The City of Benares was a passenger ship, the largest of Ellerman's City built in 1936 for service between England and India. On Friday, September 13, 1940, she sailed from Liverpool in a convoy of nineteen ships bound for Canada. She carried 406 crew and passengers including 101 adults and 90 children being evacuated to Canada by the Children's Overseas Reception Board.
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Four days, 600 miles out to sea, the destroyer HMS Winchelsea and two sloops, who had been escorting the convoy, departed to meet eastbound Convoy HX71. Despite a standing order to disperse the convoy and let all ships proceed on their own, Rear Admiral Mackinnon delayed the order. Shortly after 10pm the City of Benares was torpedoed by U-boat, U-48. The order to abandon City of Benares was given but due to rough conditions and Force 5 winds, lowering the boats was difficult and several capsized. Two hundred and forty five lives were lost either from drowning or exposure. Rescue did not arrive until 14:15 the following afternoon when HMS Hurricane arrived on the scene and rescued 105 survivors.
Only 13 of the children survived, and 6 spent seven days in a live boat before being rescued by HMS Anthony. The Evacuation Overseas scheme was eventually abandoned; one positive result of the tragedy was the decision to have all convoys accompanied by rescue escorts
The Children's Overseas Reception Board had safely evacuated 2 664 children, 1 532 to Canada, 576 to Australia, 353 to South Africa and 203 to New Zealand and it is believed that another 11,000 children went by private arrangement, over 6 000 to Canada and the remainder to the United States.
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