HMT BEDFORDSHIRE (shipwreck and remains)

About this property

HMT Bedfordshire (FY141) was an armed naval trawler in the service of the Royal Naval Patrol Service during World War II. Transferred to the East Coast of the United States to assist the United States Navy with anti-submarine patrols, she was staffed by a British and Canadian crew. Bedfordshire was sunk by the German submarine U-558 on 11 May 1942 off the coast of Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with the loss of all hands. Bedfordshire was built as a commercial fishing trawler by Smith's Dock Company of South Bank, North Yorkshire, England. Launched at Teesside on 17 July 1935, she was completed in August 1935 and turned over to her owners, Bedfordshire Fishing Company of Grimsby, managed by H. Markham Cook Ltd. She carried the fishing number GY196. Bedfordshire was 162.3 feet (49.5 m) long, with a 26.7-foot (8.1 m) beam. The Admiralty acquired Bedfordshire for anti-submarine duty in August 1939. Converted for service as a naval trawler, she was armed with a BL 4-inch Mk VII naval gun, machine guns, and depth charges. Following completion of her conversion in December 1940, HMT Bedfordshire undertook anti-submarine patrols and escort duty off the southwest coast of England and in the Bristol Channel. She served in this capacity throughout 1941 and early 1942. Following Nazi Germany's declaration of war against the United States on 11 December 1941, German U-boats quickly became a deadly threat on the East Coast. The United States Navy was ill-prepared to defend against submarine warfare, and U-boats found it easy to pick off commercial shipping vessels, which travelled unescorted. The onslaught began with Operation Drumbeat when 35 Allied ships were sunk by U-boats off the American coast in January 1942. In March 1942, the Royal Navy sent the HMT Bedfordshire, and a further 24 converted trawlers, to assist the United States Navy with anti-submarine patrols along the East Coast. Bedfordshire, commanded by Lieutenant Russell Bransby Davis, RNR, was assigned to the Fifth Naval District, headquartered at Naval Station Norfolk. She operated out of Morehead City, North Carolina, primarily in sectors two and three, where she patrolled the waters surrounding the Outer Banks while U-boats continued to terrorize local shipping. On 16 April 1942, Bedfordshire along with HMT Lady Elsa, HMS Tourmaline, and USS Roper conducted patrols in sector two. Bedfordshire and Tourmaline assisted USS Stringham in the search for survivors of a sunken tanker in sector two on 17 April. On 18 April, Bedfordshire searched for survivors of U-85, the first U-boat sunk by the US Navy off the East Coast. For the next several days Bedfordshire stood guard duty over a concerted attempt to salvage U-85. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful and the attempt was abandoned on 22 April. The remains of U-85 lie at a depth of less than 100 feet (30 m) in the waters off Bodie Island Lighthouse; its Enigma machine was recovered in 2001.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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