Category Archives: for those lost at sea

That Sinking Feeling

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As any sailor will vouch, there is always that hollow feeling that comes over you at least once while over the deep blue, far from shore, where you realize that it is never a certain thing that the ocean will not choose to simply rise up and swallow your little bit of floating atmosphere and take it swiftly to the bottom.

The view from the sea bridge of the 11,000-ton Royal Navy Town (Southampton)-class cruiser HMS Sheffield (C24) as she battled heavy seas while escorting convoy JW 53 to Northern Russia, in February 1943. The ship suffered severe structural damage– with a third of the roof of A turret peeled away– during three days of storms and had to return to port for repairs.

IWM (A 14890)

Sydney’s Beauty

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The second HMAS Sydney was a modified Leander class light cruiser that began life as the Royal Navy’s HMS Phaeton on 8 July 1933. Relegated to local patrols in the Pacific in 1939, she only headed West to the Mediterranean in April 1940.

This amazing series of images in the New South Wales State Library Collection captures the warship some 85 years ago this week on 5 February 1940 while under maneuvers.

She carried eight 6″/50 breech-loading Mk XXIII guns in four twin turrets

Her primary high-altitude AAA armament: four 4″/50 high-angle guns in single open mounts. Everything else was .50 cal and .303

Reloading the 4″/50s with gas gear

Still a world of hammocks.

Her torpedo battery included Two QR Mk VII quadruple mountings, carrying Mk 9 torpedoes

At the time, she had been in her namesake city over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays. She was conducting training before departing for Fremantle, Western Australia, where she arrived on 8 February 1940. From there, she would sail as part of the escort for a large Middle East-bound convoy two months later.

She would vanish the following November.

As noted by National Archives Australia:

The sinking of the light cruiser HMAS Sydney off the Western Australian coast on 19 November 1941 stands alone in the annals of Australian naval history. Not only did the close-quarters exchange with the German armed raider HSK Kormoran claim 645 lives, making it the nation’s greatest naval loss, but also no other event has been so shrouded in mystery and surrounded in controversy. As the Sydney was sunk with all hands and disappeared, what could be reliably established about the ship’s final engagement and subsequent sinking was frustratingly limited.

However, a relic of her has remained on the desk of every Royal Australian Navy CNO since 1940, a Marlin-spiked spyglass from the cruiser’s navigation department handed over to ADM Sir John Collins, KBE, CB, RAN by the officers of HMAS Sydney before leaving for the war in Europe.

It is traditionally passed from CNO to CNO as a ceremonial baton of office.

Sheathing the Broadsword

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A Falklands War veteran Type 22 frigate, HMS Broadsword (F88), was recently deep-sixed just after her 45th birthday.

The Yarrow-built Broadsword, the second such RN warship to carry the name, was commissioned in 1979 and saw a quarter-century in British service including splashing two Argentine aircraft during the Falklands with her then-revolutionary Sea Wolf missile system, making her and her sisters indispensable during the conflict.

Type 22 Frigate HMS Broadsword alongside HMS Hermes during the Falklands War, 1982. IWM (MH 27508)

Paid off after the end of the Cold War, Broadsword was sold to Brazil alongside her sisters HMS Brazen (F91), HMS Brilliant (F90), and HMS Battleaxe (F89) for £116,000,000, becoming Greenhalgh (F46), Bosísio (F48), Dodsworth (F47), and Rademaker (F49), respectively.

Although all had more than 25 years on their hulls, they were still the most advanced surface escorts and augmented the Brazilian navy’s seven smaller Vosper-designed Niteroi-class frigates.

Greenhalgh/Broadsword in Brazilian service– still with her Exocet/Sea Wolf punch.

However, with Brazil ordering eight new German (MEKO A-100) Tamandare-class frigates, both the Niterois and the Type 22s are being put to pasture.

Brilliant/Dodsworth was sold for scrap in 2012, Brazen/Bosísio expended as a target in 2017, and Broadsword/Greenhalgh, which decommissioned in 2021, was sent to the bottom during Lançamento de Armas IV back in September.

This included 500-pound Mk. 82s dropped by AK-4KU (AF-1B/C) Skyhawks from VF-1, the first warshot Brazilian-made SIATT MANSUP anti-ship missile– fired from Broadsword/Greenhalgh’s sister Battleaxe/Rademaker no less– and AGM-119B Penguins from the SH-60 Seahawks of Esquadrão HS-1. Ironically, the Type 22s often only narrowly missed dumb bombs from A-4s back in 1982.

Images via the Marinha do Brasil:

There is also a video from the Marinha do Brasil of the HS-1 Penguin shots.

The Greenhalgh/Broadsword agora descansa no Reino de Poseidon.

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024: The Ones That Got Away

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

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Warship Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024: The Ones That Got Away

Above we see the period depiction by renowned German maritime artist Willy Stöwer of the armed sailing ship (segelschiff) SMS Ayesha off Hodeida (now Al Hudaydah, Yemen) in January 1915, to the warm welcome of allied Ottoman troops. Stöwer, best known for his decades of painting battleships, cruisers, and U-boats, apparently made an exception for the humble Ayesha, as she had an incredibly interesting story that began some 110 years ago this week.

And a tale rather different from the one shown above.

The Background

Part of Admiral Maximillian von Spee’s Eastern Squadron, the 4,200-ton Dresden class of light cruiser SMS Emden was detached from the rest of Von Spee’s force to become an independent raider in the Western Pacific, as the main force of five cruisers made for the Eastern Pacific and, ultimately, the South Atlantic. In doing so, Emden was sort of a sacrificial rabbit to draw away the British, Australian, French, Russian, and Japanese hounds as Von Spee made his exit.

In an epic 97-day patrol, Emden captured 23 merchant ships (21 Brits, one Russian, one Greek) with 101,182 GRT of enemy shipping, sending 16 to the bottom, releasing three, and keeping as four as prizes. In each encounter with these unarmed merchies, Emden practiced “cruiser rules,” in which all passengers and crew on board these ships were brought to safety. She took off the kid gloves and accounted for two warships by sucker punching the 3,500-ton Russian light cruiser Zhemchug and the 300-ton French destroyer Mousquet as they slumbered in Penang harbor in British Malaysia.

German cruiser SMS Emden off Madras. Artwork by Hans Bohrdt. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Fire from Bombardment of Madras by SMS Emden

Emden also bombarded oil depots in Madras, India, sending shivers through the Raj, and tied up dozens of allied warships in running her to ground. This included four brawlers– any of which could make short work of the smaller German warship– that had closed the distance to within just 50 miles of the raider: the 14,600-ton British armored cruiser HMS Minotaur, the 16,000-ton Japanese battlecruiser Ibuki, and the twin 5,400-ton Australian light cruisers HMAS Sydney and Melbourne.

This game all cumulated in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on 9 November 1914.

Direction Island

The remote Cocos (Keeling) Islands, two desolate flat, low-lying coral atolls made up of 27 islets in the Indian Ocean some 800 miles West of Sumatra, in 1914 only had a population of a few hundred. The British colony was defacto ruled by the Clunies-Ross family, which had settled the archipelago in the 1850s, and whose paterfamilias generally served as the resident magistrate and Crown representative.

Modernity had reached this corner of the British Empire, with the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, in 1901, establishing a cable station on Direction Island on the top of the Cocos chain with submarine cables eventually running to Rodrigues (Mauritius), Batavia (Java), and Fremantle.

By 1910, this had been complemented by a Marconi wireless station, making it a key link in the communication chain between India and Australia.

A link worthy of breaking, in the mind of Emden’s skipper, Fregattenkapitän Karl von Müller.

Arriving just offshore of the Cocos over a deep trench– Emden needed at least 18 feet of seawater under her hull to float– in the predawn of 9 November, a landungskorps was assembled and ready to go ashore, seize the station, wreck it, and withdraw with any interesting portable supplies to feed the cruiser’s 360-member crew.

Going ashore at dawn in a steam pinnace and two whaleboats was Kpt. lt Hellmuth von Mücke, Leutnants Schmidt and Gysling, six petty officers, and 41 ratings, including two signalmen who knew what to destroy and a former French Foreign Legionnaire who was good with languages (among other things). Expecting resistance from a company-sized garrison at the colony, Mücke raided Emden’s small arms locker, taking four Maxim guns– each with 2,000 rounds of ammunition– 29 dated Gewehr 71 rifles, and 24 Reichsrevolvers.

With a strange warship offshore, disguised by a false fourth funnel, overhearing a coded signal from Emden to her prize ship-turned-tender Buresk, and three small boats filled with armed men headed in from the sea, the wireless station went into alert and started broadcasting at 0630 about the unknown man-of-war, only to be jammed by chatter from Emden’s powerful Telefunken wireless set turned to maximum power.

However, the part of the message broadcast before the jamming– “SOS strange ship in harbor,” and “SOS Emden here”– reached HMAS Sydney, escorting a convoy some 50nm away. The Australian cruiser replied that she was on the way to investigate. Her call letters, NC, led Emden’s signalmen to think she was the cruiser HMS Newcastle, which ironically was also in the Far East just nowhere near Emden, and they estimated by her signal strength and bearing that she was over 200 miles away.

In short, Emden’s skipper thought they had more time, but was very wrong. 

Once landed, Von Mücke’s shore party got busy wrecking. Local photographers A.J. Peake and R. Cardwell, apparently EETC employees, began snapping photos documenting the activities of the landing party over the next two days.

The force soon captured and wrecked the undefended telegraph office without a shot– the island’s entire arsenal amounted to a “few 12 bore guns and two small and ancient pea-rifles”– cut three of four underwater cables, and felled the station’s transmission mast via explosives. This caused collateral damage as coral shot around like shrapnel, holing buildings and destroying the island’s supply of scotch. 

Emden’s launch grappling for cable at Direction Island. NLA obj-149336815

The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company office after the German raid, 9 November 1914. NLA obj-149337412

The bottom of the mast with the wireless hut at the back. NLA obj-149338323

The wireless mast as it lay across the garden. NLA obj-149338122

More shots of the destroyed cable station. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19150107-39.

Under the German flag, Direction Island, November 1914. Note the sun helmet and Mauser of the German sailors. NLA obj-149336272

At 0900, with Emden spotting an incoming ship and soon acknowledging it was not her tender Buresk, the cruiser cleared decks and signaled her shore party to return immediately.

“Landing party having been recalled by the Emden, leaves the jetty but turns back on seeing Emden putting to sea.” In the background is the copra schooner Ayesha, owned by the Clunies-Ross family.” Note the white-uniformed officer complete with pistol belt. NLA .obj-149337219

“The Emdens’ landing party left the island on their futile attempt to rejoin their ship, Direction Island, 1914.” NLA obj-149336127

Not able to catch up to the withdrawing Emden, her away force returned to the docks on Direction Island. Soon signs of a battle could be seen over the horizon.

View from the beach of Direction Island with the battle between the SMS Emden and HMAS Sydney in the far distance. NLA obj-149338507

Unknown to Von Mucke and his men, nor to the colonists on Direction Island, Emden, and Sydney clashed between 0940 and 1120 in a one-sided battle that left the German cruiser grounded and ablaze on North Keeling Island with more than half of her 316 men aboard dead, missing, or wounded.

German raider, SMS Emden is sunk by Australian Cruiser, HMAS Sydney, RAN collection.

German cruiser SMS Emden beached on Cocos Island in 1914

Sydney suffered four fatalities and a dozen wounded.

Von Mucke knew that Emden was either sunk or had fled over the horizon and that the only warship coming to collect them would likely be an enemy. He set up his Spandaus on the beach and waited.

A German Maxim gun and ammunition boxes were set up to repel landings at Direction Island, on 9 November 1914. NLA obj-149337513

Meet Ayesha

The local coconut and cargo hauler, the 97-ton, 98-foot three-master schooner Ayesha, was anchored just off the docks on Direction Island, with Von Mucke’s crew passing close by on their way to the island that morning. She was a fine-looking vessel, for a coastal lugger, and typically sailed the local waters with a crew of five or six mariners and a master.

The schooner Ayesha, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, November 1914. NLA obj-149336020

Ayesha in open water State Library of Australia PRG-1373-29-15

The solution, to Von Mucke, was to seize the schooner, requisition supplies from the station, and load his men on board with the hope of heading to Dutch Sumatra, some 800 or so miles away, where they could figure out the next steps.

He boarded her with one of his officers for an inspection.

From a June 1915 New York Times interview with Von Mucke translated from the Berliner Tageblatt:

I made up my mind to leave the island as soon as possible. The Emden was gone the danger for us growing. I noticed a three-master, the schooner Ayesha. Mr. Ross, the owner of the ship and the island, had warned me that the boat was leaky but I found it a quite seaworthy tub.

“Schooner Ayesha commandeered by Germans being prepared for the voyage” Sails have been bent to the booms and forestays. AWM P11611.027.002

Germans commandeer cable station stores to provision the yacht Ayesha, owned by the Clunies-Ross family after the German raider SMS Emden was driven ashore at North Keeling Island by HMAS Sydney on 9 November 1914. On the evening of 10 November 1914, a party from the Emden used the Ayesha to escape from the island. AWM P03912.001

A German landing party at Direction Island, preparing to go aboard the yacht Ayesha, after their ship the German raider SMS Emden was destroyed by HMAS Sydney on 9 November 1914. AWM P03912.002

The master and mate were released from their duties, although they warned Von Mucke the ship’s hull, thin, “worn through” and overgrown, could not handle an ocean voyage. Inspecting the hold, the wood was indeed “red and rotten, so much so, indeed, that we stopped our scratching as we had no desire to poke the points of our knives into the Indian Ocean.”

On the evening of 10 November, the Germans used the Ayesha to escape from the island.

The locals– according to both German and British reports– actually gave the Germans three cheers as they left. Von Mucke said they went even further and asked for their autographs. Emden’s fame had proceeded them.

“Steam pinnace taking last of Germans aboard the Ayesha. The Germans are waving to the British, who have given them three cheers.” NLA obj-149339081

It wasn’t until the next day, 11 November, that sailors and Marines from HMAS Sydney arrived at Direction Island to find out that the Emden’s shore party had come and gone, with a decent head start.

A party of armed sailors from HMAS Sydney lands on Direction Island, on 11 November 1914. A party from the German raider Emden had landed and taken possession of the cable station on the island, but on the evening of the 10th, they escaped in the schooner Ayesha, which belonged to the owner of the island. AWM EN0390

Von Mucke raised their small war flag and christened the schooner SMS Ayesha (Emden II) to three hurrahs from her new crew. Nonetheless, she struck her flag soon after and sailors soon went over the side to paint over the ship’s name. Word had to have gone out and the British were no doubt looking for her.

Ayesha’s navigational equipment was limited to a sextant, two chronometers, and a circa 1882 Indian Ocean Directory, filled with quaint old high-scale charts and notes made as far back as the 1780s. With 50 men crowded onto a ship designed for five, they fashioned hammocks from old ropes and slept in holds and on deck.

Even more limited was the crew’s kit, as the men had landed on Direction Island for a raid and only had the clothes on their backs and cartridges in their pouches.

The whole crew went about naked in order to spare our wash…Toothbrushes were long ago out of sight. One razor made the rounds of the crew. The entire ship had one precious comb.

Further, Ayesha’s canvas was old and rotten, and three of the schooner’s four water tanks had been contaminated with salt water.

She had enough canvas to rig fore and aft sails on the main and mizzen and two square sails on the foremast. Still, these were threadbare and had to be patched constantly as they “tore at the slightest provocation.”

One condemned sail was rigged over the ballast for use as a shared bed by ratings, which sounds almost enjoyable until you find out that the schooner leaked so bad that water rose over the ballast at sea and typically sloshed around just below the sail bed.

From Von Mucke’s later book, as translated in 1933 and republished by the USNI:

Below deck, aft of the hold, were two small cabins originally fitted with bunks, but in these, we were compelled to store our provisions. Swarms of huge cockroaches made it impossible for human beings to inhabit them.

Another old sail was rigged up to catch and filter rainwater into three repurposed Standard Oil cans for drinking which was rendered palatable by “a dash or lime juice of which we had fortunately found few bottles among the provisions of the former captain.”

Gratefully, it turned out that the crew’s former Legionaire was a crack chef and managed to cobble together decent meals from the larder of rice and tinned beef.

At night, the only light was two oil lamps that “gave off more smoke than light.”

Most of the armament was secured down below, with the Spandaus concealed and arranged to fire through loopholes on deck should they be needed.

Leaving the steam pinnacle behind for the islanders to use, Von Mucke originally towed the two cutters from Emden behind the Ayesha, as there was no tackle available to bring them aboard nor deck space to house them but eventually, they were lost. Soon all they had in terms of small boats were a pair of jolly boats that the schooner carried in small davits, each able to hold two men. At times of doldrums, they were put out to tow the schooner with the help of Emden’s lost cutter’s long oars. 

After 16 days at sea wandering towards Sumatra and keeping over the horizon from steamers, Ayesha was intercepted by the Dutch Fret-class destroyer Lynx (510 tons, 210 feet oal, 30 knots, 4×3″, 2xtt) on 26 November and was escorted into Padang in Wester Sumatra the next day.

Given 24 hours in port, Von Mucke was warned by Lynx’s Belgian-born skipper “I could run into the harbor but whether I might not come out again was doubtful.”

Von Mucke related that at the time he “felt truly sorry for the Lynx. It must have been very irritating to her to have to trundle behind us at the wonderful speed of one knot, a speed which, with the light breeze blowing, the Ayesha could not exceed.”

The Dutch did not allow Ayesha to take on clothes, charts, or tackle, as they could have added to the warship’s effectiveness. What was allowed were some tinned provisions and ten live pigs, the latter stored in a makeshift pen around the chain locker. 

They left the Dutch port with reinforcements as two reserve officers, LTs Gerdts and Wellman, who had been interned at Pandang on German steamers earlier in the war and wanted to cast their lot with Von Mucke. Once smuggled aboard under darkness via rowboat, as berthing was already a problem, their spaces were found on the deck under the mess table.

The German schooner was towed back out to sea on the evening of the 28th. She was followed out of territorial waters by the Dutch cruiser De Zeven Provincien.

Another bright spot of her brief stay in the Dutch East Indies was that the local German consul managed to smuggle the crew a small bundle of chocolate, cigarettes, and German newspapers. There was also a promised rendezvous location out to sea in a fortnight or so with a German merchant steamer that was still afloat and filled with enough coal to steam anywhere on the globe.

With a few weeks’ worth of food left from the stockpile removed from Direction Island, but relying largely on rainwater for drinking and bathing, the schooner spent the next two weeks wandering West into the Indian Ocean, keeping hidden while drifting towards her promised rendezvous.

Finally, in heavy seas near South Pagai in the Dutch Mentawai Islands on 14 December, Ayesha spied the Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) freighter Choising (ex-Madeleine Rickmers), a slight vessel of just 1,657 tons. Still, she was the best Christmas present Von Mucke could ask for.

The meeting, in the fog and mist, was probably traumatic to the complement of the steamer whose ship’s officers and engineer were German, and most of the crew were Chinese. 

Up flew our ensign and colours. The steamer ran up the German flag. The crew climbed aloft into the shrouds, and three cheers rang from deck to deck. As usual, our men were dressed in the manner customary in thc Garden of Eden, a costume which necessity had forced upon them. The men of the Choising confided to us later that they were speechless with astonishment when suddenly, out of the fog, emerged a schooner, the shrouds of which were filled with naked forms.

Having sailed Ayesha for 1,709 sea miles, the crews waited until the waters calmed on the 16th to transfer to the steamer then scuttled the schooner, Emden’s final victim. They removed Ayesha’s wheel and figurehead and took them along to their new ship. 

Willy Stöwer – Ayesha im Indischen Ozean nach Treffen mit Choising

The overloaded Choising set out West across the Indian Ocean towards Yemen on the Arabian peninsula, part of the now-German allied Ottoman Empire. Thumbing through Choising’s Lloyds book, the freighter assumed the identity of the Italian steamer Shenir, which was similarly sized and had the same general layout.

This included painting Shenir, Genoa on her bow and crafting an approximated Italian flag from sailcloth and a green window curtain from the captain’s cabin.

They stayed out of the shipping lanes, celebrated a low-key Christmas and New Year at sea, and after entering the Bab-el-Mandeb, passing close abreast of two British gunboats in the darkness, made it to Hodeida on 5 January 1915, having crossed 4,100 miles of the Indian Ocean successfully.

Cruise of the Emden, Ayesha, and Choising. Bestanddeelnr 22032 010

Arabian Nights

With the French cruiser, Desaix spotted near Hodeida, Von Mucke and his men bid Choising farewell. With no Ottoman naval officials to turn to, she went across the straits to Massawa in Eritrea which was under Italian control and still neutral, intending to link up with the cruiser SMS Konigsberg which they thought was still off the coast of Africa but was trapped upriver in the Rufiji.

Choising, remaining in Somaliland, would go on to be seized by the Italian government once that former German ally declared war against the Empire in May 1915. This led to her final service as the Italian-flagged Carroccio. As part of a small Italian convoy, she was sent to the bottom of the Adriatic Sea on 15 May 1917 off the coast of Albania by the Austrian destroyer Balaton in a messy surface action known today as the Battle of the Strait of Otranto.

Meanwhile, contrary to early rosy reports that the Turks welcomed Von Mucke with open arms in Hodeida and soon spirited them via train up the Hejaz railroad to Constantinople and from there to Germany, it would be five long months of slogging across Arabia to Damascus before the Germans had any sort of safety.

Overland from Hodeida, from Von Mucke’s book

The reason for choosing the port was simple: 

Our only knowledge regarding Arabian ways and customs was a ” round the world’ guidebook that would have answered the purposes of a sight-seeing couple on their honeymoon very well. From it we learned that Hodcida is a large commercial city, and that the Hedjaz railway to Hodeida was in course of construction. As the book was some years old and as one of my officers remembered that years ago he had met a French engineer who told him that he had been engaged in the construction of a railway to Hodeida, we took it for granted that the railway was completed by this time.

Nonetheless, the word would precede them, hence Willie Stower’s fanciful depiction of the long-scuttled Ayesha arriving at a big red carpet Ottoman welcome at Hodeida. 

Another such propaganda piece from 1915:

With the railway incomplete, the journey, which is a bit off subject for a Warship blog, included a three-day firefight with a battalion-sized force of Arab rebels, unruly camel caravans with wary Bedouins watching from the dunes, creeping up the uncharted coast on local fishing dhows (zambuks), and avoiding being kept as “guests” by local Turkish garrison commanders and sheiks looking to add the Teutonic travelers to their muscle.

SMS Emden crew is attacked by Arabs on their desert hike to Jeddah, Der Krieg 1914/19 in Wort und Bild, 35. Heft

Finally arriving at the terminus for the Hejaz railroad at Al Ula, a trek of 1,100 miles from Hodeida on 7 May, the force met Berliner Tageblatt correspondent Emil Ludwig, who was waiting for them, and within days they were being hosted by the German counsel in Damascus. By this point, their firearms cache had been whittled down to one machine gun, a few revolvers, and just 13 rifles, the rest bartered along the way for food, safe passage, boats, and camels; or lost in zambuk wrecks. 

The photo of the Damascus meeting shows the Emden’s men complete with crisp new Turkish uniforms and fezes! 

Besatzungsmitglieder von SMS Ayesha im Garten des Kaiserlichen Konsulats in Damaskus 11. Mai 1915. 2) Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke, 3) Konsul Walter Rößler. Note the Gewehr 71 Mausers.

Then came an even larger show in Constantinople, attended by foreign legations and German RADM Wilhelm Souchon, former commander of the Kaiser’s Mediterranean Squadron and current unofficial commander of the Ottoman fleet. Souchon had a gift for the men: Iron Crosses sent directly from Berlin.

Six of the 50-man forces that had landed at Direction Island six months prior had been left behind, three killed by rebels, and three by assorted diseases and accidents. Of Emden’s 360 crew, virtually all except Von Mucke’s detachment were dead or POWs by this point in the war– to include the Kaiser’s own nephew. The same could be said broadly for all the fine young men of Von Spee’s squadron.

The arrival of Captain Mücke with the SMS Emden’s landing party in Constantinople

Captured German photograph of the captain and officers of the Ayesha being presented to the Turkish authorities by the American Ambassador. Figures from right to left are (1) Enver Pasha; (2) German Ambassador; (3,5,6) Officers of the raider Emden; (4) Provost of Town; (7) Admiral Suchow Pasha of Goeben. AWM A011403

Captured German photograph showing the arrival of the officers who escaped from the raider Emden after commandeering the yacht Ayesha, with the German flag which saved them from falling into the hands of the enemy. AWM A01402

They were lucky.

Soon after Von Mucke’s trip up the Arabian peninsula, another group of Von Spee’s men, elements of the crew of the river patrol boat SMS Tsingtau including Kptlt. Erwin von Möller, LtzS Hans von Arnim, Vizesteuermann Heinrich Deike, Karl Gründler, Heinrich Mau, Arthur Schwarting plus Turkish ship’s cook Said Achmad, sailed the coastal schooner Marboek for 82 days from Sumatra where they were interned to the Arabian coast at Hadramaut, then headed out overland for Sana, much like Von Mucke.

They were all killed in the desert by rebels on 25 May 1916.

Epilogue

Von Mucke, whose interviews with Emil Ludwig soon circled the globe, spent some time as head of a Turko-German river flotilla in the Euphrates, then finished the war back in Germany as head of the Danube Flotilla. You could say the Kaiserliche Marine wanted to keep him from being lost at sea. Sadly, half of the men who had returned with him from Emden had been killed later in the Great War. 

His mug was snapped often and widely distributed. A dashing hero with a romantic tale.

Capt. Von Mucke & bride & sailors of EMDEN LOC ggbain-20400-20461v

Kpt. Von Mucke in Berlin LOC ggbain-19500-19578v

He also penned two thin wartime books, one on each of the vessels he served on during the conflict.

Postwar, retired from the Navy after an 18-year career, he had six children and earned a living in Weimar Germany through writing and conducting lecture tours, retelling his story. Turning to politics, he briefly held a seat in the Saxon state parliament, flirted with the Nazis (membership number 3,579) before they rose to power, then by 1930 had become an outspoken pacifist and member of the Deutschlandbund, an anti-Nazi group. Banned from writing after 1933, he was labeled a communist and tossed into concentration camps on at least two occasions. Despite the fact his naval pension had been suspended, he volunteered for combat with the Kriegsmarine in 1939 at age 58 but was rejected because he was considered politically unreliable.

Remaining in East Germany post-WWII, Von Mucke wrote pamphlets against the rearmament of West Germany for the communists but soon fell out with them as well. He passed in 1957 at age 76 and is buried in Ahrensburg.

As she sat in shallow water along the reefs off Keeling and was extensively salvaged over 40 years, literally tons of souvenirs of Emden exist, primarily in Australia, where her bell and several relics are on display at the AWM in Canberra while two of her 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns are in parks in the Canberra and Sydney.

Relics from Sydney and Emden’s battle on display at the Australian War Memorial

It is also likely that many tons of her good Krupp steel armor plate were recycled for use by the Japanese Combined Fleet, as her salvors for long periods in the 1920s and 30s were from Yokohama.

However, little, if anything, survives of Ayesha other than period photographs and romanticized postcards, along with the works of Von Mücke.

She is remembered in postal stamps of the Cocos Islands, for obvious reasons. 

The small 4×6 Reichskriegsflagge flown over Keeling by Emden’s Landungskorps, then our subject schooner and brought back to Germany in 1915 with Von Mücke and the gang at some point was put on display in the Marienkirche (St. Mary’s Church) in Lübeck.

Then in the 1930s, it was passed on to Kapt. Julius Lauterbach. A HAPAG reserve officer who had served on the liner Staatssekretär Kraetke before the war and as Emden’s 1st navigation officer during the conflict. He left the cruiser with a 15-man prize crew put aboard the captured 4,350-ton British steamer Buresk in September 1914 to serve as a tender. Captured after Emden was destroyed and Buresk scuttled, he escaped along with 34 other Germans held by the British in Singapore during the Sepoy Mutiny in February 1915. Returning to Germany on his own, (like Von Mücke he also wrote a thin book published during the war, “1000£ Price on Your Head – Dead or Alive: The Escape Adventures of Former Prize Officer S. M. S. Emden”) he was given command of a trap ship (German Q-ship), and subsequently the raider SMS Mowe. In 1955, Lauterbach’s widow donated the flag to German militaria collector Karl Flöck who placed it on display at the Gasthaus zum Roten Ochsen in Cologne for years until it went up to auction in 2009. It is now in private hands.

The tale of Emden has been told numerous times in numerous ways, but it generally left out that of Von Mucke and his refugees. Of note, a 2013 German film, Die Männer der Emden, included it. The trailer includes camels, suffering, and a bit of swashbuckling, as it should.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International.

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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I’m a member, so should you be!

Warship Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024: Floating Powerhouse

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

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Warship Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024: Floating Powerhouse

Photograph by Walter E. Frost, City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 447-8946.1

Above we see the Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Whitehurst (DE-634) of ResDesDiv 273 as she makes a port call in Vancouver on 31 July 1965.

At just over 300 feet long, she doesn’t look like much, but by this time in her career, she had already fought in WWII– sinking a Japanese submarine some 80 years ago this week– earned battle stars during Korea, cruised off Vietnam, and would go on to live forever on the silver screen.

The Buckleys

With some 154 hulls ordered, the Buckleys were intended to be cranked out in bulk to counter the swarms of Axis submarines prowling the seas.

Just 306 feet overall, they were about the size of a medium-ish Coast Guard cutter today but packed a lot more armament, namely three 3″/50 DP guns in open mounts, a secondary battery of 1.1-inch (or 40mm), and 20mm AAA guns, and three 21-inch torpedo tubes in a triple mount for taking out enemy surface ships.

Buckley-class-destroyer-escort-1944 USS England by Dr. Dan Saranga via Blueprints

Then there was the formidable ASW suite to include stern depth charge racks, eight depth charge throwers, and a Hedgehog system.

Powered by responsive electric motors fed by steam turbines, they could make 24 knots and were extremely maneuverable.

Class-leader, USS Buckley (DE-51), cutting a 20-knot, 1,000-foot circle on trials off Rockland Maine, 3 July 1943, 80-G-269442

Meet Whitehurst

Our subject carries the name of Ensign Henry Purefoy Whitehurst, Jr. who, originally scheduled to graduate in February 1942, was matriculated early from Annapolis with the rest of his class 12 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, becoming the second Class of 1941.

Rushed to the Pacific, Henry was lost along with 233 shipmates aboard the heavy cruiser USS Astoria (CA 34) when “Nasty Asty” was sunk early in the morning of 9 August 1942 by Japanese surface forces at the Battle of Savo Island. The young officer was 22.

Ensign Henry Purefoy Whitehurst, Jr. 16 Feb 1920-9 Aug 1942. He is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Laid down on 21 March 1943 at San Francisco by the Bethlehem Steel Co and launched on 5 September 1943, USS Whitehurst (DE-634) was sponsored by Ensign Whitehurst’s grieving mother, Mrs. Robie S. Whitehurst, and commissioned on 19 November 1943.

Her plankowner skipper was T/LCDR James Robert Gray, USN, 78836, (USNA ‘37). As a young LT(jg), he was the officer of the deck on duty aboard the high-speed minesweeper USS Wasmuth (DD-338/DMS-15) at Pearl Harbor and got the ship underway and fighting, claiming one plane downed. He then served as Damage Control Officer on the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) at Coral Sea and Midway. Whitehurst was his first command.

Headed to War!

Following sea trials, calibration tests, and shakedown off the West Coast, Whitehurst arrived at Pearl Harbor on 4 February 1944 and then got underway for the Solomons three days later as part of a small convoy.

Such work, riding shotgun for troop transports, LCIs, and LSTs on slow and steady (8-9 knot) runs, would be her bread and butter.

She took part in the Palau, Yap, Ulithi, Woleai raid (30 Mar 44 – 1 Apr 44), and, from 26 April through 7 June, she was upfront for the Hollandia operations followed closely by Toem-Wakde-Sarmi and Biak landings, including a very close brush with Japanese shore batteries off the latter.

From her War Diary:

She then joined in the operations to clear out the Northern Solomons from 22 June into early October, which for our tin can meant escorting the PT-boat mothership USS Mobjack (AGP-7) as she shifted ports, patrolling for Japanese submarines and surface contacts, conducting exercises and drills as part of Escort Division 40.

By this stage of the war, the Solomons had become a backwater.

It was there, at Blanche Harbor on Treasury Island on 1 September, that LCDR Grey was relieved by LT Jack Carter Horton, DE-V(G), USNR, 96845. Grey was being sent on to command USS Lawrence C. Taylor (DE 415). Horton, who had gone through the wartime midshipman school with 738 fellow “90-day wonders” at Northwestern University in Chicago, knew Whitehurst well– he had been her XO since commissioning.

The death of I-45

On 12 October, Whitehurst got underway from Humboldt Bay with orders to escort Task Unit 77.7.1, the fueling force for the 7th Fleet for the upcoming invasion of the Philippines. This included four oilers (Ashtabula, Saranac, Salamonie, and Chepachet), the civilian tanker Pueblo, and three fellow Buckleys: the sequential sisters USS Witter (DE-636), Bowers (DE-637), and Willmarth (DE-638).

Nearing the Philippines, Japanese activity increased and folks got jumpy. Just after 0200 on 17 October, a sharp echo underwater led to a radical course change, and a pattern of 13 depth charges dropped over the side as a precaution. Whitehurst’s War Diary notes, “The contact was evaluated as a large fish due to its erratic movements and narrow width.”

Creeping through the Ngaruangl Passage on 20 October, three days later they steamed through the Surigao Straits into the Leyte Gulf, anchoring off Homonhon Island, with her log taking care to note, “This part of the island in Japanese hands.”

Starting the next morning, at 0826 on 24 October, Whitehurst’s tanker group began a four-day running fight with Japanese ground-based aircraft, fending off a series of air attacks by Betty twin-engine and Val single-engine bombers as they repeatedly shifted positions. This included making emergency turns, burning both chemical and oil smoke, and filling the air with 3″/50 and 20mm shells whenever planes came within range. All the while the force managed to conduct underway refueling and escape the battleships and cruisers of Nishimura’s “Southern Force,” although they observed the flashes in the distance of the Battle of Surigao Strait over the night of 24/25 October.

Just when things started quieting down, at 0325 on 29 October Whitehurst observed a strong underwater explosion “some distance away” and received word via TBS that the Butler-class destroyer escort USS Eversole (DE-404) had been torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese Type B2 submarine I-45, taking 80 of her crew to the bottom.

Japanese submarine I-45 (B-class new type-1), on speed trial run off Sasebo, 1943

Whitehurst was detached from her task unit to screen the sistership USS Bull (DE-402) which was picking up what would be 136 survivors from the lost greyhound.

Picking up a sonar contact as she closed with the scene, Whitehurst delivered a series of four barrages of 7.2-inch Mk.10 Hedgehog charges and was rewarded with a series of secondary underwater explosions.

Just after dawn, a large (500-yard by 2,000-yard) oil slick was observed, filled with debris.

From her War Diary:

Japanese Sixth Fleet HQ had no further contact with I-45 and she is presumed lost with LCDR (promoted CDR posthumously) Kawashima Mamoru and his 103-member crew, removed from the Imperial Navy List on 10 March 1945.

Back to work

Continuing her involvement in the Philippines through the end of the month, a role that included blowing up random floating mines with rifle fire, on 2 November Whitehurst was dispatched to escort the damaged oiler Ashtabula to Hollandia for repairs. There, she witnessed the horrific disintegration of the USS Mount Hood (AE-11), packed with 4,500 tons of high explosives, in Seeadler Harbor.

Ordered to leave the harbor with a force of small LSMs and LCTs for Humboldt Bay the same day, by 12 November Whitehurst headed back to the Philippines as escort for Echelon L-13, a mix of 23 LSTs in four columns and 11 merchants in another four columns.

Entering the Surigao Strait by the 19th, enemy planes were sighted off and on over the next few days, cumulating with an attack on the 21st by two Kawasaki Ki-48 “Lily,” with one of the twin-engine light bombers shot down in flames. Whitehurst’s gunners contributed 382 rounds to the effort.

Sent back to Manus in December, she remained in the Admiralty Islands on interisland convoy runs and training duties, drydocking in January 1945, and then escorting the destroyer tender USS Sierra (AD-18) and repair ship USS Briareus (AR-12) to Purvis Bay in the Solomons in February.

Then came a well-earned 10-day R&R period in Australia, reporting to Ulithi afterward for the next big show.

Okinawa

Assigned to TF-51 along with two destroyers, USS McDermut (DD-667) and Leutz (DD-481), and the escort USS England (DE-635), Whitehurst and company formed the anti-submarine screen around the light cruisers USS Mobile and Miami for the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, leaving Ulithi at the end of March.

By 6 April, the first Japanese aircraft out of Okinawa were engaged by Whitehurst, whose gunners fired 263 rounds that day.

At 1500 on 12 April the Divine Wind came to Whitehurst.

Three Japanese Vals closed with the destroyer escort and two were shot down by the ship’s gunners. The third, in a steep 40-degree angle dive, smoking from 20mm hits, crashed into the ship’s bridge at 1502.

The entire bridge structure was enveloped in flames– with all the pilothouse and CIC personnel killed outright– and all control and communications lost. By 1507, with secondary control restored, with gun control conducted by voice, the ship’s force was fighting the fires that were under control by 1515.

The minesweeper USS Vigilance (AM-324) and assault transport USS Crosley (APD-87) came alongside the smoking warship to render medical assistance and rescue.

All of the men in the ship’s radio room as well as those in the forward gun crews had been either killed or seriously wounded by bomb fragments. In all, Whitehurst suffered 31 deaths and 37 wounded while six men were missing in action, presumed blown overboard. Overall, the casualties amounted to a third of the crew. 

With Vigilance leading the way and a signalman from the minesweeper on Whitehurst’s deck passing commands back and forth via semaphore flag and handheld blinker lamp, the damaged escort made the protection of the Kerama Retto anchorage by 1830.

Four days later, patched up enough to make for the sea once again, Whitehurst joined a slow convoy bound for recently occupied Saipan and arrived there on the 20th. On the 22nd, she received a dispatch ordering her back to Pearl Harbor for battle damage repairs and alterations. Arriving in Hawaii via Eniwetok on 10 May, where she unloaded munitions and entered the Naval Yard two days later.

P.I. Powerhouse

The brutal month-long campaign to Liberate Japanese-occupied Manila, once considered one of the most beautiful of cities in the Far East, had left the Philippines’s capital a pile of rubble amid destruction perhaps only surpassed by Warsaw.

Manila, Philippine Islands, Feb. 1945. (U.S. Air Force Number 59680AC)

According to post-combat accounting, the fighting destroyed 11,000 of the city’s buildings, leaving 200,000 Filipinos homeless in addition to the 100,000 killed when the smoke cleared in early February 1945. Survivors had no running water, sewage treatment, or electricity.

That’s where Whitehurst and her sisters came in.

Gen. Kruger’s Sixth Army engineer train, tasked with helping to stand Manila back up in addition to pursuing the Japanese into northern Luzon, was soon operating two floating diesel powerplants to provide the city with a trickle of power.

Responding to the call, USS Wiseman (DE-667), one of Whitehurst’s sisters, was given a set of ship-to-shore power reels and transformers, allowing her to send juice into the Manila Electric Service by using the destroyer escort’s main propulsion plant.

Two large cable reels and a transformer were added between the X-position director and the smokestack. The transformers installed as part of the conversion provided electricity in six different voltages ranging from 2,400 and 37,500 volts using the ship’s GE generators

Photo of a power cable reels on the USS Wiseman (DE-667) from the open bridge. The Wiseman helped provide power to Manila for a time in 1945. U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation Collection: Frank M. Frazitta Papers. 0677-048-b1-fi-i6. East Carolina University Digital Collections. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/24920. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024

As detailed by DANFS on Wiseman’s mission:

Arriving at Manila on [March] 23d, she commenced furnishing power to that nearly demolished city on 13 April and, over the next five and one-half months, provided some 5,806,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. In addition, Wiseman’s evaporators furnished 150,000 gallons of drinking water to Army facilities in the harbor area and to many small craft. Her radios were also utilized to a great extent. Placed at the disposal of the Navy’s port director, the ship’s communication outfit was used to handle harbor radio traffic until the director’s equipment arrived and was installed ashore.

As part of her yard period in Pearl Harbor following her kamikaze strike, Whitehurst received a similar set of ship-to-shore transmission reels, which she tested on 1 July 1945 by illuminating a test grid ashore at the Navy Yard.

3 July 1945: Whitehurst at Pearl Harbor, undergoing Inclining tests, note her TEG conversion reels are visible behind her stack. (U.S. Navy photo, National Archives #19LCM-DE634-3)

Receiving munitions, provisions, and new crew members (including a new skipper), she spent three weeks on a series of speed and maneuvering trials, augmented by gunnery and ASW exercises then shoved off on 25 July bound for the Philippines.

On 14 August 1945, Whitehurst, which had just escorted the jeep carrier USS Core (CVE-13) from Ulithi to Leyte, arrived at Manila’s inner harbor and tied up, reporting to Sixth Army to relive Wiseman.

She soon after started lighting up the P.I. at a regular 13,200 volts (5.8746E-25 MWh), 24×7.

She would continue this unsung yet vital post-war recovery service for more than two months until relieved on 26 October.

Her services were needed in Guam, and Whitehurst steamed there in early November where she tied up and supplied electrical power to the dredge YM-25, in support of the 301st Naval Construction Bn, into 1946.

No less than six other destroyer escorts– all Buckley class ships– were at some point converted into floating Turbo-Electric Generators (TEG) in such a manner: USS Donnell (DE-56), Foss (DE-59), Marsh (DE-699), Maloy (DE-791), HMS Spragge (K-572, ex-DE-563) and HMS Hotham (K-583 ex-DE-574). Notably, Donnell, which had been extensively damaged by a torpedo from U-473 in May 1944, was reclassified IX-182 and used to supply shore power off Omaha immediately after D-Day.

This allowed them to operate in important expeditionary and humanitarian roles if and when needed, a trick some of them would be called to do in later conflicts. For example, Foss and Maloy went to the aid of blacked-out Portland Maine in 1947 while Wiseman and Marsh powered the respective Korean ports of Masan and Pusan in 1950 during the Korean War.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Korea

Finally returning to CONUS in April 1946 after more than nine months of service as a floating generator, Whitehurst was decommissioned six months later and placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs, Florida. She earned six battle stars for her World War II service.

Not all of her sisters were as lucky. Four had been lost during the war: USS Fechteler, sunk by U-967 northwest of Oran, Algeria 5 May 1944; Rich; lost to mines off Utah Beach 8 June 1944 just months after joining the fleet; Bates, sunk by kamikazes off Okinawa 25 May 1945; and Underhill, sunk by a Japanese Kaiten human torpedo northeast of Luzon 24 July 1945. Meanwhile, England, like Whitehurst, was damaged by suicide planes off Okinawa, but unlike our subject was not repaired following the war.

The truth was that the peacetime Navy had little use for slow DEs with their open gun mounts when so many modern, fast, and well-armed new destroyers were just leaving the shipyards.

Port broadside aerial view of destroyer escort USS Whitehurst (DE-634) November 30 1949 USN 200669

When the Norks crossed the 38th Parallel during the summer of 1950 into South Korea, Whitehurst was dusted off and recommissioned on 1 September 1950. Sent to the Far East as part of Escort Squadron 11 (CortDiv 112), she earned three battle stars (First UN Counter Offensive, Communist China Spring Offensive, and UN Summer-Fall Offensive) for her activities during the Korean War in the seven months between 25 February and 19 September 1951.

She reportedly added a 13-year-old war orphan, one Jimmie Pon Son, to her crew. 

Gilligan patrol…and movie star

Remaining in the Westpac until 1955, she transferred to Pearl Harbor for another year of service that included poking around the remote islands and atolls of the U.S. Trust Territories for the Pacific, winning hearts and minds by providing aid and medical care for the locals while enforcing fishing regulations and low-key looking for Japanese hold outs.

With an 11-foot draft and the ability to easily launch rubber rafts due to her low freeboard, littoral surveillance came easy.

For instance, take this deck log note from March 1957 into account:

By June 1957, she was one of the last destroyer escorts remaining on active duty in her WWII configuration (if you disregard her TEG equipment).

This led to the ship and her crew being placed at the disposal of 20th Century Fox for six weeks for Dick Powell to film The Enemy Below.

Dubbed the fictional USS Haynes in the film, Whitehurst appears in several significant passages, all filmed in amazing DeLuxe Color.

Reserve Days, and her final mission

Once filming wrapped, Whitehurst was sent to the 13th Naval District at Seattle, Washington in October 1957 to serve with Reserve Escort Squadron 1 (ResCortDiv 112) as a Naval Reserve Training ship, used for weekend cruises one weekend per month and a two-week summer cruise per year.

Decommissioned a second time on 6 December 1958, Whitehurst remained “in service” as a training asset, keeping up her regular drill work.

USS Whitehurst (DE634), note the post-war hull numbers

This continued until October 1961 when she was recommissioned a second time during the Berlin Wall crisis, manned by activated reservists, and sent to Pearl Harbor to join Escort Squadron 7 for 10 months.

Buckley class USS Whitehurst (DE-634)

It was during this time that she was sent to Vietnam in March 1962 along with Escort Division 71. Operating in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Siam, she conducted training of South Vietnamese naval officers out of Danang.

Postwar view of Whitehurst, with her distinctive cable reels on the 01 level amidships

Decommissioned a third time on 1 August 1962, she returned to her weekend warrior NRT job in Seattle as part of Destroyer Squadron 27 (ResDesDiv 273) where, during a 1963 refit, she landed much of her WWII armament and her TEG reels.

Her summer cruises, longer two-week affairs, often ranged as far as Canada and Mexico.

Whitehurst, City of Vancouver Archives. 31 July 1965.

This quiet reserve life continued into October 1968 when she was shifted to Swan Island outside of Portland, Oregon, becoming an NRT vessel there.

On 12 July 1969, Whitehurst was struck from the Navy List as the likelihood of her offering anything as a training asset was slim. By that time, she was one of the final members of her “disposable” class still in the Navy’s hands, a record only surpassed by a handful of fellow NRT ships which lingered into the early 1970s.

Stripped, she was towed to sea by USS Tawasa (ATF-92) and sunk as a target by the submarine USS Trigger (SS-564) on 28 April 1971 in deep water off Vancouver Island, during the development of the MK 48 torpedo– its first live warshot test.

28 April 1971 ex-Whitehurst quickly slides beneath the waves. This photo was taken by the Trigger’s Periscope Photographer, Tom Boyer.

In her ending, she served the Navy one last time by helping to test new weapons and train new bluejackets in their use.

Likewise, 11 of her class were disposed of in similar SINKEXs between 1967 and 1973: ex-USS Lovelace, ex-James E. Craig, ex-Otter, ex-Darby, ex-J. Douglas Blackwood, ex-Alexander J. Luke, ex-Vammen, ex-Loeser, ex-Currier, ex-Cronin, and ex-Gunason.

Epilogue

Few relics remain of Whitehurst.

Her war diaries and deck logs are in the National Archives. 

She has a memorial at the Museum of the Pacific War in Texas. 

A website DE634.org, endures to keep her memory alive. Their last reunion listed, combined with veterans of USS Silverstein, Walton, and Foss, was in 2020.

As for her first skipper, James Grey, went on to command two other destroyer escorts and a troopship, including sea time during Korea, then served in several high-level shore assignments until he retired in 1960, capping 23 years with the Navy. He passed in Sunnyvale, California in 2002, aged 87.

Her first XO and second skipper, 90-day wonder Jack Horton, who commanded the ship during the battle against I-45 and somehow survived the kamikaze his ship took to the bridge six months later, mustered out in December 1945 and, settling in Houston, passed in a sailing accident on the Gulf of Mexico in 1970. Life is funny like that.

The Navy has not seen fit to commission a second USS Whitehurst.

However, The Enemy Below endures, and she is still beautiful in rich DeLuxe Color.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Remembering Exmouth

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The E-class Flotilla Leader HMS Exmouth (H02) was the fourth RN ship to carry the name back to 1854.

HMS Exmouth in Belfast in 1937 (IWM HU 110300)

Constructed in Portsmouth in 1935 at a cost of over £330,000 under the 1931 Naval Programme, she had already had an active war in 1939, escorting no less than eight convoys before, while en route from Aberdeen to Scapa Flow on 21 January, she was struck by a torpedo fired from the early Type IIB submarine, U-22 (Karl-Heinrich Jenisch).

The destroyer sank quickly about 21 miles southeast of Noss Head in the Moray Firth, with a loss of 189 lives. There were no survivors. 

She was the first British surface ship lost with all hands during the war.

In a bit of karmic payback, U-22, with Jenisch still in command, went to the bottom just seven weeks later, with all hands.

The Admiralty reports that Exmouth’s broken wreck, some 170 feet down, has been surveyed and a White Ensign deposited on her remains.

Lt Cdr Jen Smith shines her torch on the White Ensign over the wreck of HMS Exmouth

A nameplate found in the wreckage of HMS Exmouth CREDIT ROYAL NAVY 131024

A sextant and chart house sign of HMS Exmouth CREDIT ROYAL NAVY 131024

LCDR Jen Smith said:

“190 souls were lost when HMS Exmouth went down, and only 18 bodies were recovered ashore – the majority of that crew were lost at sea.

“So, their legacy is the wreck itself, that is their final resting place.

“We need to ensure that the wreck stays preserved and remembered, so future generations can visit her or pay their respects to those who gave the greatest sacrifice.”

Pour one out for Royal Oak today

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British ‘R’ class WW1 battleships at sea, 1930 HMSs Revenge, Ramillies, Royal Sovereign, and Resolution, taken from sister HMS Royal Oak

British battleships of the 1st Battle Squadron at sea on the morning of the German surrender, 21 November 1918. Inscribed by the artist, lower right, ‘Morning of German surrender’. This study of R-class battleships of the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet is apparently taken from its flagship, HMS ‘Revenge’, on which Wyllie was a guest of Admiral Sir Charles Madden for a month at the time of the surrender and internment of the German High Seas Fleet. That being so, the ships shown are ‘Resolution’ immediately following, ‘Royal Sovereign’ and ‘Royal Oak’. http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/125878 RMG PW1743

Some 85 years ago today, at 0104 hours on 14 October 1939, the Royal Sovereign/Revenge-class 15inch gunned dreadnought HMS Royal Oak (08)–– the last and largest battleship ever to be built at Devonport– was struck by the first of three German type G7e/2874 electric torpedoes fired by the early Type VIIB U-boat U-47 (Oblt. Günther Prien).

Anchored in the Northeast corner of Scapa Flow, some 1,500 yards south of the old seaplane carrier Pegasus (ex-Ark Royal), the Jutland veteran soon suffered an explosion that reached masthead height. By 0129– less than a half-hour after the first torpedo hit, she turned turtle and began to sink in 30 meters of cold water.

For what it’s worth, U-47, including KrvKpt. Prien and her 44 hands, went missing less than five months later on 7 March 1941 in the North Atlantic south of Iceland, while on her 10th war patrol.

Royal Oak was the only member of her class ever sunk and has been under fuel oil mitigation since 2003 while leaving the hull undisturbed.

Royal Navy divers visit the battleship every October to leave a new Ensign.

Scapa Flow buoy This marks the wreck of HMS Royal Oak and the grave of her crew. “Respect their resting place.” Unauthorized diving is prohibited.

In all, some 914 crew members, including RADM Henry Evelyn Charles Blagrove, 71 Royal Marines, and tragically no less than 134 boy seaman (most between the ages of 16-18) are among Royal Oak’s honored war dead.

The list:

ABBOTT, Stanley E, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 58507, MPK
ACKERMAN, Arthur G, Able Seaman, P/J 103230, MPK
ADAMS, William P, Leading Seaman, P/J 86379, MPK
AGNEW, Clement C W, Boy 1c, P/JX 159143, MPK
ALBERRY, Jack, Stoker 1c, P/KX 83975, MPK
ALLEN, Arthur F, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95680, MPK
ALLEN, Percy L, Leading Seaman, P/JX 131242, MPK
AMOS, Ernest J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 24800, MPK
ANDERSON, Edward, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 27561, MPK
ANDERSON, Henry L, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87601, MPK
ANDERSON, Robert F, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 158192, MPK
ANDERSON, William B, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27237, MPK
ANDERSON, William T, Marine, PO/X 2917, MPK
ANDREWS, Edward H, Act/Stoker Petty Officer, P/K 64055, MPK
ANDREWS, Gerald C, Boy Telegraphist, P/JX 156292, MPK
ANDREWS, Wilfred E, Boy 1c, P/JX 158327, MPK
ANNELL, Francis W, Boy 1c, P/JX 152396, MPK
ARMFIELD, Leslie, Marine, PO/X 2959, MPK
ARMITAGE, Frederick C, Mechanician, P/KX 78955, MPK
ARMSTRONG, George H S, Act/Petty Officer, P/J 111634, MPK
ARNO, Roland, Boy 1c, P/JX 157777, MPK
ASHBY, Kenneth, Boy 1c, P/JX 155914, MPK
ASHWIN, Albert W, Petty Officer Cook, P/M 38901, MPK
ATHERTON, James, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86791, MPK
ATHERTON, Norman, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87710, MPK
ATKINSON, John, Marine, PO/X 20804, MPK
ATKINSON, Thomas E, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27413, MPK
ATTARD, Francis, Petty Officer Cook (O), E/LX 20770, MPK
ATTARD, Lorenzo, Leading Steward, E/LX 21775, MPK
ATTFIELD, Henry G, Petty Officer, P/J 103119, MPK
AZZOPARDI, Anthony, Assistant Steward, E/LX 22321, MPK
BAIGENT, George H, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 261000, MPK
BAILEY, Charles W, Able Seaman, P/J 36444 Pens, MPK
BAILEY, Edward R, Boy 1c, P/JX 157908, MPK
BAIN, Robert, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27567, MPK
BAKER, Alfred E, Act/Stoker Petty Officer, P/KX 84729, MPK
BAKER, Arthur W, Leading Stoker, P/KX 82052, MPK
BAKER, William G M, Boy 1c, P/JX 157600, MPK
BALDWIN, Albert S, Signalman, P/J 99638, MPK
BALL, Raymond J N, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 51734, MPK
BALLARD, Eric F, Boy 1c, P/JX 159382, MPK
BALLS, Harold E, Captain, RM, MPK
BARBER, Albert S, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 30174, MPK
BARBER, Frank, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87605, MPK
BARGERY, Arthur E, Supply Assistant, P/MX 58562, MPK
BARKER, Edward H, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27304, MPK
BARNES-MOSS, Henry W, Boy 1c, P/JX 156915, MPK
BARNFATHER, Raymond A, Boy 1c, P/JX 15873, MPK
BARTLETT, Arthur, Marine, PO/ 22661, MPK
BARTOLO, John, Steward, E/LX 22088, MPK
BEALING, Frederick C, Petty Officer, P/JX 152580, MPK
BEANGE, James, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19722, MPK
BEDDALL, Harry, Able Seaman, RFR, P/SS 7973, MPK
BEDWELL, Hector W J, Plumber, P/MX 39026, MPK
BEECHEY, Arthur C, Marine, PO/X 2388, MPK
BEER, Alexander E, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27208, MPK
BELL, ROBERT W., Able Seaman, P/J 78102. MPK (also known as Robert W. Tuck)
BENDALL, Richard S J, Canteen Manager, NAAFI, MPK
BENNETT, William A B, Supply Chief Petty Officer, P/M 38223, MPK
BENNEY, Charles E, Electrical Artificer 1c, P/M 39104, killed
BESWICK, Henry W J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21101, MPK
BETTS, Henry J, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95921, MPK
BETTS, William T, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 86549, MPK
BILLYARD, Norman, Boy Signalman, P/JX 156019, MPK
BINNINGTON, Arthur, Boy 1c, P/JX 157612, MPK
BINNS, Frederick B, Able Seaman, P/J 99527, MPK
BINSLEY, George F, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 101853, MPK
BIRTCHNELL, Cyril E, Able Seaman, P/JX 144815, MPK
BLACK, John, Boy 1c, P/JX 157437, MPK
BLACKBOROUGH, John W, Stoker 1c, P/KX 97396, MPK
BLAGROVE, Henry E C, Rear Admiral, MPK
BLENKIRON, Neil, Act/Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 57565, MPK
BLOOD, Samuel, Boy 1c, P/JX 160587, MPK
BLYTH, Henry B, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20210, MPK
BOENING, John, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95950, MPK
BOLD, Percy W, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20080, MPK
BONELLO, Salvatore, Leading Steward, E/L 11922, MPK
BONNER, Walter C, Band Corporal, RMB 180, MPK
BORLAND, Alexander D, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 60113, MPK
BOTTOMLEY, Robert J, Sergeant, PO/X 22159, MPK
BOWDEN, Reginald C B, Able Seaman, P/JX 134358, MPK
BOWEN, Jack, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 149667, MPK
BOWHAY, William J R, Paymaster Midshipman, MPK
BOYD, Thomas A, Supply Assistant, P/MX 58559, MPK
BOYES, Louis S, Sailmaker’s Mate, P/J 113932, MPK
BOYLE, William, Leading Stoker, P/K 66789, MPK
BRADDICK, Arthur H, Leading Stoker, P/K 60237, killed
BRADING, Charles E, Boy 1c, P/JX 157767, MPK
BRAMLEY, Raymond J, Boy 1c, P/JX 158937, MPK
BRANCH, Hal, Supply Petty Officer, P/MX 46378, MPK
BRIDGES, James G C, Boy 1c, P/JX 157596, MPK
BRIGHT, Herbert, Marine, PO/ 216315, MPK
BRIGHTMAN, George R, Stoker Petty Officer, P/K 61794, MPK
BRISCOE, Edmund J, Able Seaman, P/J 97597, MPK
BRITTON, Thomas F, Able Seaman, P/J 115551, MPK
BROOKIN, James F, Marine, PO/X 2950, MPK
BROUGHTON, Alick E, Marine, PO/X 3041, MPK
BROWN, Alfred G, Leading Seaman, P/J 100430, MPK
BROWN, Dennis A J, Stoker 2c, P/KX 97906, MPK
BROWN, Harold, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21997, MPK
BROWN, Henry W, Petty Officer, P/J 93823, MPK
BROWN, John, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19671, MPK
BRYMER, Ernest A, Boy 1c, P/JX 158209, MPK
BUCKETT, Stanley V, Ordnance Artificer 2c, P/MX 5599, killed
BUCKNALL, Arthur G, Able Seaman, P/J 103007, MPK
BUDGE, John, Boy 1c, P/JX 158257, MPK
BULL, Alan N, Shipwright 5c, P/MX 59124, MPK
BURDEN, Arthur E, Act/Petty Officer, P/J 111687, MPK
BURNHAM, Peter, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26573, MPK
BURNS, Arthur, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20759, MPK
BURNS, John E, Corporal, PO/X 550, MPK
BURROWS, Robert W, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87984, MPK
BURT, Ernest H A, Leading Signalman, P/JX 126157, MPK
BURTENSHAW, Clifford H, Able Seaman, P/J 43323, MPK
BURTON, John W, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 84054, MPK
BUTLER, Albert A, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95683, MPK
BUTLER, Albert E, Marine, PO/X 1365, MPK
BUTLER, Albert E, Stoker 1c, P/K 62461, MPK
BYDAWELL, Leonard R J, Electrical Artificer 4c, P/MX 54996, MPK
CACHIA, Joseph, Leading Steward, E/LX 20812, MPK
CAIRNS, John, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 27560, MPK
CAMPBELL, Charles N, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27233, MPK
CAMPBELL, Donald, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27150, MPK
CAMPSIE, Charles, Able Seaman, P/JX 142702, MPK
CANNON, Robert J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19985, MPK
CAPEL, Charles W, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95166, MPK
CARD, Albert R W, Boy 1c, P/JX 159112, MPK
CARNEGIE, Alexander K, Act/Leading Seaman, P/SSX 16142, MPK
CARPENTER, Edwin G, Shipwright 4c, P/MX 54106, MPK
CARR, Frank C, Steward, C/LX 21729, MPK
CARTER, Gordon W, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19717, MPK
CARTER, John, Leading Stoker, P/K 60886, MPK
CARTER, Rowland W H, Able Seaman, P/JX 134480, MPK
CARTER, William F, Seaman, RNR, P/X 20597 A, MPK
CARTWRIGHT, Wilfred, Engine Room Artificer 1c, P/M 34467, MPK
CASS, Leonard, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 132259, MPK
CAST, Reuben J, Ordinary Signalman, P/SSX 27808, MPK
CASTLEMAN, Harry, Able Seaman, P/J 102650, MPK
CHADWICK, John C, Chief Engine Room Artificer 2c, P/M 22651, MPK
CHADWICK, Thomas, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 46739, MPK
CHALK, Ronald G, Ordinary Signalman, P/JX 154932, MPK
CHALLENGER, Albert L, Able Seaman, P/SSX 16728, MPK
CHAPPELL, William G, Petty Officer, P/J 99140, MPK
CHEESLEY, Wilfred H G, Act/Warrant Engineer, MPK
CHESMAN, William E, Leading Stoker, P/KX 82405, MPK
CHICK, Alan, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 51742, MPK
CHURCH, Ovidio, Assistant Steward, E/LX 23166, MPK
CLACHER, William H, Boy 1c, P/JX 159105, MPK
CLACKSON, Ronald G, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26095, MPK
CLARK, Alan J, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 153775, MPK
CLARK, Albert H, Sick Berth Attendant, P/MX 57804, MPK
CLARK, Frederick H, Boy 1c, P/JX 15896, MPK
CLARK, John, Able Seaman, P/JX 145699, MPK
CLARK, Ralph L W, Lieutenant (E), killed
CLARKE, Francis H, Stoker 1c, P/KX 90017, MPK
CLARKE, Robert E, Stoker Petty Officer, P/K 59906, MPK
CLEMENTS, Ernest F J, Marine, PO/X 1927, MPK
CLEMENTSON, John, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20373, MPK
CLOUTE, Edward C, Master At Arms, P/M 39838, MPK
COCK, Clarence H, Lieutenant (E), MPK
COFFIN, Leonard J, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 14757, MPK
COLBOURNE, Frank E, Leading Stoker, P/K 59274, MPK
COLBOURNE, James W F, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27563, MPK
COLBRAN, Percy, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 48784, MPK
COLEMAN, Edward W, Able Seaman, P/J 53167, MPK
COLEMAN, Jack A, Boy Telegraphist, P/JX 156277, MPK
COLEMAN, Maurice G N, Boy Telegraphist, P/JX 156747, MPK
COLLINS, George A, Boy 1c, P/JX 157880, MPK
COLLINS, Robert, Leading Sick Berth Attendant, P/MX 50880, MPK
COMBER, Albert E B, Petty Officer, P/J 110072, MPK
CONNOR, Fred, Act/Stoker Petty Officer, P/KX 96550, MPK
CONNOR, Reginald J, Able Seaman, P/JX 140996, MPK
CONROY, Frank, Leading Stoker, P/KX 83434, MPK
COOK, George J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 24798, MPK
COOKE, Frederick A, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 59082, MPK
COOPER, Leslie L, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19680, MPK
COOPER, Norman, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20068, MPK
COPE, John R, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 152707, MPK
CORNELIOUS, Kenneth T, Boy 1c, P/JX 159083, MPK
CORNELIUS, Herbert J, Py/Surgeon Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK
CORNISH, Charles F, Able Seaman, P/J 49960, MPK
COUSINS, Hubert J, Supply Assistant, P/MX 58596, MPK
COX, Edwin, Boy 1c, P/JX 156605, MPK
CRAGG, Walter, Boy 1c, P/JX 158587, MPK
CRAVEN, Arthur, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 25730, MPK
CREE, James B D, Chaplain, MPK
CROCKETT, John S, Leading Stoker, P/K 60176, MPK
CROFTS, Edward A, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 49178, MPK
CROSS, Eric V A, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 58964, MPK
CROSSWELL, Walter H, Yeoman of Signals, P/J 93096, MPK
CUMBES, Ronald W, Stoker 1c, P/KX 88437, MPK
CUMMING, Leslie T J, Marine, PO/X 588, MPK
CUMMINGS, Harry, Ordnance Artificer 1c, P/M 30403, MPK
CUNNINGHAM, Edward W, Corporal, PO/X 483, MPK
CURTIN, Cornelius, Stoker 1c, P/KX 88327, MPK
CURTIS, Herbert H W, Petty Officer Cook, P/MX 45150, MPK
CUTLER, Joseph A, Blacksmith 5c, P/MX 58970, MPK
DANIELS, George, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95934, MPK
DARNELL, George T, Boy 1c, P/JX 158214, MPK
DAUGHTREY, Albert, Able Seaman, P/J 111527, MPK
DAVEY, Cecil B, Supply Chief Petty Officer, P/M 30765, MPK
DAVIE, Richard C, Leading Supply Assistant, P/MX 51123, MPK
DAVIES, Herbert R, Marine, PO/X 1408, MPK
DAVIES, Mervyn C, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26707, MPK
DAVIS, Joseph F, Able Seaman, P/SSX 15387, MPK
DAVIS, Robert E, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21139, MPK
DAYSH, Alan, Canteen Assistant, NAAFI, MPK
DEACON, William J, Stoker 1c, P/KX 90485, MPK
DEAR, Alfred J, Sergeant, PO/ 22637, MPK
DEIGHTON, Ernest C, Stoker 1c, P/KX 85503, MPK
DERBYSHIRE, Ronald, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 125355, MPK
DERRY, John O H, Boy 1c, P/JX 157256, MPK
DIAPER, Stanley T, Leading Cook, P/MX 48944, MPK
DICKIE, William A, Surgeon Lieutenant (D), MPK
DOE, Sidney P, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95684, MPK
DOGGETT, Ivor E, Able Seaman, P/JX 149799, MPK
DOWDING, Percy W G, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26092, MPK
DOWNES, Arthur F, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95851, MPK
DRAPER, Basil H, Leading Seaman, P/JX 129857, MPK
DRUCE, Albert E, Stoker 2c, P/KX 96940, MPK
DUNCALF, Thomas, Able Seaman, P/SSX 137746, MPK
DUNK, Charles A, Chief Mechanician, P/K 55420, MPK
DUNK, William W, Boy 1c, P/JX 157915, MPK
DYER, Henry, Able Seaman, P/JX 115887, MPK
EADE, James H, Shipwright 4c, P/MX 54409, MPK
EASTON, Francis, Boy 1c, P/JX 158579, MPK
EDE, Frank, Leading Stoker, P/KX 81595, MPK
EDWARDS, Arthur, Stoker 1c, P/KX 89502, MPK
EDWARDS, James F, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25897, MPK
EDWARDS, Rhobert G, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27416, MPK
EDWARDS, Walter R A T, Able Seaman, P/JX 131451, MPK
EFEMEY, Ronald B, Signalman, P/JX 141588, MPK
ELLIOTT, Robert, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86265, MPK
ELTRINGHAM, Norman, Painter, P/MX 51661, MPK
EMERY, Alfred, Cook, P/MX 54622, MPK
EMERY, Frank C, Chief Petty Officer, P/J 81318, MPK
EVANS, Bernard, Marine, PO/X 2951, MPK
EVANS, Joseph E, Able Seaman, P/J 90199, MPK
EYERS, Charles E, Boy Signalman, P/JX 155943, MPK
FAIRBROTHER, James W, Boy 1c, P/JX 159190, MPK
FARR, Ernest W, Chief Petty Officer Stoker, P/K 56117, MPK
FARRELL, Robert, Ordinary Seaman, RNVR, P/UD/X 1510, MPK
FENN, Theodore R P, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 140460, MPK
FINLAY, Matthew B, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19669, MPK
FISHER, Billie L, Able Seaman, P/JX 137936, MPK
FISHER, James B, Leading Stoker, P/KX 79148, MPK
FITCH, Charles E, Signalman, P/J 82366, MPK
FLOGDELL, Albert E, Marine, PO/X 2572, MPK
FLOUNDERS, Alexander, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27295, MPK
FORD, William J, Able Seaman, P/JX 144165, MPK
FORSEY, Horace S, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 148901, MPK
FOSTER, Donald C D, Leading Seaman, P/JX 129769, MPK
FOSTER, George W, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25972, MPK
FOULGER, Arthur, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19964, MPK
FOWLER, John W, Marine, PO/X 1578, MPK
FOYLE, Archie A, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27282, MPK
FRANCIS, Hubert A, Able Seaman, P/JX 142485, MPK
FRANCKEISS, Edward L, Act/Petty Officer, P/J 113184, killed
FRENCH, Charles, Able Seaman, P/JX 137374, MPK
FULLER, Charles W, Able Seaman, P/JX 127659, MPK
FURBEAR, Thomas G, Sergeant, PO/X 841, MPK
FURBY, Edwin A, Boy 1c, P/JX 158407, MPK
FURLONG, John, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 25720, MPK
FURNELL, Leslie T, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19711, MPK
GALLAGHER, John W, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 84271, MPK
GIBBONS, John A, Able Seaman, P/J 81797, MPK
GIBSON, Gordon, Boy 1c, P/JX 157592, MPK
GIBSON, Sidney J, Marine, PO/X 2952, MPK
GILES, William H, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86757, MPK
GILL, George E, Stoker 1c, P/KX 88429, MPK
GILL, Harold W, Leading Stoker, P/KX 76025, MPK
GILLIS, George W, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27410, MPK
GIUSTI, Ignazio, Leading Steward, E/LX 15022, MPK
GLASSPOOL, Harry, Leading Stoker, P/K 57401, MPK
GODLEY, Sidney G, Stoker 1c, P/K 57546, MPK
GODWIN, Thomas G, Act/Leading Telegraphist, D/JX 133888, MPK
GODWIN, William, Able Seaman, P/J 80870, MPK
GOLDING, Arthur J, Bandmaster, RMB 2745, killed
GOODYER, Joseph C, Officers’ Chief Cook, P/L 2529, MPK
GORSUCH, Ernest D, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95926, MPK
GOUGH, Edwin J, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86102, MPK
GOUGH, Thomas E, Boy 1c, P/JX 158441, MPK
GOURLAY, James R G M, Able Seaman, P/JX 143524, MPK
GOWAN, Jack D, Boy 1c, P/JX 158481, MPK
GRACE, Victor M, Writer, P/MX 55769, MPK
GRAHAM, George M, Boy 1c, P/JX 157590, MPK
GRAHAM, Philip W C, Midshipman, MPK
GRAHAM, Samuel, Seaman, RNR, P/X 7150 C, MPK
GRAHAM-BROWN, John L T, Sub Lieutenant, MPK
GRAY, Alexander S, Boy 1c, P/JX 158263, MPK
GRAY, Edward, Able Seaman, P/JX 130468, MPK
GRAY, Harry W, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27545, MPK
GRECH, Joseph, Assistant Steward, E/LX 22806, MPK
GREEN, Albert F, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26104, MPK
GREEN, Frank, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19729, MPK
GREEN, Roy, Musician, RMB/X 749, MPK
GREENWOOD, Leonard, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20436, MPK
GRIFFIN, Harry, Boy 1c, P/JX 159273, MPK
GRIFFITHS, Edward J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19672, MPK
GRIFFITHS, James R, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 158039, MPK
GRINDLEY, Arnold E, Marine, PO/X 3064, MPK
GROGAN, John, Marine, PO/X 2556, MPK
GUTTERIDGE, Ronald G N, Boy 1c, P/JX 155329, MPK
GUY, Robert, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 158072, MPK
HALES, Joseph, Officers’ Cook 2c, E/L 12226, MPK
HALL, Harry J, Plumber 4c, P/MX 51631, MPK
HALL, Joseph, Petty Officer, P/JX 125239, MPK
HALL, Kenneth E, Marine, PO/X 2676, MPK
HALL, William R, Boy 1c, P/JX 158939, MPK
HAMBLIN, George A, Marine, PO/ 22591, MPK
HAMBLIN, Herbert J, Able Seaman, P/J 50281, MPK
HAMMOND, John S, Leading Cook, P/MX 49962, MPK
HAMMOND, Wilfred L, Petty Officer Steward, P/L 15087, MPK
HANCE, Travis R, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26045, MPK
HARKIN, Phillip R, Leading Seaman, P/J 129706, MPK
HARLE, George, Marine, PO/X 2760, MPK
HARLEY, John A H, Act/Leading Signalman, D/J 69269, MPK
HARPER, Richard R J, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27296, MPK
HARRIS, George J, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27423, MPK
HARRIS, Kenneth J, Writer, D/MX 59821, MPK
HARRIS, Norman H, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26053, MPK
HARRIS, Percy W, Act/Leading Seaman, P/J 10161, MPK
HAWKINS, Kenneth R J, Boy 1c, P/JX 159111, MPK
HAWKINS, Walter J, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86612, MPK
HAYES, Thomas, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95662, MPK
HAYWARD, Jasper G, Boy 1c, P/JX 157760, MPK
HEATHER, Charles W, Able Seaman, P/JX 140720, MPK
HELMORE, William L, Petty Officer, P/J 99995, MPK
HEMESTRETCH, Charles W, Boy 1c, P/JX 158405, MPK
HEMSLEY, Charles F, Marine, PO/X 2798, MPK
HEMSTRIDGE, Cecil, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95865, MPK
HESLOP, Cuthbert, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27279, MPK
HICKS, Albert E, Able Seaman, P/J 84408, MPK
HIGGINS, John I, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19372, MPK
HIGGS, Harold H, Leading Stoker, P/KX 77576, MPK
HIGHFIELD, Joseph E, Act/Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 56195, MPK
HILL, Albert, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20207, MPK
HILL, Donald, Shipwright 4c, P/MX 55747, MPK
HILL, Douglas, Stoker 1c, P/KX 89512, MPK
HILL, Ernest F, Stoker 1c, P/KX 88294, MPK
HILL, Samuel, Ordnance Artificer 4c, P/MX 54584, MPK
HILLIER, Charles W, Ordnance Artificer 2c, P/M 37686, MPK
HINGSTON, Eric, Act/Leading Seaman, P/J 130609, MPK
HISCOCK, Frederick J, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27550, MPK
HIXSON, Herbert H, Boy 1c, P/JX 158383, MPK
HOCKING, John R, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95687, MPK
HODGSON, Alan R, Signalman, D/JX 144607, MPK
HODGSON, James S, Boy 1c, P/JX 157463, MPK
HOLLAND, Cecil, Ordnance Artificer 4c, P/MX 53671, MPK
HOLYOAK, Edward, Boy 1c, P/JX 157154, MPK
HOTTON, Lewis W J, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95653, MPK
HUDSON, Frederick H J, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 56982, MPK
HUDSON, John S, Signalman, P/SSX 16093, MPK
HUGGINS, Henry S, Leading Stoker, P/KX 75387, MPK
HUGHES, Frederick E, Boy 1c, P/JX 157826, MPK
HUGHES, Thomas, Able Seaman, P/J 91758, MPK
HUGHES-ROWLANDS, Richard, Commissioned Telegraphist, killed
HULL, Ernest C, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95290, MPK
HULL, Raymond G, Leading Telegraphist, P/JX 137282, MPK
HUMBER, John F, Boy 1c, P/JX 157890, MPK
HUNT, Albert V, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87193, MPK
HUNT, Edward G, Petty Officer, P/JX 132394, MPK
HUNTER, Frank, Leading Seaman, P/J 92755, MPK
HUNTER, James, Marine, PO/X 3142, MPK
HURST, Frank, Electrical Artificer 4c, P/MX 54704, MPK
HUSCROFT, Robert W, Cook, P/MX 57241, MPK
HUSSEY-YEO, Arthur L, Able Seaman, P/JX 127000, MPK
HUTCHCOCKS, Tom, Able Seaman, P/JX 141424, MPK
HYDE, Alexander J, Leading Supply Assistant, P/MX 54623, MPK
HYDE, George W, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 83528, MPK
ING, Ronald C, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 25722, MPK
JACK, James D M, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86761, MPK
JACKMAN, John J, Able Seaman, P/JX 134910, MPK
JACKSON, Lawrence T D, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20647, MPK
JACKSON, Thomas W B, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 25724, killed
JACOBS, Walter A C, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95859, MPK
JAGO, Leslie, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/JX 156975, MPK
JAMES, Leslie J, Boy 1c, P/JX 158601, MPK
JAMES, Roland, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25886, MPK
JAMES, Verdun L, Marine, PO/X 1421, MPK
JAY, Vernon G U, Cadet, MPK
JELLEY, Lesley J, Boy 1c, P/JX 157876, MPK
JENKINS, Eric J A, Engine Room Artificer 3c, P/MX 48229, MPK
JENKINS, Thomas S, Stoker 1c, P/KX 79383, MPK
JENNINGS, Russel E, Boy 1c, P/JX 157923, MPK
JEWELL, Arthur, Able Seaman, P/J 92301, MPK
JEWER, Sydney A, Corporal, PO/X 2009, MPK
JOBSON, James B, Leading Seaman, P/J 114586, MPK
JOHNS, Percival H M, Chief Electrical Artificer 2c, P/M 38580, MPK
JOHNSON, Frederick H W P, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95594, MPK
JOHNSON, Thomas M, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25867, MPK
JOHNSTON, Alexander J, Able Seaman, P/J 82381, MPK
JONES, Charles E, Steward, D/LX 21744, MPK
JONES, Harry, Boy 1c, P/JX 157056, MPK
JONES, Henry G, Able Seaman, P/JX 141049, MPK
JONES, Sidney W, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27952, MPK
JONES, Thomas J, Boy 1c, P/JX 158938, MPK
JORDAN, Frederick, Petty Officer Telegraphist, P/J 90355, MPK
JORDAN, Henry D, Corporal, PO/X 930, MPK
JUDGE, Peter R, Able Seaman, P/J 111868, MPK
KANE, Raymond C, Marine, PO/X 3015, MPK
KEARY, Arthur, Leading Supply Assistant, P/MX 51127, MPK
KEEL, Jack, Marine, PO/X 1736, MPK
KEEL, William, Act/Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 59117, MPK
KEMP, Lewis H, Act/Ordnance Artificer 4c, P/MX 55921, MPK
KEMPSTER, Arthur, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27412, MPK
KENNEDY, Richard H, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27280, MPK
KENNEDY, William T, Petty Officer, P/J 132255, MPK
KENNETT, Ernest H, Chief Petty Officer Stoker, P/K 61050, MPK
KENT, Herbert A J, Marine, PO/ 20891, MPK
KENWORTHY, James, Able Seaman, P/SSX 18204, MPK
KERSEY, Henry A, Petty Officer, P/J 97949, MPK
KIDBY, William F, Supply Petty Officer, P/MX 45898, MPK
KING, Cyril E M, Able Seaman, P/SSX 15872, MPK
KING, Frederick W, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95920, MPK
KING, William L, Marine, PO/X 2889, MPK
KIRKBY, Desmond E, Boy 1c, P/JX 155948, MPK
KNIGHT, Geoffrey E W, Boy 1c, P/JX 157202, MPK
LABAN, Kenneth G, Boy 1c, P/JX 158866, MPK
LARDNER, Frederick M, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 24802, MPK
LAWRENCE, James E, Marine, PO/X 3128, MPK
LEACH, Eric C, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95656, MPK
LENZ, Bernard H, Canteen Assistant, NAAFI, MPK
LESTER, Robert, Boy 1c, P/JX 158468, MPK
LEWIS, Clifford E, Marine, PO/X 2864, MPK
LEWIS, Donald J, Boy 1c, P/JX 159120, MPK
LIDDELL, Robert, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 84334, MPK
LILLEY, Harold G, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95861, MPK
LIPTROT, Frederick, Leading Cook, P/MX 49455, MPK
LISTER, Harvey G, Boy 1c, P/JX 158887, MPK
LITTLEJOHN, James B M, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 25727, MPK
LLOYD, Ronald G, Stoker 1c, P/KX 85406, MPK
LLOYDS, Sidney R N, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95856, MPK
LOATS, Thomas R, Electrical Artificer 3c, P/MX 47370, MPK
LOCK, Leslie F, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 54369, MPK
LOCKWOOD, William, Stoker 1c, P/K 588886, MPK
LOGAN, Frank, Able Seaman, P/J 111301, MPK
LONG, Arthur, Marine, PO/X 2878, MPK
LOWERY, David, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 80824, MPK
LYNCH, Hugh C, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 157285, MPK
LYONS, John, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 101188, MPK
MACANGUS, Donald, Seaman, RNR, P/X 19367 A, MPK
MACDERMOTT, Antony D, Cadet, killed
MACKINNON, Donald, Boy 1c, P/JX 159078, MPK
MACREADY, James A, Boy 1c, P/JX 157296, MPK
MAHER, Christopher, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27543, MPK
MALYON, Sydney H, Leading Stoker, P/K 66951, killed
MAMO, Francis, Officers’ Cook 2c, E/L 6426, MPK
MANGION, John P, Petty Officer Steward, E/LX 20458, MPK
MANNING, James, Stoker 1c, P/KX 85396, MPK
MANSFIELD, William H, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87490, MPK
MANWARING, Douglas, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25253, MPK
MANWARING, William R, Stoker 1c, P/KX 81251, MPK
MARSH, James W, Marine, PO/ 21181, MPK
MARSH, Owen F, Corporal, PO/ 22158, MPK
MARSHALL, Frederick, Boy 1c, P/JX 158482, MPK
MARTIN, Edward J, Midshipman, MPK
MARTIN, Horace J, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 154873, MPK
MARTIN, Leonard G, Boy 1c, P/JX 159173, MPK
MATFIELD, Albert H, Marine, PO/X 3136, MPK
MATHER, George, Act/Cook, P/MX 56974, MPK
MATHEWS-SHEEN, Thomas, Leading Seaman, P/JX 150561, MPK
MATTHEWS, Francis H, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 158095, MPK
MCARTHUR, Archibald, Engine Room Artificer 5c, P/MX 60114, MPK
MCBAIN, Donald, Cook, P/MX 56184, MPK
MCBROWN, Ralph S, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95854, MPK
MCDONALD, Albert, Boy 1c, P/JX 158570, MPK
MCGIBBON, Thomas H, Ordinary Seaman, RNVR, P/UD/X 1391, MPK
MCGREGOR, George D, Stoker 1c, P/KX 88050, MPK
MCGREGOR, Robert, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26301, MPK
MCLAREN, William, Boy 1c, P/JX 158506, MPK
MCLENNAN, Alexander J, Stoker 1c, P/KX 84974, MPK
MCMILLAN, George A, Boy 1c, P/JX 159096, MPK
MCPHERSON, Charles J, Marine, PO/X 2218, MPK
MCTAGGART, Duncan, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 24564, MPK
MEADEN, Frederick E B, Chief Petty Officer Stoker, P/K 60273, MPK
MEDLEY, Bertie, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 135922, MPK
MELLOR, Sidney, Stoker 1c, P/KX 88438, MPK
MERIFIELD, William J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19204, MPK
MIDDLETON, Andrew F C, Boy 1c, P/JX 157019, MPK
MILBORN, Philip, Boy 1c, P/JX 160588, MPK
MILES, Alfred W S, Boy 1c, P/JX 157754, MPK
MILES, Arthur, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26941, MPK
MILES, Ewart H, Marine, PO/ 21396, MPK
MILES, Patrick, Boy 1c, P/JX 158631, MPK
MILFORD, Albert E, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 108786, MPK
MILLER, Albert E, Boy 1c, P/JX 158589, MPK
MILLER, Joseph H, Able Seaman, P/SSX 18397, MPK
MILLIGAN, John J McI, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26419, MPK
MILLIS, Ronald, Marine, PO/X 2873, MPK
MILLMORE, Francis, Petty Officer, P/J 102821, MPK
MILNES, Ronald W, Boy 1c, P/JX 158116, killed
MINNS, Frederick A, Boy 1c, P/JX 157931, MPK
MIRFIN, George D, Marine, PO/X 3091, MPK
MITCHELL, John H, Shipwright 2c, P/M 38662, MPK
MITCHELL, John S, Boy 1c, P/JX 154752, MPK
MOAR, James W, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95674, MPK
MOFFAT, James B, Marine, PO/X 3038, MPK
MOONEY, Paul, Cook, P/MX 56481, MPK
MOORE, Irving, Able Seaman, P/SSX 15878, MPK
MOORE, John E, Lieutenant, killed
MOORE, Leonard G, Marine, PO/ 20158, MPK
MOORE, William J, Chief Petty Officer, P/J 96299, MPK
MOREY, Francis J M, Leading Seaman, P/JX 132152, MPK
MORRIS, Charles H, Able Seaman, P/J 06035, MPK
MORRISON, James, Boy 1c, P/JX 157031, MPK
MORRISON, Joseph, Sergeant, PO/X 672, MPK
MORSE, David L G, Boy 1c, P/JX 154996, MPK
MOSES, Leonard D, Marine, PO/X 2758, MPK
MOSLEY, James H, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 154557, MPK
MOULD, Reginald W, Able Seaman, P/J 96164, MPK
MOUNTAIN, Francis, Able Seaman, P/JX 140052, MPK
MOUNTFORD, Harry C L, Bugler, PO/X 2262, MPK
MOYLAN, Thomas, Able Seaman, P/J 94942, MPK
MULLEN, Thomas G, Ordnance Artificer 3c, P/MX 51028, MPK
MULLIN, Christopher T, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27407, MPK
MUNRO, John, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 157163, MPK
MURPHY, Peter, Signalman Boy, P/JX 155203, MPK
MURPHY, Thomas, Stoker 1c, P/KX 91411, MPK
MURRAY, William R, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95899, MPK
MUTLOW, Leslie C, Stoker 1c, P/KX 85555, MPK
MYERS, George E, Marine, PO/X 151, MPK
NAISBY, Thomas F, Leading Seaman, P/JX 131082, MPK
NEEDHAM, Eric, Ordinary Signalman, P/SSX 25069, MPK
NEWMAN, Walter H, Marine, PO/ 214643, MPK
NEWNHAM, Ernest E, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 126947, MPK
NEWNHAM, Keith G, Signalman, P/JX 144850, MPK
NEWSHAM, Harold, Boy 1c, P/JX 15933, MPK
NEWSOME, George, Marine, PO/X 2552, MPK
NIBLETT, Charles H, Marine, PO/X 1712, MPK
NICHOL, Gerald, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19330, MPK
NICHOLS, Arthur H, Shipwright 1c, P/M 35192, MPK
NICHOLSON, William D, Act/Petty Officer, P/JX 125169, MPK
NIXON, Harry, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95262, MPK
NUTTALL, Francis R M, Stoker 1c, P/KX 83842, MPK
O’BRIEN, Arthur E, Leading Seaman, P/J 89832, MPK
OFFER, Charles H, Able Seaman, P/JX 142039, MPK
OGDEN, Gordon R, Boy 1c, P/JX 159104, MPK
OSBORNE, Thomas G, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95901, MPK
O’SHEA, Michael, Canteen Assistant, NAAFI, MPK
OVERTON, John J, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27548, MPK
OXLEY, George R, Act/Petty Officer, P/JX 128126, MPK
OXLEY, Harry, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21053, MPK
PAICE, Harold F, Colour Sergeant, PO/ 216276, MPK
PALFREYMAN, Joseph, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95850, MPK
PALMER, Charles J, Able Seaman, P/J 101960, MPK
PALMER, George J, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95678, MPK
PAPE, Eric W A S, Leading Supply Assistant, P/MX 55400, MPK
PARK, Albert A, Stoker 1c, P/K 59438, MPK
PARKER, Albert G, Able Seaman, P/JX 138168, MPK
PARKER, James, Marine, PO/X 294, MPK
PARKER, Ronald T, Marine, PO/X 1450, MPK
PARKINSON, George H, Chief Ordnance Artificer 1c, P/M 35427, MPK
PARR, William A, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95937, MPK
PARRISH, William H, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 51193, MPK
PARRY, George J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19098, MPK
PARSONS, George E, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95858, MPK
PARTLETT, Edwin G, Marine, PO/X 847, MPK
PATCH, Denis G, Boy 1c, P/J 159119, MPK
PATERSON, Walter D, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20750, MPK
PATTERSON, Norman M, Midshipman, MPK
PAUL, Leslie W C, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95907, MPK
PEARSON, Alfred R, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 151198, MPK
PENNEL, John A, Marine, PO/X 3117, MPK
PENNYCORD, John A, Leading Stoker, P/K 66257, MPK
PERCY, Kenneth B, Boy 1c, P/JX 157749, MPK
PERKINS, Ernest E G, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95857, MPK
PERKINS, Reginald J, Boy Telegraphist, P/JX 154704, MPK
PERRY, Dennis W, Boy 1c, P/JX 157775, MPK
PESCI, Emmanuel, Cook (O), E/LX 22099, MPK
PETERS, Edward R, Stoker Petty Officer, P/K 66790, MPK
PETERS, George, Boy 1c, P/JX 157762, MPK
PHELPS, Cyril E, Leading Telegraphist, D/J 114261, MPK
PHIPPS, Charles P, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 155858, MPK
PICKARD, Sydney E, Steward, D/LX 21755, MPK
PIDDINGTON, Peter G, Midshipman, MPK
PIERSON, Albert J, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 139301, MPK
PIKE, Albert C, Marine, PO/X 1148, MPK
PILKINGTON, Harold, Act/Stoker Petty Officer, P/KX 76666, MPK
PINE, Bertie, Chief Petty Officer Writer, D/M 38954, MPK
PITKIN, Frederick, Leading Seaman, RNVR, P/LD/X 371, MPK
POLLARD, Geoffrey R, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 154997, MPK
POLLARD, George C, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95936, MPK
POPE, George A, Petty Officer, P/JX 128921, MPK
PORTER, Ebenezer R, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27298, MPK
PORTER, Henry W, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19615, MPK
PORTER, Jack S, Shipwright 4c, P/MX 54444, MPK
POTTER, Arthur, Boy 1c, P/JX 159658, MPK
POTTER, Stanley, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27414, MPK
POTTLE, Robin V T, Boy Telegraphist, P/JX 153772, MPK
POULTER, Richard, Ordinary Signalman, P/JX 155715, MPK
POWELL, Arthur, Commissioned Gunner (T), MPK
POWELL, William D, Boy 1c, P/JX 158593, MPK
POWLES, William, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26940, MPK
PRAGNELL, Stanley L, Marine, PO/X 3016, MPK
PRATT, Cyril, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 24525, MPK
PRESTON, Frederick H, Sergeant, PO/ 21824, MPK
PRIEST, William C, Act/Leading Seaman, P/J 96617, MPK
PRIESTLEY, Aubrey J, Bugler, PO/X 3072, MPK
PRINCE, Gerald A, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21148, MPK
PRYOR, Ronald A, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 30156, MPK
PUDDY, Robert G, Petty Officer, P/J 101385, MPK
PYE, Philip K, Stoker 2c, P/KX 96929, MPK
QUANTRELL, Oswald P, Stoker 1c, P/KX 89997, MPK
QUIGLEY, Archibald, Able Seaman, P/JX 132173, MPK
QUINN, Harold, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19042, MPK
QUINNEY, George, Marine, PO/X 153, MPK
RADFORD, Roy, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95270, MPK
RAINE, George H, Seaman, RNR, P/X 10792 B, MPK
RAMSAY, William D, Able Seaman, P/SSX 17948, MPK
RANN, Frank, Chief Petty Officer, P/J 100664, MPK
RAZEY, Arthur E, Able Seaman, P/JX 127189, MPK
READ, Reginald V, Stoker Petty Officer, P/K 60121, MPK
REED, William G F, Seaman, RNR, P/X 20506 A, MPK
REID, David, Marine, PO/ 21663, MPK
RESTELL, Albert E, Chief Ordnance Artificer 2c, P/M 36685, MPK
REYNOLDS, Donald A, Ordnance Artificer, P/SSX 26182, MPK
RICHARDS, William M, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95672, MPK
RIDSDALE, George H, Leading Stoker, P/KX 84011, MPK
RILEY, Joseph, Boy 1c, P/JX 158451, MPK
RITCHIE, Robert C, Seaman, RNR, P/X 20398, MPK
ROBBINS, Cecil F, Able Seaman, P/JX 157894, MPK
ROBERTS, Arthur, Chief Petty Officer Stoker, P/K 60785, MPK
ROBERTS, Frederick W, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20191, MPK
ROBERTS, Thomas O, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19617, MPK
ROBERTSON, Morris G, Boy 1c, P/JX 158089, MPK
ROBERTSON, Robert U, Able Seaman, P/SSX 17975, MPK
ROLLO, David, Able Seaman, P/SSX 16686, MPK
ROPER, Snelling D, Lieutenant Commander, MPK
ROSS, Gordon I McL, Able Seaman, P/J 37612, MPK
ROSS, Theodore W, Marine, PO/X 1687, MPK
ROUPELL, Michael P, Lieutenant (E), MPK
ROUSE, Peter, Boy 1c, P/JX 158024, MPK
ROWELL, Arthur W, Able Seaman, P/J 115538, killed
ROXBOROUGH, Thomas, Stoker Petty Officer, P/K 66591, MPK
ROYAL, William D, Engine Room Artificer 2c, P/M 39389, MPK
RUCK, Winston S, Cook, P/MX 51331, MPK
RUSSELL, William F E, Joiner 3c, P/MX 51551, MPK
RUSTELL, Stanley, Marine, PO/X 2727, MPK
RUTHERFORD, John J, Stoker 1c, P/KX 89430, MPK
RUTTER, William, Able Seaman, P/JX 139992, MPK
RYALL, Maurice G, Boy Signalman, P/JX 156282, MPK
RYAN, Michael J, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 30164, MPK
RYAN, William D, Stoker 1c, P/KX 85189, MPK
SALIBA, Lawrence, Steward, E/LX 20769, MPK
SANDFORD, Frederick W C, Marine, PO/ 22370, MPK
SANDHAM, Gordon M, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 54378, MPK
SAVAGE, Clarence H, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19352, MPK
SAVAGE, William J B, Boy 1c, P/JX 159095, MPK
SCARLET, Arthur, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27277, MPK
SCHIAVONE, Emmanuel, Assistant Cook, E/LX 22979, MPK
SCHOFIELD, Ronald, Marine, PO/X 1560, MPK
SCOTT, William, Leading Stoker, P/KX 80944, MPK
SEARLE, John G, Able Seaman, P/JX 131202, MPK
SEATON, Ernest F, Boy 1c, P/JX 158880, MPK
SEELEY, Ernest J, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19529, killed
SENIOR, Frederick, Marine, PO/X 2827, MPK
SHARP, Ronald, Boy 1c, P/JX 158031, MPK
SHAW, Stephen, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 141569, MPK
SHEPHERD, George, Seaman, RNR, P/X 20406 A, MPK
SHEPPARD, Ernest W, Able Seaman, P/J 34385, MPK
SHERIFF, John G, Act/Petty Officer Telegraphist, P/JX 128543, MPK
SHORROCK, Kenneth W, Leading Seaman, P/JX 129839, MPK
SHORT, William, Officers’ Cook, E/L 5468, MPK
SIBLEY, Arthur, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95661, MPK
SIBLEY, Cyril, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86227, MPK
SIMMONS, John S, Boy 1c, P/JX 159502, MPK
SIMMONS, Oliver A J, Joiner 4c, P/MX 56735, MPK
SIMPSON, George R, Able Seaman, P/JX 140390, MPK
SIMPSON, John R, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 141579, MPK
SIMPSON, Richard H, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95852, MPK
SIMPSON, Stanley, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 133851, MPK
SINCLAIR, George W, Stoker 1c, P/KX 88487, MPK
SINCLAIR, William, Blacksmith 1c, P/MX 45546, MPK
SLADE, Stephen J, Petty Officer, P/JX 127212, MPK
SLAWSON, Walter, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26105, MPK
SMALL, William, Chief Petty Officer Cook, P/M 38157, MPK
SMITH, Charles J, Able Seaman, P/J 50165, MPK
SMITH, David E, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26920, MPK
SMITH, Donald H, Boy 1c, P/JX 156673, MPK
SMITH, George, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 154847, MPK
SMITH, George W, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 29666, MPK
SMITH, Harold, Able Seaman, RFR, P/J 29524, MPK
SMITH, Harold, Electrical Artificer 1c, P/MX 56803, MPK
SMITH, James A, Boy 1c, P/JX 158761, MPK
SMITH, Robert, Able Seaman, P/SSX 15285, MPK
SNELLOCK, Ralph A, Boy 1c, P/JX 158388, MPK
SORLEY, James N, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95913, MPK
SPALDING, Robert F J, Boy 1c, P/JX 157875, MPK
SPARROW, Leslie P, Electrical Artificer 4c, P/MX 54961, MPK
SPELMAN, Dennis B T, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27553, MPK
SPENCE, William G, Leading Signalman, P/JX 130049, MPK
SPENCER, Arthur K, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25971, MPK
SPENCER, Cecil J, Boy 1c, P/JX 157889, MPK
SPENCER, Harry, Boy 1c, P/JX 158255, MPK
SPENCER, William H, Boy 1c, P/JX 157230, MPK
SPICER, Hugh H, Marine, PO/X 2976, MPK
SQUIRES, Leslie G, Leading Seaman, P/J 104906, MPK
STABLES, George, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20322, MPK
STANBRIDGE, Harry W, Sick Berth Attendant, P/MX 57010, MPK
STANDEN, George H, Boy 1c, P/JX 159110, MPK
STANLEY, Augustus G, Stoker 1c, P/KX 85657, MPK
STANLEY, Cyril J, Boy 1c, P/JX 158947, MPK
STANNARD, William E, Petty Officer, P/J 110914, MPK
STEELE, Cecil A, Marine, PO/X 2216, MPK
STEELE, Ronald F, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 146409, MPK
STEMP, Norman H, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95855, MPK
STEPHENS, Henry, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 30167, MPK
STEPHENS, Mark W, Act/Cook, P/MX 56897, MPK
STEPHENSON, John G, Able Seaman, P/SSX 18433, MPK
STEVENS, Harold J, Chief Petty Officer, P/J 94527, MPK
STEVENSON, Edward J, Boy 1c, P/JX 158949, MPK
STEVENSON, John, Marine, PO/X 1654, MPK
STEWART, Donald C C, Writer, P/MX 58102, MPK
STEWART, Hugh, Instructor Lieutenant, MPK
STOKES, Henry J, Able Seaman, P/J 112767, MPK
STOKES, Joseph L, Stoker 1c, P/KX 89470, MPK
STONE, William F, Stoker Petty Officer, P/K 64962, killed
STRICKLEY, Harry F, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86345, MPK
SUMMERSBY, Frank, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87711, MPK
SUMNER, Percy, Chief Engine Room Artificer 2c, P/MX 59525, MPK
SUTHERLAND, Herbert J, Stoker 1c, P/KX 81907, MPK
TALBOT, Frederick G, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95688, MPK
TANNER, Benjamin C, Sergeant, PO/X 238, MPK
TARGETT, Thomas H, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 157496, MPK
TAYLOR, Donald, Telegraphist, P/JX 145839, MPK
TAYLOR, Edmund G, Act/Stoker Petty Officer, P/KX 84538, MPK
TAYLOR, Reginald J, Act/Stoker Petty Officer, P/KX 84944, MPK
TAYLOR, Sidney, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21131, MPK
TAYLOR, William MacI, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25616, MPK
TEE, James G, Petty Officer, P/JX 131118, MPK
TESTER, Charles A, Seaman, RNR, P/X 20598 A, MPK
THIRKELL, Ronald, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21283, MPK
THOMAS, Robert A, Marine, PO/X 1709, MPK
THOMPSON, Joseph, Able Seaman, P/SSX 24082, MPK
THOMPSON, Robert, Boy 1c, P/JX 158648, MPK
THOMPSON, Roland, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27236, MPK
THOMSON, James, Boy 1c, P/JX 158996, MPK
THORNE, Leonard F, Boy 1c, P/JX 15791, MPK
THWAITES, Raymond W, Telegraphist, P/SSX 17545, MPK
TIDEY, Albert E, Seaman, RNR, P/X 21415 A, MPK
TIPLADY, Thomas, Stoker 1c, P/KX 90011, MPK
TODD, Gilbert, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/SSX 25723, MPK
TOUSE, John W, Able Seaman, P/J 104829, MPK
TOWNSEND, Terence H, Marine, PO/X 3049, MPK
TRAYFOOT, Albert G, Chief Electrical Artificer 2c, P/M 33204, MPK
TRELEAVEN, Cyril N E, Musician, RMB/X 687, MPK
TRENHOLM, Thomas W, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25965, MPK
TREVETT, Edward M, Able Seaman, P/JX 152469, MPK
TRUSSLER, Leonard G, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95904, MPK
TUCK, Robert W, Able Seaman, P/J 78102, (aka Robert W Bell), MPK
TUCKWOOD, William S, Marine, PO/X 2247, MPK
TURNER, Sidney V, Stoker 2c, P/KX 96741, MPK
TUTTON, Roy E, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19630, MPK
USMAR, Harry W B, Petty Officer, P/J 74184, MPK
VASS, Bertie, Seaman, RNR, P/X 20051 A, MPK
VASS, David, Seaman, RNR, P/X 20058 A, MPK
VASS, Hugh, Seaman, RNR, P/X 6771 C, MPK
VASS, Hugh, Seaman, RNR, P/X 7361 C, MPK
VINE, James, Stoker 1c, P/KX 87119, MPK
WADSWORTH, Alfred H, Boy 1c, P/JX 158595, MPK
WAKEFIELD, Harry, Marine, PO/X 3201, MPK
WALKER, Cecil E, Boy 1c, P/JX 157882, MPK
WALKER, Donald, Ordinary Signalman, P/JX 154029, MPK
WALKER, Eric, Boy 1c, P/JX 158499, MPK
WALKER, Frederick, Leading Stoker, P/KX 75252, MPK
WALLACE, Andrew J, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 142260, MPK
WALTON, John H, Marine, PO/X 2023, MPK
WARD, George, Boy 1c, P/JX 158964, MPK
WARD, George, Petty Officer, P/JX 130440, MPK
WARD, Roy D, Act/Warrant Ordnance Officer, MPK
WARNER, Leonard J, Act/Shipwright 4c, P/MX 59316, MPK
WARRINER, Edward B, Leading Seaman, P/JX 129645, MPK
WATERFIELD, William A, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 29667, MPK
WATERMAN, Victor P, Marine, PO/X 3043, MPK
WATKINS, Stanley M, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25962, MPK
WATSON, George, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 24091, MPK
WATSON, James, Stoker 1c, P/KX 89501, MPK
WATSON, Reginald H, Able Seaman, P/SSX 19981, MPK
WATSON, William, Leading Stoker, P/KX 82326, MPK
WATTS, Herbert C, Able Seaman, P/J 55400, MPK
WEATHERBURN, Stanley, Stoker 1c, P/KX 84088, MPK
WEBB, Dudley H, Boy 1c, P/JX 158895, MPK
WEBB, Richard S, Musician, RMB/X 842, MPK
WEBB, Stanley R, Musician, RMB/X 842, MPK
WELLER, Henry A, Stoker 1c, P/KX 94918, MPK
WEST, David, Seaman, RNR, P/X 9734 B, MPK
WESTBROOK, Patrick E, Marine, PO/X 2487, MPK
WESTELL, Sidney A, Stoker 1c, P/KX 86251, MPK
WESTERN, Raymond J, Boy 1c, P/JX 157755, MPK
WESTNUTT, Ernest, Able Seaman, P/SSX 21440, MPK
WHEELER, Edward, Able Seaman, P/J 60235, MPK
WHITE, Ernest, Boy 1c, P/JX 156470, MPK
WHITE, George, Leading Seaman, P/JX 152159, MPK
WHITE, Harold J W, Canteen Assistant, NAAFI, MPK
WHITE, James B, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26031, MPK
WHITE, Joseph, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 79403, MPK
WHITE, William R, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25964, MPK
WHITMORE, Eric, Able Seaman, P/JX 152710, MPK
WHITTAKER, Walter J, Marine, PO/X 367, MPK
WIGGINS, Leslie W, Act/Ordnance Artificer 4c, P/MX 55597, MPK
WILCOCK, Ellis A, Ordinary Telegraphist, P/JX 156336, MPK
WILKINS, Joseph P, Able Seaman, P/J 103298, MPK
WILKINSON, Joseph, Boy 1c, P/JX 158624, MPK
WILLARD, Leonard F, Boy 1c, P/JX 158998, MPK
WILLETER, John C, Marine, PO/X 3132, MPK
WILLIAMS, Cyril E, Boy 1c, P/JX 160593, MPK
WILLIAMS, Francis M, Act/Regulating Petty Officer, P/M 40137, MPK
WILLIAMS, George A, Able Seaman, P/SSX 16334, MPK
WILLIAMS, Jonah, Chief Petty Officer Stoker, P/K 56624, killed
WILLIAMS, Joseph, Boy 1c, P/JX 157723, MPK
WILMINGTON, Frederick H, Stoker 1c, P/KX 84259, MPK
WILMOT, David G, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 30166, MPK
WILSHAW, John T, Able Seaman, P/SSX 20377, MPK
WILSON, Arthur, Marine, PO/X 3282, MPK
WILSON, Arthur R, Boy 1c, P/JX 158594, MPK
WILSON, George R, Leading Seaman, P/J 105080, MPK
WILSON, Robert, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 26184, MPK
WILSON, Ronald V, Stoker 2c, P/KX 95922, MPK
WILSON, Stephen R M, Midshipman, MPK
WILTSHIRE, Edward G, Act/Leading Seaman, P/KX 84332, MPK
WOOD, Jack, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 157026, MPK
WOOD, Reuben P, Stoker 1c, P/KX 89507, MPK
WOOD, Stanley, Boy 1c, P/JX 158960, MPK
WOOD, William J, Corporal, PO/X 1766, MPK
WOODCOCK, Albert G, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 25894, MPK
WOODFORD, George, Leading Stoker, P/K 65607, MPK
WOOLGAR, Denis R, Marine, PO/X 3047, MPK
WORMALD, James L, Able Seaman, P/J 73986, MPK
WREN, Victor G, Stoker 1c, P/K 50154, killed
WRIGHT, Frank E, Act/Leading Seaman, P/JX 145920, MPK
WRIGHT, William G, Ordinary Seaman, P/SSX 27430, MPK
XUEREB, John, Cook (O), E/LX 22100, MPK
YATES, John A, Boy 1c, P/JX 158149, MPK
ZAHRA, John, Steward, E/LX 20554, MPK

Life on one of the ‘Small Boys’

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Following up on our Warship Wednesday this week, which covered the Great War-era Admiralty Strath-class “battle trawler” HMT William Barnett (3632) and its later life as the French Navy’s auxiliary minesweeper Roche Noire during WWII, how about a great series of related period maritime art?

British portrait painter, landscape artist, and printmaker Francis Edgar Dodd, RA, turned 40 as the “lamps are going out all over Europe.”

Volunteering to serve as an Official War Artist during World War I, he spent some time at sea with the hired trawler HMT Mackenzie (Adty No 336) during the conflict.

One of more than 1,400 British trawlers taken up from trade— some dating back to 1880– Mackenzie was built in 1911 (Hull-reg H.349) and retained her original name while in naval service. A craft of some 335 tons, she was hired in August 1914 and would remain in RN service, armed with a single 6-pounder Hotchkiss gun, likely taken from an old torpedo boat or battleship fighting top.

Primarily serving as a minesweeper, Mackenzie was returned to her owner in 1919.

She was one of the lucky ones. Of the 1,456 hired trawlers used by the British during the war, 266 were lost during the conflict including no less than 142 to enemy action. They fought a war very much as real as those with the Grand Fleet at Jutland. 

Dodd captured the life on Mackenzie in great detail. You can almost smell the pipes’ smoke and coal dust. 

All of these pieces are from the Imperial War Museum Collection, which has some 80 of Dodd’s wartime pieces digitized and viewable online.

The After Cabin, HM Trawler Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 904) image: four sailors sit around a large table, upon which are plates and cutlery, while behind are cabin windows; one sailor is seen full length, the others half body. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7556

A Cook in the Galley, HM Trawler Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 896) image: three-quarter portrait of a man in overalls and cap, holding a mug in his left hand. He is sitting in a galley, with a large range, a pot, and a kettle on the left Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7548

Cleaning the Gun, HM Trawler Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 898) image: standing on the left a sailor, wearing a life jacket, is thrusting a pole into the breech of a deck gun, most of the mechanism of which is to the right. Rigging and a white ensign are visible behind the gun, and other ships are visible on the horizon. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7550

Cards in the Fo’c’s’le, HM Trawler Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 931) image: below decks in a confined space, five sailors stand and sit around a table playing cards, while two others look on. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7584

The Engine Room, HM Trawler Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 897) image: two men stand in an enclosed space surrounded by the heavy machinery of a ship’s engine room. The man to the right, wearing a cap, has his left hand on the engine-room telegraph apparatus, while the man to the left, with a pipe in his mouth, has his right leg up on a step. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7549

Forward from the Wheelhouse, HM Trawler Mackenzie: the figures are just about to slip the ‘kite’ used to sink the wire hawser to the required depths for sweeping (Art. IWM ART 905) image: a view of the bow, mast, and starboard forward deck of a ship at sea. Two figures are bending over equipment on the deck, while a third stands on a ladder resting over the side of the ship. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7557

The Stokehold, HM Trawler Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 903) image: in a cramped enclosed space of metal plating and machinery, a stoker is bent over shoveling coal from a bunker into a boiler. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7555

Sweeps to Starboard: HMT Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 909) image: in the foreground is a view over the side of a ship with minesweeping equipment deployed. Behind, a broad seascape with several other trawlers in the distance. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7562

The Wheelhouse, HM Trawler Mackenzie (Art. IWM ART 933) image: a view inside the wheelhouse of a ship, with two officers to the left and a sailor controlling the wheel, all in left profile. A binnacle is in the left foreground and another trawler is visible through the wheelhouse windows. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/7586

HM Submarine Trooper, Found

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HMS Trooper, circa 1943

The RN T-class submarine HMS Trooper (N91), under the command of Lt. John Somerton Wraith, DSO, DSC, RN, disappeared in the Aegean Sea with all 64 hands aboard around 6-9 October 1943 while on her 8th War Patrol.

While theories and claims of what may have happened to her included a run-in with a German Q-ship, last week it was announced that a Greek search team, led by Kostas Thoctarides, had located the wreck of the smashed submarine in 253 meters of water to the north of Donoussa Island.

The submarine was found to be broken in three sections in the position of one of the five known minefields (287 magnetic mines in total), which was laid on 26 September 1943 in this area by the German auxiliary minelayer Drache.

It appears Trooper was running on the surface when the mine detonated because the forward hydroplanes were found in their stowed position and several hatches were open.

And so we remember.

In Waters Deep– Eileen Mahoney

In ocean wastes no poppies blow,
No crosses stand in ordered row,
There young hearts sleep… beneath the wave…
The spirited, the good, the brave,
But stars a constant vigil keep,
For them who lie beneath the deep.
‘Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer
On certain spot and think. “He’s there.”
But you can to the ocean go…
See whitecaps marching row on row;
Know one for him will always ride…
In and out… with every tide.
And when your span of life is passed,
He’ll meet you at the “Captain’s Mast.”
And they who mourn on distant shore
For sailors who’ll come home no more,
Can dry their tears and pray for these
Who rest beneath the heaving seas…
For stars that shine and winds that blow
And whitecaps marching row on row.
And they can never lonely be
For when they lived… they chose the sea.

HMNZS Manawanui, sunk

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The HMNZS Manawanui (A09), the Royal New Zealand Navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel and the fourth to carry the name hit a reef, caught fire, and sank off Samoa over the weekend, leaving two of her complement hospitalized and 12-15 slightly injured.

The 5,700-ton Norwegian-built vessel was fairly young, constructed in 2003 as the commercial oil field survey vessel MV Edda Fonn, and entered the RNZN in 2019.

Her official portrait via the RNZN:

Via Dave Poole:

As described by the NZ Herald:

The actions of the commander of the HMNZS Manawanui have been credited with saving lives during a nighttime evacuation in heavy seas and winds on a reef near the southern coast of Upolu in Samoa last night.

The Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Garin Golding, said the ship ran aground at 6.46pm and tried unsuccessfully to get off the reef.

It then began to list and at 7.52pm Commander Yvonne Gray decided to evacuate the ship.

Golding said the 75 people on board, including seven citizens on scientific work and four foreign personnel, got on liferafts and tried to move away from the reef so they could be rescued.

This is a big blow to the RNZN, not having lost a ship since WWII, and the Samoans, who aren’t loving a 5,700-ton shipwreck on their pristine reefs.

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