Manchester Inventor

The Manchester Inventor (formerly Celtic King), a steamship laden with a cargo of flax, 4112 GRT, 116.5 L x 15.6 B metres, built 1907 A. McMillan & Son, Ltd., Dumbarton, Scotland, Yard No. 416, as the Celtic King for the Celtic Shipping (R Hughes-Jones) Co. Ltd. Liverpool, England, purchased by Manchester Liners, Ltd. Manchester, England in March 1917 and renamed Manchester Inventor to replace a similiar vessel of the same name which had been captured by the German submarine U 57, and sunk by torpedo, off SW Ireland on January 18th 1917.

This vessel in passage from Archangel, Russia, for Belfast, Northern Ireland, was sunk by gunfire from the German submarine U 94, Captain Alfred Saalwächter, at a position stated as 61.27N, 00.38W, which falls very approximately at 40 miles N of Muckle Flugga, Unst, or 62.00N, 00.45W, which falls very approximately 80 miles N of Muckle Flugga, Unst, (the available records are in dispute), on July 30th 1917. All of the crew are believed to have been saved.

The same submarine sank the Kildin, and the Souma in the same general area the same day, and had sunk the Adalia and the Ingeborg in the same general area the previous day.

N.B.This casualty appears in German, but not UK records.