Merchant Naval Memories

I was only a child born in 1940 however I have vivid memories of the war. Memories of standing on Sunderland station to meet Grandad coming home on leave. Packages all sewn into canvas, the 3 wheeled trike that he brought home from New Zealand in 1945 when I was the only kid in the street with a trike, the stories that he told (some true!). He was Master in the New Zealand Shipping Co Ltd which also owned all the Federal Steam ships as well. He was Master on the "Rangitiki" when the convoy came under attack and they ran for their lives. She had two blast injection diesels and they had been running at reduced speed for the crossing of the North Atlantic in a fast convoy. As she turned and ran for her life they were 'straddled' however they kept going and one engine had a scavenge fire. This meant reduced revs however it happened at the same time as the near miss so the attackers thought that she had been hit and switched targets! The scavenge fire went out after an hour and they ran like hell for home at 16 knots plus. Her sister the Rangitane was sunk by a German raider in the South Pacific. His son was an Electrician on board and survived and was put on to a deserted island along with many others and was rescued after a short period. The beautiful 'Rangi" sank.........

He was Master on 'Dorset' in March/April 1942 when they brought the AIF home to Australia from Egypt. I have a shell casing with an engraving on it from the Officers, NCO's and men thanking him for their safe return. 'Dorset' then loaded for home and on the way through the Caribbean running independent she surprised a U boat on the surface and chased the thing throwing depth charges every where. It is not clear who got the biggest fright, the U boat or the engineers on watch at the time! He left to go on leave and she was sunk trying to get through to Malta weeks later with heavy loss of life including the Master. 'Dorset' had a sister ship the 'Durham' which was a cadet training ship. When war broke out all the apprentices were moved throughout the fleet and she was then manned by normal crew. She too fought her way to Malta and got through and discharged her precious cargo. On the return voyage she hit a mine off Cape Bon and was reduced to 11 knots. While anchored at Gibraltar she was hit by two limpet mines and sunk in shallow water. She spent some weeks on the bottom with the water up to the tops of the engines. They refloated her and towed her home to UK and after 4 months she was back in commission and survived to be scrapped in 1965. I had the honour of serving on her during my whole apprenticeship from 1957 to 1960.

She suffered two broken crankshafts in 1958 and we were repaired in Galveston Texas over a 6 month period. The web site www.rakaia.co.uk covers the story in detail. Lessons are never learned and history repeats itself with monotonous regularity. Where is the Merchant Navy today? May be the world has moved on from those kinds of wars, maybe another like it will be all over in a flash. Thankfully I am too old now to worry and thankfully people like you are taking the time to remember those who did what they did when needed. I have to wonder if they would today. I like to think so. Regards Mike Smith. (Capt Retired).

This is a large file so I have had to thumb nail it to fit on the page. It is the sailors book belonging to John Maddocks, who served in the Merchant Navy during and after World War 2. This is an email from his nephew Andy.

"Mike, really enjoyed your HMS Kite pages and Captain Walker stuff. Very poignant to me as my granddad Johnny Maddocks was in the navy throughout the second world war, he was on the arctic convoys and the Battle of the Atlantic, he was torpedoed twice once from the air and once from a u boat, I have his service record which inside says "duplicate, as original lost due to enemy action". This was the first torpedo attack off the coast of Ireland, He stayed on in the merchant navy till the 50s then went to work at Cammell Lairds, whilst there he took part in the Polaris trials. Of the crews that he worked with on the subs every man later died of a cancer related illness most of them died of Leukaemia, as did my granddad. I watched a documentary a few years back about the men who did the same trials down in Chatham dockyards and all the crews there died of the same cancers. These where civilian shipyard workers, who where working in radioactive conditions without any protection at all."

Merchant Navy Day.com would like invite all families and relatives, friends and companions, to submit the names of their loved ones to the commemoration page for 3rd September in recognition of their contribution to the years 1939-1945.

www.merchantnavyday.com