Honouring the Men who gave their lives whilst serving in the Merchant Navy
and whose names are on the Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll

S.S. PENANG (Mariehamm), Finland  -  WW2

Sailing ship Penang, 2,019grt, (Gustaf Erikson, Mariehamn, Finland) sailed independently from Port Victoria, Australia bound for Queenstown, Co. Cork via Stenhouse Bay, Australia with a cargo of grain departing Stenhouse Bay on the 2nd July 1940. The ship and her eighteen man crew were never heard from again and the vessel was only recorded as missing/untraced nine month later on the 26th March 1941 and a Joint Arbitration Committee considered her a “war loss” A report made by the Master of another sailing ship the Abraham Rydberg reported he had heard the ship had been bombed and sunk, but no confirmation was ever received. Records from U-140 state that on the 8th December 1940 about 65 nautical miles West of Co. Donegal the U-boat intercepted a three masted sailing vessel and observed how the ship capsized and sank after thirty minutes after being hit by one torpedo in position 55’ 25N 10’ 15W. The U-boat initially reported the ship to be the Finnish ship Lawhill, but was later confirmed as the Penang.