Warspite1ORIGINAL: warspite1
Warspite1
The two worst single disasters in British maritime history - in terms of numbers dead - has been the sinking of the RMS Lancastria (a minimum of 4,000 believed dead) and the RMS Laconia (Over 3,000 dead) in 1940 and 1942 respectively. Apart from the fact that both losses were at the hands of the Germans (one was bombed the other torpedoed), what was the common denominator linking these two tragedies?
The answer is that the captain of both ships - the two biggest maritime tragedies remember - was the same person! Captain Rudolf Sharp survived the Lancastria but was to die on the Laconia. It is thought he intentionally went down with the Laconia.