Thursday 22 December 2011

HMS Pintail (K 21) [+1941]



On 10 June 1941, the Harwich based patrol vessel HMS Pintail was escorting a convoy near 62-Buoy some 30 miles off the Humber when the steamship "Royal Scot" detonated an acoustic mine, blew up and sank. Pintail immediately dashed to the scene to help in the rescue, but she was also caught out by an acoustic mine, close to the steamship. HMS Pintail blew up and was lost almost immediately, instantly killing her Commanding Officer, Lt. John Leopold Elphinstone McClintock, RN, six-officers and forty-eight ratings.

Lt.Cdr. D.J.L. Heber-Percy, RN, Commanding Officer of HMS Quantock, a destroyer also based at Harwich, which was passing with another convoy, reported later, "It was the most dreadful sight that I had ever seen. It did not seem possible that there could be any survivors". HMS Quantock and another ship however, did manage to rescue one-third of her crew, twenty-two in all.

28 nautical miles east-south-east of Spurn Point in position 53º30'536"N, 00º52'625"E.

No comments:

Post a Comment