Wartime tragedy commemorated

TO commemorate the 75th anniversary of what is known as the worst maritime disaster to have occurred in South African waters, local historian Jaycee van der Walt last week gave a presentation on the sinking of the Nova Scotia.

Van der Walt’s presentation was hosted by Panarotti’s at the Boardwalk Inkwazi Shopping Centre and attended by about 30 people.

An event of international proportion with a hyper-local link, the Nova Scotia was during World War II mistakenly torpedoed by Kapitänleutnant Robert Gysea of German submarine U-177 off the coast of St Lucia.

Mistakenly identified as an enemy ship, the Nova Scotia was actually carrying over 700 Italian prisoners of war, 654 of whom lost their lives in the incident.

‘I am sorry….. I am terribly sorry….. I will radio Berlin….. Help will come….. Be brave.’

These were the words spoken by Gysea after realising his grave mistake.

However, German headquarters radioed to Gysea to ‘Continue operating. Waging war comes first’.

The Nova Scotia sank within 10 minutes, just 48km off the coast of St Lucia.

Imprisoned

The SS Nova Scotia was a British troop transport steam ship and Royal Mail ship weighing 6 796 tonnes.

She was launched in May 1926 and commissioned by the British War Office in 1941 as a troop ship.

With her passengers and prisoners, the Nova Scotia left Massawa, on Africa’s Red Sea Coast, on 15 November 1942.

She was destined for Durban and the Italian prisoners ultimately destined for Zonderwater near Cullinan where a total of 96 000 Italians were imprisoned between 1941 and 1947.

The full count of souls aboard the Nova Scotia at her time of sinking totalled 1 052, which included 765 Italian prisoners of war and civilian internees, 134 South African soldiers, some civilian passengers, a crew of 117 and 3 000 bags of mail.

This most terrible of human tragedies is said to have haunted Gysea for the rest of his life.

There were many burn casualties as the oil bunkers caught alight.

While the Nova Scotia was the most tragic ship sinking of World War II, it was not the only one.

More than 160 ships were sunk in South African waters by Japanese and German submarines during this period.