PUKKASTAN

A 5,809 ton steam merchant completed in 1929 for Common Brothers Ltd, Newcastle-upon-Tyne by Short Bros Ltd, Pallion, Sunderland.
On 7 September 1939 she was on passage Capetown-Devonport-Rotterdam under the command of Master John Strachan Thomson and carrying a cargo of maize and mutton. She was sailing unescorted when at 12.59 hours she was stopped by U-34, under the command of Wilhelm Rollman, by two shots across her bow. She was southwest of the Bishop Rock. After the crew abandoned ship she was sunk by a coup-de-grace. Her crew of 35 were all rescued by the Bilderdijk.
U-34 did not survive the war as she was sunk on 5 August 1943 in the Baltic Sea after a collision with the U-boat tender Lech. Out of her crew of 43, four were lost in the sinking.

Photograph belongs to Stuart Smith.
Photographer unknown.