HMT Asama
The trawler Asama was built for Neale & West of Cardiff by Smith’s Dock at Southbank on Tees (Yard No 894) and was launched on 18 November 1929 with registration number CF 18 and official number 148315. With a length of 131 ft and a beam of 24 ft and 303 tons she was powered by a 99 hp triple expansion steam engine.
The Asama was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1939, converted to a minesweeper and was armed with a single 12 pdr gun.
The Asama was lost on 21st March 1941 at the height of the Plymouth blitz, sunk in a huge air raid on the night 21/22 March 1941 where 187 tonnes of high explosive bombs and 36,108 incendiary bombs were dropped between the entrance to the Hamoaze and Sutton Pool. Lloyds War Losses report that she was beached at Torpoint which suggests she was subsequently refloated or broken up. Toghill says that the Asama was sunk by enemy aircraft off Plymouth on 23rd January 1941 which is incorrect.
Chief Engineman Albert George Allen RNR, aged 49, died when the Asama was bombed and Lieutenant N. Page RNVR also lost his life and is buried in Weston Mill cemetary.
Confusingly, the UKHO Wreck record places the Asama in Plymouth Sound 300m to the west of E buoy at 50° 20.534 N 004° 08.902 W from a record originating in March 1941, however the remains of the wreck were not located during a hydrographic survey in 1999.
Images
Nodzu (Yard No. 895, Of. No. 148316), sister ship to Asama |
