The passenger ship Apapa was a new vessel in 1917, having been completed in March of 1915, she was 425' long and could make 14 knots with her twin screws and could carry 400 passengers. She was built by Harland & Wolff in Govan and launched on Sept. 30, 1914. She was owned by the African Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the Elder Dempster Line.

On November 28, 1917 she was returning to Liverpool from West Africa and was less than 60 miles from her destination when at about 4 a.m. a torpedo exploded amidships on her starboard side, the engines were stopped even though the engine room was flooding and the passengers were mustered on deck. Because captain Toft had conducted at least two boat drills during the voyage the passengers and crew knew exactly what to do and where to go, fortunately the lights were unaffected which helped in the orderly evacuation.

Toft ordered the boats to be lowered and all was going without problems until about ten minuets later when a second torpedo struck closer to the stern. The explosion destroyed one of the lifeboats which was being lowered killing everyone or almost everyone in it, the second explosion caused the orderly evacuation to change to panic and disorder. To make matters worse the lights went out plunging the survivors into darkness.

Apapa was now sinking fast and rolling over to starboard toward the lifeboats still alongside, just the sight of the ship listing caused a number of people to jump from the boats into the water, most who did perished. However their panic was not without good cause, one of the boats had become entangled in the rigging and was in danger of being pulled down wit the ship, another was caught by the inrush of water into the ship and could not get away, still another was destroyed when one of the funnels fell off the ship and crushed it and anyone who was in it. Several boats could not be launched due to the list of the ship, but since there were only about 129 passengers not all the boats would be needed.

When the ship went down, only ten minuets after the second torpedo hit, captain Toft was reportedly seen on the bridge with the Chief Officer, they went down with the ship, Toft was picked up later clinging to am unturned lifboat. As they were just a few miles off shore many of the boats made land while the others were picked up by small craft from the area and a passing steamer. It was later argued that the second torpedo was fired expressly to kill as many people as possible because it was thought that the submarine's commander must have seen the passengers in the boats and that the timing of the torpedo coincided with the boats being lowered. Most of the surviving crewmen stated that the first torpedo had done enough damage to sink the ship and that there was no need for the second torpedo to sink her. Furthermore until the second torpedo struck no lives had been lost and the evacuation was proceeding in an orderly fashion. One of the passengers later said that firing the second torpedo was "a piece of brutal and unnecessary callousness" on the part of the U-boat commander.

The submarine that sank Apapa was SMS U-96, it was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Jeß (Jess), and he was no stranger to sinking ships, before the war was over he sank 44 ships totaling over 120,000 tons. If Jeß intended to kill as many people as possible he might have surfaced and fired on the survivors, an accusation that was whispered, but denied by a surviving crewman of Apapa. It is more likely that Jeß fired the second torpedo to insure the ship would sink, after all this was the purpose of a U-boat, to sink ships. Being submerged in the boat he would have no idea that his first torpedo had been so effective, he would also be aware that if there were any patrol vessels in the area they would attack him, so he would want the ship to go down as fast as possible and leave the area before a depth charge attack could be made on his boat.

The KTB for U-96 states that a stern torpedo was fired from about 300 meters after the Apapa had passed by, and that he believed the hit occurred near the stern of the ship because he underestimated the speed of the ship (he thought she was running at 8 knots, but she was running closer to 13 knots). A second torpedo was fired to insure the ship would sink, which he believed hit amidships. It is interesting to note that the survivors accounts of where the torpedoes hit is opposite of Jeß's.

*U-96 KTB entry:
"Großer einlaufender Dampfer von achtern aufkommend. Vorgesetzt.

Getaucht. Dampfer dreht 20 Grad nach Land zu. Mit hoher Fahrt vorbeigezogen, Heckangriff.

Schuß aus V. Rohr. K III. Torpedo, Vorhaltewinkel für 8 sm. Erst beim Einwandern hohe und lange Promenadendecks erkannt. Daher vorn losgemacht. Nach 300 m. Laufestrecke Treffer ganz achtern. Passagierdampfer, Typ Highland Klasee = 7500 t.

Fangschuß K.III. Torpedo. Treffer Mitte. Dampfer sinkt mit starker Schlagseite übers Heck. Der Vorsteven bleibt, nachdem das Heck aufsteht, noch über Wasser, die See brandet über ihn weg..."

The fact that the ship was being abandoned did not always indicate that the ship would actually sink, and it is not even positively known if he did witness the lifeboats being lowered, but being so close it is very likely he did. Apapa was supposed to be defensively armed, but I have seen no account that mentioned anyone manning a gun against the U-boat, and if it was a DEMS it would make the ship a legitimate target. I have no insight into Jeß's mind and no information on if this was something he had done before or after and since 93 years have passed since the sinking I doubt that we will ever know the truth, to say anything else would be pure speculation. What is not speculation is the fact that 77 men women and children were killed, and all of them died following the second torpedo attack. Jeß torpedoed a second ship some hours later, the 2,977 ton Agenoria, she was hit with one torpedo which killed 3rd Engineer Charles Rogers, but the ship did not sink, she was grounded and later repaired.

Elder Dempster built another Apapa in 1927 and she was sunk by the Germans as well, this time not by a torpedo from a U-boat, but bombs from the Luftwaffe, she sank November 14, 1940, almost 33 years after the first Apapa. U-96 survived the war and was surrendered the Allies and scrapped, her one and only commander, Heinrich Jeß died in 1958.