SS ''James Eagan Layne'' was a

liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

. She was beached and sunk during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

off

Whitsand Bay Whitsand Bay, situated in south east Cornwall, England, runs from Rame Head in the east to Portwrinkle in the west. It is characterised by sheer, high cliffs, dramatic scenery and long stretches of sandy beaches. The South West Coast Path runs ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, United Kingdom.

History

Voyages and sinking

She was built by the Delta Shipbuilding Corporation,

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

in 1944 and was operated by the United States Navigation Company, of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. She was named after the second engineer of the ''Esso Baton Rouge'', who was killed when ''Esso Baton Rouge'' was sunk by

Reinhard Hardegen ''Korvettenkapitän'' Reinhard Hardegen (18 March 1913 – 9 June 2018) was a German U-boat commander during World War II. He was credited with the sinking of 25 ships (2 were later refloated), at a total of 136,661 tons. After the war, he spent ...

's ''U-123'' on 8 April 1942. The final voyage of the ''James Eagan Layne'' was in convoy BTC-103 to carry 4,500 tons of US Army Engineers' equipment from

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...

, Wales, to

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

, in Belgium. She also carried motorboats and lumber as deck cargo. She was sighted on 21 March 1945, sailing 12 miles off Plymouth by ''U-399'' and torpedoed on the starboard side between holds #4 and #5. She was badly damaged, but was taken in tow by tugs ''Flaunt'' and ''Atlas''. She was beached in

, but subsequently settled on the bottom and was declared a total loss. There were no casualties amongst her crew of 69.

As a wreck

James Eagan Layne DUP (natural light) - 14698846069

Some salvage was done at the time of her loss before the forward holds flooded and much of the cargo in the stern section was salvaged by an Icelandic firm in 1953 with further salvage work completed in 1967. The wreck has been a popular

dive site Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this c ...

for many years. ''James Eagan Layne'' is situated east of the wreck of HMS ''Scylla'' - in 22m of water with her bows at . In June 2011, three divers got into difficulty on the wreck, resulting in one death. March 2015 is the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the ''James Eagan Layne''. To celebrate this anniversary, the Liberty 70 Project was started with the aim of researching and documenting all aspects of the life of this vessel - wartime transport, shipwreck, commercial salvage, the classic UK wreck dive and artificial reef.
The Liberty 70 Project

References

External links

Totnes SACSubmergedFourthElement
{{DEFAULTSORT:James Eagan Layne Liberty ships Wreck diving sites in England World War II shipwrecks in the English Channel Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Steamships Cornish shipwrecks Ships built in New Orleans 1944 ships Maritime incidents in March 1945 Ships sunk with no fatalities 1945 in England