The Silent Enemy (1958)

Armed merchant cruiser HMS Dunvegan Castle torpedoed “on this day” 27 August 1940

“On this day in history” 27 August 1940, Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser HMS Dunvegan Castle (Capt. H. Ardill) struck by 3 torpedoes from submarine U-46 (Oblt. E. Endrass) while escorting Convoy SL-43 (convoy commodore RAdm. J. C. Hamilton).

The first torpedo struck Dunvegan Castle at 21.47 aft of the bridge, but the ship remained underway. The second torpedo struck the engine room at 22.12 and the third torpedo stuck forward of the bridge at 22.51.

Dunvegan Castle foundered and caught fire, with 27 men (3 officers, 24 ratings) killed. Convoy escorts HMS Harvester (LtCdr. M. Thornton) and HMS Primrose (LtCdr. C. Sanders) took off 240 survivors.

HMS Primrose (K91) rescued survivors from Dunvegan Castle.

Dunvegan Castle sank in position 54°54N/11°W, 75-miles NW of Ireland.

Salvage award of two pounds and five shillings for SS Empire Haven, 1943

On 13 October 1943, German aircraft torpedoed SS Empire Haven (6,603 GRT) in position 36°15′N 02°23′W, north of Oran, Algeria. The merchantman was under contract to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and travelling as part of Convoy MKS 21. One of the convoy escorts, the minesweeper HMS Rye, took Empire Haven under tow and brought her into Gibraltar.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, signalled:

I congratulate you, the escort force and convoy MKS 21 on your sturdy defence of convoy against heavy harassing attack. The enemy got a sore head he is likely to remember.

Empire Haven lay there until 1946, awaiting repairs. She was sold to R. Chapman & Son and renamed Clearton.

SS Empire Haven
Builder: Taikoo Dockyard & Engineering Company of Hong Kong Ltd.
Tonnage: 6,603 GRT.
Launched: 28 April 1941.

So much for wartime events.

Enter my grandfather, SBA aboard HMS Rye, and wondering in a period of postwar austerity whether he was entitled to a share of salvage money for “assistance rendered to” Empire Haven.

I do not have copies of the letters that my grandfather sent to the Admiralty in 1946 and 1947, but I do have the replies sent my the Director of Navy Accounts.

In the first reply, dated 24 December 1946, the Admiralty acknowledges Rye‘s salvage of Empire Haven and states that a “share of the award will be made as early as practicable.”

The reply also rejects a claim for salvage on the Liberty ship SS Francis W. Pettygrove, also damaged during German attacks on Convoy MKS 21.

The second reply, dated 27 March 1947, acknowledged receipt and return of my grandfather’s S.459 form (certificate of service record in the Royal Navy), stating “a remittance  on this account will be sent you shortly.”

Here is a snapshot from my grandfather’s updated S.459 showing the payment of £2 5/- (two pounds and five shillings) as his share of salvage for SS Empire Haven.

Not exactly a princely sum. My grandfather spent his salvage money on a halfway decent hat.

He still had that hat thirty years later in 1977 when he took me on the train from Waterloo down to Portsmouth to see the Queen’s Silver Jubliee Fleet Review. Memorable day for eight year old me: Southern Region breakfast in the dining car, a tour of HMS Victory, carvery lunch at the Keppels Head, miles and miles of grey funnels at the fleet review, heaps of ice cream, and home in time for tea.

I miss you, you silly old bugger.

 

 

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Wakeful lost at Dunkirk on 29 May 1940

Admiralty W-class destroyer HMS Wakeful (Cdr R. Fisher, RN) was torpedoed and sunk off Dunkirk on 29 May 1940. Wakeful was carrying 640 soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk. Only one soldier and 25 of the ship’s company survived the sinking. Survivors from Wakeful were rescued by the destroyer HMS Grafton (herself sunk later that day), minesweepers HMS Gossamer and HMS Lydd, and the Admiralty drifter HMT Comfort (also sunk that day).

HMS Wakeful (naval-history.net)

Video: Launch of Royal Navy submarine HMS Conqueror, 1969

Photos inside new Royal Navy submarine HMS Artful nearing completion

Some great images from inside HMS Artful by photographer Phil Noble.

A bank of computer screens are seen in the control room onboard HMS Artful one of the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines as it approaches completion at the company’s Barrow shipyard. Corbis, 2014.

Crew living quarters are seen onboard HMS Artful, one of the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines as it approaches completion at the company’s Barrow shipyard. Corbis 2014.

Crew bunks are seen onboard HMS Artful, one of the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines as it approaches completion at the company’s Barrow shipyard. Corbis 2014.

Crew toilets are seen onboard HMS Artful, one of the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines as it approaches completion at the company’s Barrow shipyard. Corbis 2014.

A torpedo tube is seen onboard HMS Artful, one of the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines as it approaches completion at the company’s Barrow shipyard. Corbis 2014.

A dummy Tomahawk missile is seen onboard HMS Artful, one of the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines as it approaches completion at the company’s Barrow shipyard. Corbis 2014.

Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable sunk by German U-boat on 1 January 1915

HMS Formidable named and launched at Portsmouth 1898. The battleship served in the Royal Navy until 1915 when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U.24 in the English Channel. Print in collection of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Casualty and survivor lists courtesy of the incomparable naval-history.net.

British Pathe newsreel ‘The Scharnhorst Story’ (1944)

The Scharnhorst was sunk during the Battle of the North Cape on-this-day-in-history 26th December 1943.

Nice newsreel compilation ‘The Scharnhorst Story‘ from British Pathe.

Forget the MQ-8 Fire Scout! Here’s the QH-50 DASH, a true Cold War drone!

An unmanned helicopter of the type Drone-Anti-Submarine-Helicopter (DASH) during the NATO exercise Matchmaker III in the North Sea in March 1967. Photographer: Egon Steiner. Copyright: Egon Steiner/dpa/Corbis.

Bellow (2002) – full movie, horror flick set on US Navy submarine during WW2

Here’s something you don’t see every day… a horror flick set in 1943.

The museum ship USS Silversides (SS-236) was used for external shots of the fictitious USS Tiger Fish and Lake Michigan doubled as the Atlantic Ocean. I suppose you have to make do with what you have available. The interiors are *ridiculously* spacious with oodles of headroom and plenty of room to swing a dozen cats. Hurray for Hollywood!