Freighter.
L/B/D:
440.2 × 58 × 25.2 (134.2m × 17.7m × 7.7m). Tons:
5,596 grt. Hull:
steel. Comp.:
40. Mach.:
quadruple expansion, 453 nhp. Built:
Short Bros., Sunderland, Eng.; 1929.
Anglo-Saxon was a tramp freighter owned by the Nitrate Producers S.S. Company. On August 8, 1940, she sailed from Newport, England, for Bahía Blanca with a cargo of coal in company with Convoy OB195. After the convoy dispersed, she sailed south. At 2020 hours on August 21, she was attacked by the German raider
Widder; her location was 26°10N, 34°09W, about 900 miles WSW of the Canary Islands. The ship was destroyed together with the lifeboats, but seven crew—three seriously injured—found their way to the ship's 18-foot jolly boat. The boat had a lug rig, but it carried a minimum of supplies and no navigational aids. Five of the crew died in the first week of September, leaving only Robert Tapscott and Roy Widdicombe, both of whom had signed on as able seamen. The two men survived without shelter from the elements or sufficient food, until they sighted land on October 30. After seventy days during which they had sailed and drifted 2,775 miles, they managed to put ashore in Eleuthera, the Bahamas. Both men returned to the merchant marine. Tapscott survived the war, but en route home from New York, Widdicombe's ship, Furness Prince, was torpedoed off Scotland on February 18, 1941; there were no survivors.
Jones, Two Survived. Lund, Raider and the Tramp.
