The St Chamond (Wreck) | shipwreck

 shipwreck, invisible

Getting troops, ammunition and other supplies from the French ports to the trenches of the Western Front, ready for the "Big Push" against the Germans planned for summer 1918, was a nightmare for British Army planners. They soon found out that the French railways couldn't cope with the tons of extra war material needed to be stockpiled behind the Allied lines.

The track was there, or lines could be relaid, but nearly four years of war had played havoc with the engines and rolling stock. The only thing to do was to ship over British steam locomotives to pull the wagons. And that's what they did.

In the case of the 3077 ton French steamer St Chamond, five 75 ton British steam engines were documented as being loaded aboard as deck cargo at Glasgow before she set out to carry them to St Nazaire at the end of April 1918. However, there might have been some last-minute additions.

On 30 April, within a mile of Cornwall's north coast, near St Ives, the 314ft-long St Chamond was unfortunate enough to steam into the periscope sight of U60, commanded by Oberleutnant Schuster, who had already sunk 40 ships with this same U-boat of the Second Flotilla of the High Seas Fleet.

Schuster made no mistake in sinking his 41st victim with one torpedo, though Capitaine Doln and his crew abandoned ship without loss.