Model of Athenia, 1923 Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company LT.1973.12.y
“The grim reality of the country’s plight was first felt in Glasgow when a Glasgow-registered Donaldson Atlantic liner, the Athenia, was torpedoed and sunk.”
Struan JT Robertson in "Glasgow at War"
The 526-foot-long Athenia was never one of the Atlantic’s glamour ships. Externally she gave an impression of sturdiness rather than beauty. Internally she was comfortable without being ostentatious. She was a typical North Atlantic workaday vessel of the 1920s, built to rigorous standards to withstand the stormiest winter crossings.
The master of the Athenia at the time of her sinking was a Captain James Cook. I believe he was the same Captain James Cook who was master of Athenia's sister ship the Letitia,renamed the SS Empire Brent. I travelled from Glasgow to Melbourne on the Empire Brent, arriving in Fremantle on the 30th December 1949 and finally Melbourne on the 4th of January 1950. Later the same ship was re-named the Captain Cook and Captain James Cook was still the master. I would dearly like to confirm that the master of the Athenia was the same man as the master of the Empire Brent.
My great uncle, Ian Donnelly, was an assistant steward on the Athenia and one of the 118 people who died when she was sunk on 3rd September 1939. He was 26 years old, the same age at the time as the commander of the U-boat which torpedoed the Athenia without warning, Lieutenant Fritz-Julius Lemp. In 1941 Lemp lost his life when he was commanding U-110, which was captured by British warships along with its important "Enigma" cypher machine
My father was a laborer on the Athenia from Glasgow - Denis McCaffrey. I grew up hearing his nightmares and later on his stories of that sinking. He was 23 yrs old (birthday Sept 10th)at the time and crewed a lifeboat full of women and children. He always insisted that the Uboat strafed the survivors.
Do you remember hearing the news about the Athenia? Maybe you travelled on her before the war?
Mr Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, informed [the House of Commons] that SS Athenia had been torpedoed at 11 o’clock last night about 200 miles NW of Ireland.
We stood in the lines for the lifeboats. I held my husband’s hand. When we got to the front of the queue, I said to my husband, ‘Come on’, and he said ‘No, women and children first’ and I realized I would have to go alone. I felt despair having left my husband on the ship and being separated from him. As our boat rowed away, I could see a large crowd still on the deck and I looked for him but couldn’t see him
