnusEstoniaSurvived
Able Seaman (A.B.)Van Birgelen GerardSurvived
Ordinary Seaman (Lichtmatroos)Fowler AlfredUnited KingdomSurvived
Ordinary Seaman (Lichtmatroos)Johnson FredericUnited KingdomSurvived
Ordinary Seaman (Lichtmatroos)Lamport JamesUnited KingdomSurvived
Chief Engineer (Hoofdwerktuigk.)De Landtsheer CharlesSurvived
2nd Engineer Officer (2de mecanicien)Nicola FranciscusSurvived
3rd Engineer Officer (3de mecanicien)Lousanoff WladimirRussiaWounded
4th Engineer Officer (4de mecanicien)Remaut HenriSurvived
DonkeymanDe Visser PetrusSurvived
DonkeymanDe Zitter KarelSurvived
DonkeymanVan Hoovoorst HenriSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Abdou AliYemenSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Aouad MohammedDjiboutiSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Aklan AbdullahYemenSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Darhume AliDjiboutiSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Guessi HassanMoroccoSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Haddour MohammedMoroccoSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Mohamed NasserDjiboutiSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Mokbel MohammedDjiboutiSurvived
Fireman (Stoker)Said NoumanDjiboutiLost
Fireman (Stoker)Whiteside SamuelUnited KingdomSurvived
StewardBruyninckx GeorgesSurvived
Cook (Kok)Surmont JanSurvived
Messroom Steward (Messroom-steward)Jenkins GeorgeUnited KingdomSurvived
Galley Boy (Galley-boy)Aitken AlbertUnited KingdomSurvived
Cabin Boy (Cabin-boy)Edmonds ReginaldUnited KingdomSurvived
GunnerBuyle ConstantWounded
GunnerCorthout FransSurvived
GunnerVan Goethem JacquesSurvived
GunnerVan Heurck AdriaanWounded

The convoy QS-15

Dates
6 July 1942
Sunk
3 · 10,249 tons

The dotted line follows the great circle the QS series ran, Quebec to Sydney (Nova Scotia), with the coastal bends the fairway imposes. The red point is where the Belgian ship was hit, from the U-boat’s attack report.

About the line on this map

A convoy steered the great circle: the shortest way over the globe, not the straight line on the map. That is why the Atlantic crossing here runs so far north, and why ships on that route were hit around 55 to 58 degrees and not at 48. The bends closer to land follow the fairway – the North Channel above Ireland, round Land’s End, through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The line is the route of the series, not the track that one convoy actually steered. The Admiralty shifted convoys north or south from sailing to sailing, according to the season and where the U-boats were; ONS-154 was deliberately routed south past the Azores in December 1942. And a straggler or a dispersed ship was by definition no longer with the group. Where the red point sits far from the line, that is usually what you are looking at.

Convoys (22)

From the Arnold Hague Convoy Database. Convoys only, not independent voyages: a ship sailing alone does not appear. See the convoy page.

ConvoyDepartedRouteSunk
SL/MKS.46S1 September 1940Freetown – Dispersed1 sunk
SL/MKS.463 September 1940Freetown – Liverpool
OB.23629 October 1940Liverpool - Dispersed
SC.1430 November 1940Sydney CB – Liverpool
FS.3816 January 1941Methil – Southend
FN.4255 March 1941Southend – Methil
EN.83/19 March 1941Methil – Oban
OB.29610 March 1941Liverpool - Dispersed1 sunk
SL/MKS.7217 April 1941Freetown – Liverpool1 sunk
OG.673 July 1941Milford Haven – Gibraltar1 sunk
SC.435 September 1941Sydney CB – Liverpool
ON.3128 October 1941Liverpool - Dispersed
SC.6227 December 1941Sydney CB - Dispersed in 56.49N 09.12W1 sunk
SC.649 January 1942Sydney CB – Liverpool1 sunk
ON.6819 February 1942Liverpool - Dispersed2 sunk
BX.121 March 1942St John Nb – Halifax
SC.7730 March 1942Halifax – Liverpool
BB.16317 April 1942Belfast Lough – Milford Haven
WP.14420 April 1942Milford Haven – Portsmouth
PW.14829 April 1942Portsmouth – Milford Haven
ON.1002 June 1942Liverpool – Cape Cod4 sunk
HS.1519 June 1942Halifax – Sydney CB

Sources

Crew list from the printed source.