SS Anglo Saxon (1929)

The SS Anglo Saxon was a British cargo steamship built in 1929 by Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee, Scotland, for the Bibby Line. She was primarily used on routes between the United Kingdom and Burma (present-day Myanmar).

During World War II, the Anglo Saxon was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport and served as a merchant vessel carrying vital supplies.

The ship is particularly notable for an infamous incident in 1940. On August 21, 1940, the Anglo Saxon, en route from Liverpool to Newport News, Virginia, was attacked by the German commerce raider Widder. Heavily damaged and with many casualties, the surviving crew abandoned ship. Two men, Robert Tapscott and Roy Widdicombe, remained aboard and attempted to navigate the damaged vessel back to Britain. They survived for a remarkable 70 days, enduring extreme hardship, cannibalism, and eventually, a deadly fight between the two, leaving only Tapscott alive when the ship finally foundered. Tapscott was later rescued, but his account of the ordeal was initially met with skepticism. The story of the Anglo Saxon became a grim tale of survival and the horrors of war at sea.