“Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction”
There is a phrase that I’m sure most of you have heard. “Truth is stranger than fiction.” And when it comes to the man central to this post, Rudolph Sharp, that is definitely true.
The Lancastria Before the War
Rudolph Sharp was the captain of HMT Lancastria in 1940. Of course, the Lancastria’s history goes back further than that. She originally carried people across the Atlantic and then briefly served as a cruise ship. When World War II broke out, she was requisitioned to serve as a troop ship. She continued her trips across the Atlantic, this time carrying troops and supplies between Canada and the United Kingdom.
In April of 1940, she took troops to Norway, and in early June of 1940, she took part in Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of British troops from Norway. This evacuation roughly coincided with the much more famous evacuation at Dunkirk–and, no, I didn’t learn about it in time to include it in the general blog post on evacuations. Oops. You can find that blog post here.
Operation Aerial and the Order to “Bring Them Home”
The Lancastria was ordered to Liverpool for a refit. Her crew was given leave. Within hours, she received new orders. She was to sail to Plymouth and meet up with other ships to take part in Operation Aerial, under the general order of “Bring them home.” Most of her crew was successfully recalled to the ship. Part of this recall involved announcements on the loudspeaker in the main railway station.
The Lancastria anchored just outside St. Nazaire, along with around 30 other ships of all sizes, early on the 17th of June. Captain Sharp was asked how many troops the Lancastria could take. He said, “3000 at a pinch,” knowing he had already carried over 2600 back from Norway. He was told he should take as many as he possibly could “without regard to the limits of international law.”
No one is quite sure how many people were aboard the Lancastria, but estimates range from 4000 to 9000. Captain Sharp later estimated the number to be 5500.
The Luftwaffe Strikes
And a little before 4 pm on June 17, 1940, the Luftwaffe struck. Three bombs hit the Lancastria. She sank within twenty minutes. One eyewitness account says that there were hundreds of people clinging to the side of the ship, and they were singing “Roll Out the Barrel” and “There’ll Always Be an England.”
2477 people survived the sinking of the Lancastria, including Captain Sharp. The lowest estimate of the death toll is over 3000, and some estimates are as high as 6500, making this the greatest loss of life in a single British maritime event. This not only dwarfs the Titanic, it greatly exceeds the Titanic and Lusitania combined.
The News That Was Never Released
News of this loss was not officially released. It occurred on the same day that the French requested an armistice with Germany, and Churchill is rumored to have said, “We’ve had enough bad news for one day.” There is some debate as to whether this was officially censored or merely quietly ignored.
So far, this certainly qualifies as a tragic story, but not truly strange. However, we’re getting there.
Captain Sharp’s Second Command — The RMS Laconia
Captain Sharp went on to lead other ships. Eventually, he was put in charge of another civilian ship converted to serve as a troop ship, the RMS Laconia. On September 12, 1942, the Laconia was carrying at least 2732 people, including approximately eighteen hundred Italian POWs. She was torpedoed and sunk. At least 1650 people were killed, including Captain Sharp.
This is the second largest loss of life aboard a single British ship during WWII—and probably in British history. That’s right. Both the first and the second largest disasters in British maritime history were captained by the same man, Captain Rudolph Sharp. And he was not at fault for either one.
I have to admit, Laconia is missing from many lists of British maritime disasters. Perhaps that is because it is assumed that a British disaster should be measured by British deaths rather than the total loss of life aboard a British ship.
But when you look at shipwrecks worldwide, regardless of nationality, Lancastria is often ranked third in loss of life, behind two German ships sunk in 1945.
Still, Rudolph Sharp captained the two British ships with the greatest loss of life during WWII. I’m pretty sure a fiction editor would strike that detail because it was “too unrealistic.” And history would laugh at her.
The Laconia Order
The story doesn’t even end there.
The U-boat that sank the Laconia, U-156, surfaced to pick up survivors, as was common at this time. She continued on the surface to transport the survivors to Vichy French ships. She was spotted by a US B-24 bomber. The crew reported the U-boat’s location and declared intentions. They were ordered to attack the sub. This forced the U-156 to submerge, casting the remaining survivors into the sea. And this led to Germany issuing the Laconia Order, which specifically forbade any attempt to pick up survivors in the future.
Captain Rudolph Sharp, captain of the HMT Lancastria, RMS Laconia, and a man at the epicenter of the decision that led to survivors of submarine attacks being abandoned. And he didn’t cause any of it.
This story definitely earned a place in my list of historical facts that made me stop and say, “Wait! What?”
