SS Baltistan - lost 27 Feb 1941 off Ireland

Hi

I am researching Percival Eric Rowland who died when the Baltistan was torpedoed off Ireland as part of Convoy OB290 from Liverpool to Cape Town. I have a lot of info on him, have pieced together the story of the convoy and the sinking - but cannot find any accounts of the sinking from newspapers, survivors etc. Can anyone point me to them?

Many thanks

PS There seems to be one medal awarded to the survivors - a BEM to Norman Nicholson

 

Hi SK89,

Do you have the downloadable Excel from CWGC, of those lost on the Baltistan? I've attached here if not.

 

Would it be worth checking for the accounts of the rescue by this RN ship? See: https://watercraft.fandom.com/wiki/HMS_Brighton_(I08)

She picked up nineteen survivors. From: https://sccd.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/med...y-15.pdf?rev=2defa31d0eab46eeb9746101b1eeacc3

The ship was built in 1937 for the Strick Line, of Swansea and London. This web link states built by Messrs. William Gray and Co., Ltd: Hartlepool History Then & Now and https://www.shipvault.com/ships/20338

Scrolling around I could not find a survivors list.

Good luck.

 

The awards for BALTISTAN

British, Cargo Liner. Strick Line. 6803 tons. Speed 13 knots. Built in 1927.
Straffed by enemy aircraft and damaged in the North Atlantic on 29th August 1940.

Torpedoed by the Italian submarine BIANCHI and sunk in the North Atlantic on 27th February 1941.

London Gazette 22 July 1941 - For services when the ship was sunk and for his conduct in taking charge of an open boat.
NICHOLSON, Norman - Third Officer - MBE(Civ)

London Gazette 22 July 1941 - For like services and for helping to work an open boat.
PUGH, Leslie Charlesworth Lister - Boatswain RN (passenger) - Commendation
__________________________________________________________________

There were only 18 survivors from this ship - all in No.4 lifeboat. The survivors were 6 European crew, 4 European passengers and 8 of the lascar crew.
The lifeboat was sighted and the survivors were transferred to HMS BRIGHTON and landed at Plymouth on 4 March 1941. Third Officer Nicholson made a report dated 6th March 1941 about the loss of the ship.

The names of those lost are known but that list is incomplete and doesn't show all those who died aboard the ship.

Regards
Hugh

 

Rowland is commemorated on a local church memorial @ Holy Rood Church or Holy Cross Church, Sparsholt Street, Sparsholt, Vale Of White Horse, Oxfordshire, OX12 9PT. From: https://memorials.iwm.org.uk/memorial/31805 The two places are 40 miles apart, his mother lived at Wantage.

That site uses his full name whereas CWGC use Percy, not Percival. See: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2804599/percy-eric-rowland/

He is not id'd on Ancestry UK (free access search only) as either Percival or Percy.

Perhaps a BNA search for the local papers in Oxfordshire?

 

The names of those lost are known but that list is incomplete and doesn't show all those who died aboard the ship.

Regards
Hugh[/QUOTE]

Thanks for updating my post Hugh, much appreciated.

 

Thanks to all for their responses. I should have said I am working on a project to commemorate all the WWII casualties commemorated on a string of villages (including Sparsholt) in the Vale of the White Horse, now in Oxfordshire but was in Berkshire at the time. I live in one of them. There are about fifty dead, plus a couple that should be commemorated but weren't.

I have done a lot of work on the family history etc of Percival Eric Rowland so have addressed that but am missing information on what happened to the Baltistan once she was torpedoed and also Percy's service in the Merchant Navy in the 1920s and 1930s. There are a couple of files at Kew that I will access on my next trip which may help. interestingly he was in the Royal Engineers in WWI and was wounded. His mother re-married when he was young and he was brought up by his grandparents and subsequently an aunt was his next of kin.

Hugh, I found Norman Nicholson's BEM in a download from Kew so will look for Pugh's write-up. I've found Rowland's MN card but I'm not very experience in RN and MN research so would welcome any suggestions of other routes/sources etc.

Again
Thanks

 

A fair amount coming up on Ancestry about John Hobson Hedley, the Master of the SS Baltistan including a couple of photos of him.

 

Percival Eric Rowland has 3 cards held within the Fourth Register of Seamen - I presume you have them all? He first went to sea in 1920.
I can send you the two page survivor's report made by Third Officer Nicholson - send me your email via private message and I will pass it on to you.

If there is anything specific about any of the crew or anything you need advice on let me know, I will help if I can...I am not sure what you have and what you don't have.

Hugh

 

Thanks Hugh. Will do. What I have for him is his MN Card Registration Card (which has a photo of him on it) and that is about it.

Tony

 

OK Tony, thanks for that, the other cards those without photo more or less show his service from 1920 until 1938 ish. I will send the lot over later on if that is ok - I am pushed on the clock at the moment.
Hugh