John P Pedersen

Built by: Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Newcastle.   Completed: 1930

Owner: A/S Havtank

Tonnage: 6128 grt, 9945 dwt

Length: 420.8 feet

Beam: 58.5 feet

Draught: 31.2 feet

Machinery: 6 cylinder diesel engine by Wallsend Slipway, Newcastle

Speed: 12 knots

In Admiralty Service( Royal Fleet Auxiliary) from 1940

The ship was in convoy HX.126, which has been ordered to disperse after several of the ships had been sunk, when at 18:17 hrs on the 20 May 1941, the John P. Pedersen was torpedoed by U94 ( Korvettan Kapitan Herbert Kuppisch) 160 miles South of Greenland.

Shortly after the torpedo struck the ship, the order was given to abandon ship and the crew immediately took to the lifeboats.  The U Boat then surfaced and fired a further two torpedoes into the vessel. Which sank 20 minutes after the first attack.

16 men were rescued from the Port lifeboat by a Dutch Hospital Ship and taken to Reykjavik, the other lifeboat with the Captain and 21 crew members disappeared without trace.

Of the crew of 20 Norwegian, 4 Swedish, 2 Latvian, 2 Dutch and 8 British seamen, 22 perished.