Truth is stranger than fiction

If I was to pose the question “What is the common factor linking Norway, South Africa and Port Elizabeth?” you would all, I am sure, answer “the Lurie family”. And you would be right. Yet there is another common factor, one that I came across quite serendipitously, while I was researching material for this blog. This other factor is a ship.

There was a Norwegian ship with the name “South Africa” docked in Port Elizabeth on 9 April 1940, the day on which Germany invaded Norway, so dragging her into the war.

M/T South Africa

The 9,234 ton M/T (motor tanker) South Africa was built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd., Wallsend, Sunderland in 1930. She was owned by Leif Høegh & Co A/S, Oslo.

South Africa was subsequently sunk in the Atlantic by a German submarine. The story, briefly, is as follows. On 31 May 1942, South Africa (under Master Hans J. Trovik) departed Aruba under escort and arrived in Curaçao the same afternoon. Two days later, she left in a convoy, which was dispersed on 5 or 6 June about 20 miles north-northeast of Barbados. At 14:19 hours on 8 June 1942, the unescorted South Africa was hit by two torpedoes from a German submarine (U-128) about 400 miles east of Trinidad. Of her complement of 42, 6 died and there were 36 survivors.

The South Africa's log