Photos & Info on WW2 Merchant Navy vessels

Hello,

Having just received from Kew a copy of the Seaman's Pouch for a cousin of my father, I was wondering if there is such a thing as a database on the ships.

I found basic info on his first ship "Pacific Star", apparently torpedoed in Oct '42 a month after he joined MN. A further search brought up a mention of why it did not sink:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/06/a4468106.shtml

What I really would like is a photo of his ship and any others like - I hope I am reading this correctly - EMPIRE FAITH, EMPIRE YUKON SAN AMBROSIO, WAIPAWA.

Any hints on sites where this may be possible greatly appreciated as this poor man died aged 39 of diabetes. Very little of any import known.

Thanks,
Diane

 

Thanks Hugh for the sites, in part. the details of the Pacific Star. Do you think that this was the same ship described in the BBC WW2 peoples war page?

Cheers Mathsmal for the links for the San Ambrosio and Waipawa.

And both of you answered so quickly too.

Will be getting this all together for my father who also served with MN postwar. I know he will be very interested.

Diane

 

Hello Hugh,
Thanks for looking into this for me, typical that more questions are raised once some info is found.

My father wants to pass on his thanks to both of you. Much appreciated.
Diane

 

Hello Diane,

Further to my last, I have checked more sources and cannot confirm the Peoples War site account at all. I think this source is incorrect.

You could get hold of a survivors report held at the National Archives in ADM199/2142, also the Crew Agreement held in BT381/1799.

You may like to see the discussion I instigated on Mercantile Marine

If you need anymore information on these files or how to get them or any other questions please feel free to ask.

Regards
Hugh


Hello Hugh,

Thanks again for your excellent input. I read the thread you instigated on Mercantile Marine site.

I also must admit to being rather dubious about the account, but mention of the manifest intrigued me. [I realise that this would not be uncommon.] It, the peoples war story, sounds as if there may be some factual basis to it, just too strange not to, but as to it being the correct ship, it certainly seems the facts are stacked against it. And I also noticed that although it is a 'start to finish' account, it is not in the first person. It is a little frustrating to see no background offered in reference to the originator of the story and how they came to 'know' of this ...

Having also spoken to my father yesterday, I can report that he can recall no conversation at all with his cousin on this matter, and his memory is still pretty good. He also was in Merchant Navy so would have had an understanding of and interest in such matters.

If the ship made it to port, surely it would have been repaired ..? As you yourself have stated you think the account is incorrect, and I would bow to your superior knowledge of these matters. I think it would be good however, to follow this through, if only for my own personal satisfaction. I hate to have any loose ends.

If you could provide me with instructions on how to get this info. from Kew, esp. the Survivor's report, I would very much appreciate it.

Regards,
Diane

 

Hello Diane,

Don't know much about the MN (Hugh has helped me out in the past) but I do have the book 'Britains Sea War, by John M. Young with has the following entry for 27 October 1942 ....

"Near the Canary Islands, U-509 attacked a homeward bound convoy, sinking the passenger-cargo liner Stentor 6,148 tons (A. Holt & Co) from West Africa with the loss of 45 people and 202 survivors, and torpedoing the cargo liner Pacific Star 7,951 tons (Blue Star Line) from Rosario, which sank on 28 October"

Not much I know, but it might help in confirming the loss.

Regards
Peter

Hello Peter,
Thanks for looking that up for me. All records do indeed point to this conclusion.

It will do no harm to get records from Kew however, since at the very least it adds to the knowledge of my Dad's cousin's service.

Diane

 

Hello Diane,

I would recommend trying the survivors report first and, depending on how deeply you want to get in to this, could point you to either the CRS10 and/or Crew Agreement later. If you do decide to get the survivor's report I would be grateful for a look at it.
I hope that helps.

Regards
Hugh

Hello Hugh,
Will be following your instructions this evening and of course I will let you see it. Be interesting for me, first time using Digital express.

Regards,

Diane

 

Hello Hugh,

Well you've certainly done a lot of digging. Thank you very much for finding this.
The account brings just a little home to me of what it must have been like for these convoys...they were indeed fortunate, not one man lost.

Got the listing for relative's medals and ordered the report, now a matter of waiting for latter. Will keep you posted.

Thanks again,
Diane

 

Hello Hugh,
Just checked my email and have had a very quick read.

Here is the report; interestingly it was No 1 Hold that was hit [edit: and not No. 2]. Others were letting in water though and when last seen the ship was not drifting, was listing to port and starboard engine was out of water. Think this is pretty conclusive, unless a miracle occurred.

Interesting observation about the German looking interpreter!

edit: replaced images with transcription

dbf

CONFIDENTIAL
TD/139/1571
25th November, 1942.
SHIPPING CASUALTIES SECTION - TRADE DIVISION
REPORT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MASTER, CAPTAIN G. L. EVANS:
s.s. “PACIFIC STAR” - 7,951 g.t.
CONVOY: S.L. 125
Damaged by torpedo from U-Boat on 27th October, 1942, but not seen to sink.
All times Convoy time
+ 2 for G.M.T.
CAPTAIN EVANS:

We were bound from Freetown to Liverpool with 5,000 tons of Refrigerated cargo. The ship was armed with a 4” gun, 2 Oerlikons, 2 Twin Hotchkiss, 1 Hotchkiss, 1 Strip Lewis, 4 P.A.C. rockets and kites. The crew, including 6 naval and 4 army gunners, numbered 97; there were no casualties. All confidential books, including wireless, were thrown overboard in weighted bags. We had no confidential mails but 100 bags of ordinary mail from the Argentine. These bags were stowed under the fo’castle head, which was blown open by the torpedo, so it was possible for the bags to be floating about in the water after the ship sank. The ship was degaussed and the apparatus was switched on.

2. We left Freetown at 1100 on the 16th October, sailing in convoy S.L.125, our position being No. 81, my ship being the D.F. Guard for the convoy. We proceeded without incident until 1730 on the 27th October when the Commodore signalled “W.F” which meant there was an enemy submarine in the vicinity. An evasive turn was carried out, the convoy returning to the mean course which was Northerly, at 1930. Weather was fine with good visibility but dark, slight on and swell, wind N.E. force 2/3, and we were steaming at 7 knots. We had only just returned to the mean course when at 1935 Convoy Time on the 27th October, in position 29o 16’ N., 20o 57’ W., we were struck by a torpedo on the starboard side in No. 1 hold. The explosion was not very loud, but there was a bright yellow flash, a column of water was thrown up and a strong smell of cordite. Nothing was seen of the track of the torpedo, nor of the submarine.

3. The explosion had very little effect on the ship and we were able to carry on as if nothing had happened. I signalled to the Commodore that we had been torpedoed, and the s.s. “STENTOR”, No. 91, made a signal a few seconds later stating that she also had been torpedoed. We both burned a red light and fired “snowflakes”, but before I could get the rockets from the ammunition locker the ship astern of us fired two rockets for us.

4. I threw the confidential books overboard in the weighted boxes, closed all watertight doors and sounded round. No. 1 hold had been fully loaded with meat, most of the cargo had been blown out, hatch covers and beams were blown away, and the hold was a shambles, open to the sea on both sides. It was difficult to estimate the size of the hole on the starboard side, but the torpedo appeared to have struck level with the second dock down, almost on the water line, and although this hold was 45 feet in width and fully loaded the explosion had torn the plates on both starboard side.

5. I ordered the men to stand by the boats, and carried on. I increased speed as much as possible, but during the night we dropped astern of the convoy. Although the engines were doing revolutions for 10 knots, we could only make five. During the night the weather deteriorated, many of the torn plates on the starboard side being broken off by the seas. We carried on at the rear of No. 8 column, until 0245 on the 28th, when the last ship of the convoy was no longer in sight, so rather than become a straggler I decided to fall out and endeavour to make Gibraltar. Weather continued to deteriorate, the wind reaching gale force with a high sea, so at 0330 I altered course for the Canaries which were only 350 miles away, Gibraltar being 900 miles.

6. Then one of the port lifeboats, the motor launch, was smashed by a following sea. All this time the vessel was slowly going down by the head, as No. 2 hold was flooding through the bulkhead and torn deck plating, until on soundings being taken we found No. 2 hold was completely full and No. 3 hold had 23 feet of water in it. By the evening of the 28th the weather was becoming so bad that I considered it unwise to remain on board. We had five boats left. I ordered the three starboard boats away, as this was the lee side, then turned the ship to make a lee for the port boats. One port boat was launched without much trouble, but whilst we were waiting for the Chief and Second Engineers to come up from below the ship slewed round and by the time the last port boat was lowered it was on the weather side, which made it very difficult to get clear of the ship. We finally abandoned ship by 1800 on the 28th, having shut off the engines but leaving the pumps going as the vessel was going down steadily by the head all the time. I did not attempt to abandon ship in a hurry as it was a very dark night, the weather was bad and I had 97 men to get safely away.

7. We lay to all night in the hope of re-boarding in daylight, but by next morning, 29th , it was too rough to return, seas were breaking right over the ship forward and aft, and the fore deck was awash. We had sent out an S.O.S. message before leaving, but nothing came along, so three of the boats set sail for the land, leaving 2 boats, in charge of the 2nd Officer and myself, to stand by. The two boats remained alongside all the 29th, in the hope of help surviving, as I intended to re-board if a ship came along to stand by us, but nothing came, the weather continued bad, and the men began to get a little restive. However, we stayed in the vicinity all that night until daylight on the 30th, by which time the ship was becoming waterlogged. The starboard propeller was completely out of the water, as she had now taken a list to port, and the ship was so low in the water that she was not drifting, whereas the boats were, so I decided to give up all hope of re-boarding and we set sail for the Canary Islands; we were 150 miles from the Islands when we abandoned ship, but I reckoned we had drifted about 70 miles during the two days standing by the vessel; both boats reached the land next day and we landed at Santa Cruz, Las Palmas on the afternoon of the 31st October. The Chief Officer’s boat had just arrived, but the 3rd and 4th Officers’ boats did not arrive until later, although the had set sail with the Chief Officer early on the 29th.

8. Everyone behaved very well, particularly the Wireless Operator, J.D. Dempster, who stood by me throughout, returned to the Wireless Room just before we finally abandoned ship to send out the S.O.S., and was most useful to me both in the boat and when we landed. He was a great help to me all the time, and was a fine follow.

9. On arrival at Santa Cruz the Spanish Authorities were most inquisitive as to the number of deck-hands we carried and we were all asked for our identity cards. I think it would be a good idea if D.E.M.S. ratings could be issued with civilian Identity Cards, as they were asked for theirs, and were forced to say they had none, to avoid being interned. This made the Authorities suspicious and they wanted to know if they belonged to the Army or Navy, but the men would not enlighten them.

10. The Authorities were definitely not on our side, the majority of the Officials, particularly the Military, are strongly Spanish in feeling certainly not pro-British, whereas the ordinary man in the street is very much on our side. They treated us very well indeed and I learned that the B.B.C. news in Spanish is very well received by the civilian population, who are most interested in all they hear.

11. I was interrogated by both the Captain of the Port and the Military Commissar. The former asked me to complete a questionnaire, containing such questions as: what our naval Escort consisted of; the distance apart of the ships in columns; ports of departure and destination; the position of the ship when torpedoed; nature and amount of cargo; what was my opinion of the Naval aspect of the war, and if I had seen any bomb damage during the war to ports and installations. To this last question I replied “I don‘t know, I have not been to Germany.”

12. The Captain of the port was quite a decent fellow and did not press for answers, but the same questions were asked verbally by the Military Commissar who had a very German-looking interpreter with him all the time. (I have seen this man at the Canaries several times previously). I gave them no information of any use.

 

Having now reviewed original source material with Hugh, it can now conclusively be said that the account given about the Pacific Star 132763, in the People's war site, is erroneous.

I think it would be fair to note that memory could have been clouded on this issue and the name of this ship confused with another, or even that the story was somehow recorded incorrectly.

A warning to those of us who use the internet as a research tool - check everything. It would have been great if this quirky story were true, but am glad that I read the links provided and followed it up.

I have transcribed the report rather than leave the images on the thread, just in case there is anyone else out there googling.

The story as recorded in the Survivor's report is amazing enough and a little window on just how tough it was for these men, many of whom were not as fortunate as the crew of the Pacific Star.

Thanks to Mathsmal and Peter for their input and especially to Hugh who set a true course. And to think I only have another 6 more ships to research for this relative ...

Regards,
Diane

 

Mathsmal and Hugh,

I now have information on all ships and photos for 5 of them. This is brilliant and more than I would have managed on my own.

[My eldest checked out the EMPIRE FAITH with me - his first question - where did the plane land? Clever boy! Daunting solution though.]

Thank you again,

Diane