WWII Ships That Were Requisitioned - Urgent Enquiry

[Ann Good]

Hello,
Can someone explain to me what responsibilities the Captain had, in relation to the Ministry of War Transport, when a ship was requisitioned for war rather than commissioned. I understand in the latter case, the Captain signed a T124x and relinquished authority to a commanding officer, and the MWT took responsibility while the Captain served as navigation officer. But did the same happen in the case of a requisition?
We are trying to validate information before we complete our documentary on the sinking of the HMT Rohna. Any insights would be welcome. Thanks!
Ann Good
ann.good.international@gmail.com

[j.sabourn]

The responsibility of any master of a ship is to the safety and welfare of those on board.
Captain is or was a military title before giving purely for the benefit of landlubbers shipmasters and sports teams. In the mn was purely a complimentary title but today is taken otherwise as near enough legal I believe. A crew of a merchant ship signs the Articles of Agreement with the master who is the owners proxy. For a merchant ship to come under total authority of a commissioned RN officer I would imagine everyone on board would have to be T124X. A Naval Party I sailed with outside war conditions the naval party were recognised as the charterers and their requirements were paramount as to any agreement signed to that effect. But the ultimate decision remained with the master when it came to safety of life. Wartime conditions would be different I would imagine. JS
Even in Nelson’s time HM ships of the line carried a sailing crew , who worked the ship, led by the sailing master. Leaving the fancy killing to those who spent their time practising with the cutlass. Cheers JS Forget what the term was but think those who signed such agreements was for “ Hostility’s only “ . At wars end it was null and void. JS

[John Arton]

Hello,
Can someone explain to me what responsibilities the Captain had, in relation to the Ministry of War Transport, when a ship was requisitioned for war rather than commissioned. I understand in the latter case, the Captain signed a T124x and relinquished authority to a commanding officer, and the MWT took responsibility while the Captain served as navigation officer. But did the same happen in the case of a requisition?
We are trying to validate information before we complete our documentary on the sinking of the HMT Rohna. Any insights would be welcome. Thanks!
Ann Good
ann.good.international@gmail.com

Ann, during ww2 my father served on deep sea rescue tugs, they were all HMRT salvonia etc so HMT Rohan should actually be named HMRT Rohan.
Prior to the outbreak of war he was sailing as 1st officer in the Blue Star line, a large British merchant shipping line.
He left them and joined the royal naval reserve and was given the rank of 1st lieutenant and assigned to the deep sea rescue tugs service.
Those tugs were all assigned/stationed at naval bases around the United Kingdom. He started at a port called campbeltown in Scotland, named HMS Minanoa.
All those crewing the tugs would sign the T124x articles of agreement which was basically their contract of employment covering such as pay,leave, victualling (food and drink onboard). Although the tugs were under the command of the naval officer in charge of the shore base, his duties as captain were actually the same as any merchant ship captain, the only difference being that the vessel he was commanding was not carrying cargo but was involved in the rescue and salvage of those merchant vessels that had suffered damage from attacks by the Germans and their allies.
During the war his tug was not only stationed in ports around the U.K but also in the Mediterranean and also east Africa.
Rgds
J.A
P.s
HMRT is His Majesty Rescue Tug, so they were naval tugs manned by merchant navy seamen as opposed to naval ships, (destroyers, frigates, battleships etc)
That were manned by enlisted naval personnel.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hello,
Can someone explain to me what responsibilities the Captain had, in relation to the Ministry of War Transport, when a ship was requisitioned for war rather than commissioned. I understand in the latter case, the Captain signed a T124x and relinquished authority to a commanding officer, and the MWT took responsibility while the Captain served as navigation officer. But did the same happen in the case of a requisition?
We are trying to validate information before we complete our documentary on the sinking of the HMT Rohna. Any insights would be welcome. Thanks!
Ann Good
ann.good.international@gmail.com

From information gleaned over many years from years at sea and in the marine industry and personal accounts of people I sailed with who had experienced and endured the convoy requisitioning system during WWII and we had pretty much the same system in Operation Muskateer Suez (1956) . When vessels are marshalled for a convoy at a nominated port (e.g. Freetown/Halifax/ New York etc etc ) one vessel is nominated as the Commodore vessel (convoy leader) and a 'Commodore Master'(CM) is appointed by a shore based committee at the nominated port (normally RN Staff Officers)this was normally a retired Ex RN Captain or a Senior retired MN Master. This CM never had control of an individual vessel but was in overall charge of convoy and its routing and manouvers (zig zags etc) he was the catalyst for receiving instructions from the shore bases in respect of routeing adjustments or scatter or disperse instructions as advised because of changing conditions (weather, U-Boat activity etc) on passage.

Each MN vessel was under the command of its MN Master who has to follow CM instructions unless he deemed it unsafe for his vessel to do so, he could not leave the convoy on a whim, even if his vessel had a greater speed than that dictated by the convoy speed. Many fell out of the convoy because of mechanical failure or collision with an adjacent vessel. Unless you are a merchant mariner you will not realise how difficult it is for a slow moving merchant vessels to keep stations, especially in adverse weather conditions or fog etc, there was no luxury of 'Full Ahead Both' as on RN vessels. Most MN vessels of the era were steam driven with large slow revving propellors and manouvers had to be calculated rather than spur of the moment, most of these vessels were on their last legs even before the start of hostilites. The Masters and watch keeping officers on these MN vessels did an incredible job in keeping stations considering the tools they were given to work with

But whatever happened regardless of who the CM was, each MN Master was master of his own and his vessel's destiny.

[j.sabourn]

Just as an additive to this inquiry which was discussed in previous posts. A commissioned officer in the correct branch of the RN on his retirement from service can apply for a foreign going masters cert. this used to be during my time at sea , so assume it was also available during his service also. However if he did the issue was a masters FG cert. of service and not Competency, which if he wanted had to sit the BOT version and if failed lost also the cert.of Service. I know this from the lips of those who have done so. The only stipulation at the time that the cert.of service differed to its usage was , it did not entitle him to sail as master of a Home Trade Passenger ship. Don’t ask me the reason why , the law in some respects is not always clear to its intent to the layman. I would imagine if they did sit for the BOT version it would be in much abbreviated form as the first two certs. Of competency all lead and work up to the final one and these would not be in evidence. Also the subjects are not in the curriculum of naval officers. The same or similar applies to Engineer officers in the RN. They also can apply for the appropriate cert. of service as a chief Engineer. JS

[WG Smith]

HMT = HM TRANSPORT not tug. A passenger & cargo iner sunk in the Med in 1943 with significant loss of life.

[John Arton]

HMT = HM TRANSPORT not tug. A passenger & cargo iner sunk in the Med in 1943 with significant loss of life.

Apologies, for some reason I assumed the poster had inadvertently put HMT rather than HMRT, should have checked the vessels name prior to replying.
Rgds
J.A

[Ann Good]

Thank you - this is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I am sharing it with the documentary producer. It is way too late to know exactly what happened with the HMT Rohna, but you have explained the context well and it helps us put it into perspective.
All the best,
Ann

[Brenda Shackleton]

Hello Ann
Maybe this is relevant..... A Captain/ Master and all the Officers; Radio Officers; Engineers on a Merchant Ship had to have their Certificate of Competency. None of these positions in the Merchant Navy were due to promotion but on hard-earned exams and merit. On a Crew List their names are marked with the number of their Certificate. A Captain could be in charge of something on a Lake but MASTER means that they are qualified to,

",.... Fulfil duties in a Foreign - going ship in the Merchant Service, the Minister of War Transport in pursuance of the Merchant Shipping Acts, the Minister of Shipping
(Transfer of Functions) Order, 1939 and the Ministers of the Crown (Minister of War Transport) Order 1941, hereby grants you this Certificate of Competency."
Brenda
Taken from my Dad's Master's Cert. June 1942

[j.sabourn]

Further to that Brenda it was very rare to sail with certificated engineers apart from the Chief not too long after the war , think I only sailed with one second with a seconds certificate 1953 to 1957 . They had what is called a dispensation from a BOT examiner which was literally to replace the certificate for that particular ship and that particular voyage and had to get every voyage . During the war years the shortage of ships engineers was acute maybe to loss of men or otherwise don’t know , but then they were called permits.My first 20 years in trampships this was literally also to sail mostly with dispensation seconds, no shame to it they probably thought they had better things to do, all were time served mostly out of shipbuilding and engine works , a piece of paper is just that a piece of paper. When there is man shortage you will always find big business and government will work round it. By the same token there were/ are quite a few uncertificated masters on coasters not so long back. JS.