The steel steamship Tiberton was launched from the Stockton-on-Tees yard of Richardson Duck and Co Ltd (Yard No 679) on 20th January 1920. She measured 400.1′ x 52.4′ x 28.4′ and her tonnage was 5225 gross tons, 3190 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Blair and Co Ltd, Stockton-on-Tees delivering 397 nominal horse power. She was ordered by R Chapman and Sons Ltd (Carlton and Cambay Steam Shipping Co Ltd), Newcastle.
Extract Lloyd’s Register 1939
Builders GA profile drawings
Tiberton departed from Narvik on 14th February 1940 heading for Middlesbrough with a cargo of iron ore. She was under the command of Captain Hugh Mason who had a crew of thirty three men aboard. Only minimal details of her loss were known at the time as she disappeared en route with the loss of everyone aboard. It was only when German U-boat records surfaced after the war that the cause of her loss was revealed.
Steamship Tiberton under way
On 9th February the German Type IIB U-boat U-23 under the command of Kapitanlieutnant Otto Kretschmer departed from her base at Wilhelmshaven ordered to proceed to an area off the west coast of Orkney. As part of an operation codenamed Nordmark U-23 and five other U-boats ( U-14, U-22, U-57, U-61 and U-63) were on a reconnaissance patrol designed to provide cover for three of Germany’s largest capital ships (Scharnhorst, Admiral Hipper and Gneisenau) and three German destroyers which had been ordered to attack convoys from Norway to Britain in the North Sea. The operation itself was to prove unfruitful but Kretschmer used the opportunity to attack Allied vessels in the area in any case. On 18th February he attacked and sank HMS Daring in the Pentland Firth. On the 19th he then attacked and sank Tiberton and three days later he sank the steamship Loch Maddy before returning to his Wilhelmshaven base. Kretschmer’s log records an attack on Tiberton at 4:05am when he fired a single G7e torpedo hitting Tiberton shortly after, causing the ship to break in two and sink only thirty seconds after the explosion. Everyone aboard Tiberton was lost.
U-23 KTB translation
The wreck believed to be Tiberton lies in position 58° 53.830’N, 001° 50.612’W oriented 106/286 degrees. She lies in 91 metres with a least depth clearance of 82 metres. The location of the wreck, which corresponds closely to the position of the attack reported by Kretschmer, the dimensions of the vessel and the cargo of iron ore reported by divers would strongly indicate this is indeed Tiberton.
We would like to thank Lloyd’s Register Foundation – Heritage & Education Centre for allowing us to reproduce documents from their archive in this article.
