SS Hatarana

SS Hatarana was a steam merchant cargo ship built in Japan in 1917 and owned by the British-India Steam Navigation Company. She was sunk without loss of life near the Azores during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War.

History
Name:	War Sailor (1917-1919) Hatarana (1919-1942)
Owner:	Furness Withy (1917-1919) British-India Steam Navigation Company (1919-1942)
Port of registry:	London, United Kingdom
Builder:	Kawasaki Dockyard Company Ltd, Kobe
Completed:	August 1917
Identification:	UK Official Number 140430 Code letters GRZW
Fate:	Sunk on 18 August 1942
General characteristics
Class and type:	Steam merchant
Tonnage:	7,522 GRT
Length:	445 ft (135.64 m)
Beam:	58 ft 3 in (17.75 m)
Depth:	31 ft 3 in (9.53 m)
Propulsion:	2 x screw propellers

German U-Boat commander Günther Reeder claimed that at 18:52 hours on Tuesday 18 August 1942, U-214 fired four torpedoes at the convoy SL-118 comprising 34 vessels sailing from Freetown, Sierra Leone to the United Kingdom. Admiralty war diaries record that Hatarana was torpedoed at 19:03 hours. A rescue tug was sent from Gibraltar, but was recalled after it was reported that Hatarana had sunk.

The Hatarana was scuttled by gunfire by HMS Pentstemon, which also picked up 20 survivors and landed them at Londonderry. The remaining 88 survivors of the 98 crew members and ten gunners were picked up by the Corabella.

Her master on the final voyage was Percival Arthur Clifton James (1887–1967), brother of M. E. Clifton James. Another survivor of the Hatarana sinking was Alan Bristow.