WWII visits St Lucia

On 9 March 1942, the Second World War reached St Lucia in a sudden and violent manner when the passenger vessel RMS Lady Nelson and the cargo ship SS Umtata were torpedoed inside Castries Harbor. The attack was carried out by the German submarine U-161, commanded by Albrecht Achilles, bringing the realities of the global conflict directly to the island.

Catherine Martindale, who was travelling aboard Lady Nelson with her family on the night of the attack, later became a formal signatory of The Log Book Project, adding her signature to the project’s log book in 2018.