The Trawler That Vanished: 11 Men, One Empty Lifeboat, No Answers

The Trawler That Vanished: 11 Men, One Empty Lifeboat, No Answers

Fear of unresolved violence: a neutral Irish trawler was struck by a single cannon shell in dark Atlantic waters on March 9, 1940, and twelve days later her empty lifeboat washed ashore on Tiree - eleven men gone with no bodies and no official cause for 46 years. How did a coal-fired steam trawler flying the Irish tricolour become the only ship among six on the bank to be hit, and who ordered that shot?

In this episode, we tell the account of the ST Leukos’s final voyage, the empty lifeboat found on March 21, 1940, and the decades-long official silence that followed, asking whether records and testimony could ever explain why a neutral, unarmed fishing vessel was struck.

Person: Captain James Potter Thomasson Date: March 9, 1940 Location: fishing bank northwest of Tory Island; lifeboat ashore March 21, 1940 on Tiree Event: single cannon shell struck engine room of ST Leukos Status: death certificates issued in 1986 after 46 years listed as missing

- The ST Leukos was built in 1914 by John Duthie Torry Shipbuilding Company in Aberdeen and was 26 years old at sailing. - Six trawlers were on the bank that night; five returned undamaged, the Irish-registered Leukos did not. - The lifeboat washed ashore 12 days after the strike, on March 21, 1940, at Scarinish on the Island of Tiree. - No bodies, no wreck position, and no confirmed cause were recorded; the case remained officially "missing" until 1986. - The man asked in 1988 about ordering the shot declined to answer and died in July 1997, taking whatever knowledge he had with him.

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