The steel steamship Levenwood was built for Meteor Steamship Co Ltd (Constantine and Donking) of Middlesbrough (Yard no 188) and launched on 12th June 1911. She measured 195.0′ x 30.0′ x 11.6′ and her tonnage was 791 gross tons, 371 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Blair and Co Ltd, Stockton-on-Tees delivering 131 nominal horsepower. In 1915 she was sold to Plymouth Mutual Industrial Co-operative Society who re-named her Charles Goodanew. Her career for her new owners was destined to be short. Later that same year she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for war service around British coastal waters. She acted mainly as a supply ship running between the various ports used by the Royal Navy as anchorages and bases for the Grand Fleet.
Charles Goodanew under way
On 17th April 1917 she was en route from Aberdeen to Scapa Flow with a cargo of supplies for the ships of the British fleet with a crew of thirteen men commanded by Captain William Carr. They were unaware that they were steaming straight towards a mine barrage laid by UC-45, commander Kapitanleutnant Herbert Aust, only four days earlier. Aust laid three lines of six mines a few miles north east of Rattray Head that day. One of these mines was destined to sink the Charles Goodanew.
Barrage 62 laid by UC-45 sank Charles Goodanew
The ship ran full speed into one of Aust’s mines and sank quickly with the loss of twelve of the fourteen crewmen. The two fortunate survivors were picked up by the drifter Sagitta which arrived on the scene soon after the explosion.
Tower Hill memorial
The wreck of the Charles Goodanew lies in position 57° 38.279’N, 001° 44.235’W oriented 080°/260°, lying in 51 metres and rises some 5 metres from the seabed. She was positively identified by Buchan Divers in 2006 when they found the distinctive remains of one of the three 18 inch Mark VII torpedoes which had been part of the documented cargo of the Charles Goodanew bound for Scapa Flow. The wreck lies basically in two sections, torn apart by the violent explosion as the ship hit the mine, with the stern section most in tact.
