ST Leukos facts for kids
Painting by Kenneth King from the National Maritime Museum
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Quick facts for kids History |
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 Ireland |
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| Name | ST Leukos |
| Owner |
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| Port of registry | Dublin, Ireland |
| Builder | John Duthie Torry Shipbuilding Co. Ltd |
| Yard number | 405 |
| Fate | Sunk by gunfire from U-38 |
| Notes | June 1915: Requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to a boom defence vessel.
1919: Returned to owners. 10 March 1940: Lost by unknown cause NW of Tory Island. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Steel side trawler |
| Tonnage | 216 grt 83 net |
| Length | 166 feet |
| Beam | 21 feet |
| Depth | 11 feet |
| Installed power | Coal fired, Steam. T.3-Cyl., 55 rhp.; by Charles D. Holmes, Hull. |
| Propulsion | single screw |
| Sail plan | Ketch rigged |
| Crew | 11 |
The ST Leukos was an Irish commercial trawler (a type of fishing boat) that was sunk near the north coast of Ireland by a German U-boat (submarine) on March 9, 1940. The Leukos was fishing with some British trawlers when it was attacked by the German submarine U-38 near Tory Island. The submarine came to the surface and fired its deck gun. All 11 people on board the Leukos were lost.
Ireland was a neutral country during World War II. This meant Irish ships, including the Leukos, were not armed and were clearly marked as Irish. Because of this, it's still not fully known why the Leukos was attacked. Some people think the Leukos tried to get between the German U-boat and the British fishing boats, hoping the U-boat would respect Ireland's neutral status. Another idea is that the Leukos tried to ram (crash into) the U-boat to protect the British fleet. The families of the lost crew believe this brave act should be recognized.
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The Story of the ST Leukos
The ST Leukos was built in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1914. It was made by the John Duthie Torry Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. for a company called National Steam Fishing Company. The ship used a coal-fired steam engine to move.
During World War I, the British Navy took over the Leukos. They used it as a "boom defence vessel." This meant it helped set up and look after nets and buoys that protected harbors from enemy submarines. After the war, in 1919, the ship was given back to its owners.
The Leukos first fished from Aberdeen. In 1920, it was sold to Tucker, Tippet and Company, and it continued fishing from Aberdeen. In 1927, it was in a small crash with another ship. Later that same year, it was sold to the Dublin Trawlers, Ice and Cold Storage Company in Dublin, Ireland. The ship then became part of the Irish registry and was based in Ringsend, Dublin.
The Mystery of Its Disappearance
On February 9, 1940, the Leukos left Dublin with Captain James Potter Thomasson in charge. It stopped in Scotland to get more coal, then headed to a fishing area northwest of Tory Island. The ship was supposed to return to Dublin on March 12, 1940, but it never did.
On March 21, an empty lifeboat from the Leukos was found off the coast of Scotland. A few days later, on March 26, Lloyd's of London (a famous insurance market) officially said that the Leukos and its crew were presumed lost. For a long time, no one knew exactly what happened. Some thought it might have hit a mine.
The truth about what happened was finally discovered in 1986. A man named Peter Mulvany, whose great-uncle was one of the lost crew members, found new information. He spoke to former German U-boat crew members and looked at secret military information that had recently been made public. This information came from decoding German radio messages during the war.
It turned out that the Leukos was with several other trawlers, including some British ones, when it was attacked. Some of these British trawlers were armed with small guns.
The German U-boat U-38
The German submarine U-38 was involved in the sinking of the Leukos. The U-boat's war diary (a logbook) describes the event in a strange way.
The diary says that at 8:00 PM, the U-boat came to the surface and saw six ships with their lights on, which seemed to be forming a line. The U-boat captain decided to "give one of them a lesson with our gun." He waited for over an hour. At 9:13 PM, he fired one shot at a trawler from a short distance. He wrote that the shot hit the engine room and the ship disappeared in smoke.
However, he then wrote that he later realized the ship had not sunk as he first thought, and he decided not to attack again. He also noted that the other trawlers nearby didn't seem to notice the gunfire.
It's still not clear why the U-38 attacked a neutral Irish trawler while leaving the British trawlers alone. It's also a mystery why the U-boat waited for an hour before attacking. In 1988, people tried to ask the U-boat captain about it, but he refused to speak. He passed away in 1997.
See also
