We know My Dad joined the Patia on 14/04/41 and she was sank on 27/04/41. We know she sailed from Gateshead but is there any way of finding out the date she actually sailed. We know that my Dad and his crew mates swam ashore and were taken to Alnwick Northumberland. We dont know if there were any casualties.
Once again any help would be much appreciated.

The PATIA had just completed a refit at Rosyth and sailed at 18.30 on 27 April for trials before proceeding to Belfast.

At 21.20 she was off the Farne Islands, when an aircraft was seen on the starboard beam. It closed rapidly from the east at low level to run over the ship, releasing one bomb, which fell wide.  The aircraft, identified as a Heinkel He.111, carried out several attacking runs at low level, dropping bombs and raking the ship with machine gun fire. In the final attack, the aircraft closed from the port quarter at very low altitude. This time three bombs were dropped; the first exploded close astern, the second hit the starboard side, entering the engine room. The third narrowly missed the upper works to land close to the starboard side, resulting in some shock damage. The aircraft had been engaged all the time it had performed its attacking run, and was seen to be hit, and fly off trailing smoke.

It was the second bomb that had done the fatal damage - it exploded at the bulkhead between the engine room and number three hold and probably blew a hole in the bottom. This allowed two large compartments to rapidly flood.

The ship heeled over to port and started sinking immediately. The boats and floats were cleared away with difficulty, the ship listing by 30 degrees, before she sank. The survivors in boats, rafts and floats were rather surprised to find themselves joined by three German airman in a small rubber dinghy; the crew of the bomber, which had been shot down.  They were informed by Chief Petty Officer Edward Prior that they were now prisoners of war.

The survivors were picked up by the trawler Chassiron, but thirty nine men were lost.  The wreck lies in position 55.31.4N 01.25.09E.