Remembered Incidents; Land, Sea Air. ( Sea )

[Serial_Apologist]

Shall I tell my 'wartime sea story' again? Yes, I think I will

Montgomery's 8th Army in North Africa was provisioned and supplied with equipment by flotillas of tank landing craft operating out of Alexandria. One night, 20 November 1942, one of the vessels was caught up in a heavy storm and was in trouble about thirty miles off the coast. The crew sent up flares which were seen (not sure by whom) and a South African merchant navy vessel received instructions to head out to sea and look for a vessel in distress. The captain reported that he had no clear idea where he was supposed to look but they steamed out to sea and after about three hours they spotted the vessel some half a mile away and turned to make for it. As they were heading towards it, the captain reported that he saw the vessel roll over and then sink from sight. They kept on towards where they had seen it disappear and eventually came upon the members of the crew clinging in the water to anything they'd been able to find. All but one of the crew were rescued.

Some weeks later, the rescued flotilla officer wrote home to close friends, thanking them for their Christmas present and congratulating them on their wedding anniversary:

"I've had quite a chequered career in the last few months, but am unable to write much about it. I had five weeks in hospital, including Christmas but am now very fit and well again. (By the way, that is just between ourselves as I haven't said anything about it to my folks)."

When that close friend died a couple of decades ago his daughter found a pack of letters written home to him by my father, a RNVR flotilla offecer, and she thought I would like to have them. Which is why I have the letter in question.

I found the record of his ship, LCT No 120, lost in heavy weather, November 20 1942:



That official announcement leaves quite a story untold. As the press cutting says, "A thrilling tale of the rescue of an imperilled crew..."

Fascinating tale - thanks, ff.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Back in 1982 I think it was, we had taken up our usual anchorage for the Cowes Weeks Regatta, out in Cowes Roads. The Royal Yacht Britannia was moored approximately 500 metres off our Starboard side. One evening, the wind picked up dramatically and with a strong tide as well we began to drag our anchor, a fact that was noticed by the Royal Yacht, who radioed and asked whether we needed any assistance.

Now the anchor on our vessel was extremely heavy, and was hauled up by a manual winch, a very slow and laborious exercise, especially when anchored in deep water, as we were on this occasion. So we replied that any assistance would be appreciated.

Shortly afterward, a launch left Britannia and headed in our direction, bearing several strapping young sailors, who set about raising the anchor. A short while later, having thanked the sailors for their help, we were safely re-positioned for the night in a more sheltered anchorage, before we resumed our usual position the next day.

A day or so later, another launch headed our way from the Royal Yacht. It came alongside, and an Officer came aboard bearing a written message from HM the Queen's personal secretary, which said that Her Majesty and Prince Philip were glad that her crew had been able to assist us, and that our vessel had been "much admired". My mother still has the letter.

I have a little story about Britannia too. Circa 1970 I was sent from my grammar school in Winchester to a Combined Cadet Force (RN) sailing course in Portsmouth harbour. We slept on the mothballed fleet auxiliary Rame Head and messed on the then headquarters ship of the reserve fleet Portsmouth, HMS Belfast, now otherwise engaged on the R Thames in London.

We sailed from pontoons close to HMS Belfast, in sailing whalers and, for those with some experience of small boats (including me), little dinghies which I think were called 'Rinsers' - RNSAs (Royal Naval Sailing Assoc). But before we set foot in any boat we were warned by the small, stringy, dour, Scots regular-RN Chief Petty Officer in charge of our course, CPO Hamilton, that on the quayside opposite was moored the Royal Yacht Britannia. The wonderful rich black gloss paint on her hull cost £x per gallon and we could sink ourselves, drown ourselves, do anything but damage that paint!

I was trusted to helm a 'Rinser' and was of course very mindful of this order. But there came a day when the wind was strong in just the right direction to hold a long tack right up to the paintwork. I just loved watching Britannia's crew (inc duty petty officer) peering ever further over her rail as I disappeared from sight under her tumblehome, before putting in a perfect tack about 6" off her expensive gloss paint

As I heard later, CPO Hamilton didn't have quite the same luck with a more landlubberly crew in a sailing whaler under his command. He got rather closer to the paintwork while under close observation from a PO, who no doubt seeing merely a boatful of scrofulous CCF cadets and failing to mark the presence of a full-RN CPO, let fly with much choice naval invective! Said scrofulous crew enjoyed very much seeing CPO Hamilton draw himself up to his full 5'6" and announce in broad Scots, "Reet, laddie, I'll be round to see ye laterrr!" We never of course heard the outcome of this meeting, but our money was definitely on Chief Hamilton!