Elders & Fyffes during war time

[Russ Lowdon]

hi all
Anyone remember my uncle, Ernie Ryles he was a chief steward/purser with Fyffes during ww11 the family tale goes that he was torpedoed twice but i can only find one ship I think he was on and that was the SS Tetela and she was hit by an E Boat but survived

[Doc Vernon]

Just trivia info here!

S.S Tetela, a small refrigerated cargo ship; which, before the war, used to carry bananas. She had accommodation for twelve passengers; and, because of this, she was occasionally selected to be Commodore ship of the convoy. Each convoy had a Commodore, the highest rank in the Royal Navy Reserve, and each Commodore had a small staff. A convoy would consist of forty to eighty merchant ships - even more sometimes.

The Captain of the Tetela was Billy Liston, a portly man approaching retirement. There were three Navigating Officers, three Radio Officers and five Engineer Officers. Then there were the stewards and cooks, the deckhands, and - in the engine room - the donkeymen and greasers. In all, there were some forty to fifty crew members, including a refrigerated engineer, the bo'sun and the carpenter. Geoffrey shared a cabin with another apprentice, the son of a captain in the same company.

[Doc Vernon]

SS Tetela United Kingdom World War II: The cargo ship was torpedoed and damaged in the North Sea (54°04′N 1°35′E) by S-52 ( Kriegsmarine). She was taken in tow and beached on the Haile Sand Flat. Refloated the next day and taken to Hull, Yorkshire.[2][

[Captain Kong]

I sailed on the TETELA, and took her to the ship breakers in Ghent, Belgium, on 4 August 1959. she was built in 1926

One of the ones sunk was MATINA


Name Matina
Type: Steam merchant
Tonnage 5,389 tons
Completed 1929 - Cammell Laird & Co Ltd, Birkenhead
Owner Elders & Fyffes Ltd, London
Homeport Liverpool
Date of attack 29 Oct 1940 Nationality: British

Fate Sunk by U-31 (Wilfried Prellberg)
Position 57° 30'N, 16° 31'W - Grid AL 3880
Complement 71 (71 dead - no survivors)
Convoy
Route Port Antonio, Jamaica - Garston
Cargo 1500 tons of bananas
History Completed in March 1929

Notes on event
At 04.32 hours on 26 Oct 1940 the unescorted Matina (Master David Alexander Jack) was hit in the stern by one torpedo from U-28 (Kuhnke) about 100 miles west of Rockall, after the ship had been missed by a first torpedo at 21.50 hours the day before. The U-boat then surfaced and fired 28 rounds with her deck gun, achieved 15 hits and left the vessel in a sinking condition.

At 22.00 hours on 29 October, U-31 reported the sinking of a drifting wreck by a coup de grâce, this must have been the Matina. The first U-boat had observed that some survivors abandoned ship in lifeboats, but they were never seen again. The master, 67 crew members, two gunners and one passenger were lost.

[Ian Malcolm]

The Company lost fifteen ships.

[Chris Allman]

My Grandad Albert Gordon Goodwin was Chief Engineer of the TETELA. He was with Elders and Fyffes throughout WW2 and was torpedoed but I do not know on which ship. As a result of that he was washed out of the ER through the torpedo hole and severely injured his left leg. As a child I remember him being constantly in hospital with severe ulcers on his leg. I was told it was as a result of getting fuel oil in his injured leg during the sinking. He died in 1960. I remember he was invited to a dinner on the new Chicanoa in 1958 at Garston and came back with a Menu with loads of signatures on it, I have it somewhere.

[Hugh]

Russ,
Was your uncle Ernest Sinclair Ryles b. 1906, South Shields?

If so he has 4 cards in the Fourth Register of Seamen. I can send them on if you wish to pass me your email address via a private message.
One of his CR1 cards shows a photo FROM 1952. His first ship in 1923 was DAYTON later sold to Greece as EKATONTARCHOS DRACOULIS torpedoed and sunk in 1940.
He also served in BARRANCA [can't read the date]. Also shown is the ship which looks like SALSBURY in October 1945 but is shown as not registered so this ship may have had a name change. Best obtain his CRS 10 from Kew if you want his full service record. It should be held at The National Archives Kew in piece BT 382/1574 Best obtained by visit to Kew or via a researcher though as difficult and expensive to obtain online.

Regards
Hugh

[Hugh]

My Grandad Albert Gordon Goodwin .

Hello Chris,
Your grandfather has records in the Fourth Register of Seamen. If you don't already have them and you wish to pass me your email address by private message I will send them on.
He appears to have had a lucky escape as I have him with a card stamped MATINA, June 1940, Garston - he must have just signed off MATINA. He is shown as being on T124X Agreement from 18.11.1940.
The cards range from 1920 - 1940 including photo.

Regards
Hugh

[Chris Allman]

Hugh, thank you very much indeed - I do not have any records for him as unfortunately his discharge books were disposed of by my family when he died. I have PM'd you with my E mail address, once again many thanks.

I found this about Matina - gosh he was lucky signing off in June 1940 looks like she was lost on her next trip - " Matina SS was a British Merchant Steamer of 5389 tons built in 1929 and owned by ELDERS & FYFFES LTD. On the 26th October 1940 when on route from PORT ANTONIO 12 OCT 40 for GARSTON carrying a cargo of 1500 tons of bananas she was torpedoed by German submarine U-28 and sunk. Total crew of 69 lost."


In WW1 he was a Lt Com Engineering in the RN and was in a number of different ships - I believe that he may have been on the King Orrey at one time but there I am at a loss.

Chris.

PS Missed the post by Capt Kong with the story of the Matina, just seen it now, can only put it down to senile decay DOH !!

[gray_marian]

#6,Chris, this was all I could locate in FMP:

Record set British Royal Naval Reserve 1899-1930
Piece number 38
Series ADM240
First name(s) Albert Gordon
Last name Goodwin
Year 1916
Birth year -
Rank Engineer Lieutenant (Temporary)
Seniority year 1916
Seniority date 25 October 1916
Archive The National Archives
Description Admiralty: Royal Naval Reserve: Officers' Service Records
Covering date 1862-1960
Document number 211

chris.jpg

The details on a family tree on Ancestry I have sent by pm.