Lone Survivor

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Originally Posted by Craig Sanders

Harry Morgan Sanders was born on July 10, 1923 in South Sheilds and joined the British Merchant Navy at age 17. He served on several convoys during the War as a Radio Officer. Apparently in 1942, his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and sunk to the bottom of the mid Atlantic ocean. Harry, with a dislocated shoulder, swam to a Life Raft with several of his Mates, drifting a sea for weeks. Sadly, Harry watched all his Mates die, mostly at night, many voluntarily jumping into the dark seas, with no hope of survival. But Harry did (lone survivor), his raft washed up on the shores of Sierra Leone of South Africa. He was found unconscious, near dead by a fisherman and transported to a local Hospital to recover from his injuries and 3rd degree burns to his face and hands. Surely this event is documented and can be vetted. Did anyone know or serve with Harry? I look forward to hearing from your Membership. Craig Harry Sanders

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The account is retold here. The ship was the S.S. Domine https://heathershistoricals.weebly.c...gion-of-honour

Harry's history is here https://www.crestwood.on.ca/ohp/sanders-harry/ I can't at mo open the chapter on the SS Domine and am not pausing to spend more time on the computer to find out why right now. (Reading my emails was a short pause from a TD list.)

Harry died Dec 2018 in Canada. His Candian life is here https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life...ces-legion-of/

Various other stuff comes to light if you use the search term "Harry Sanders" radio officer 1942 including why the Legion of Honour.

However... searching on the ship's name has (rapid search) drawn a blank, not the usual result in the usual databases. Other than a (UK) National Archives document from the War Cabinet, a WEEKLY RESUME in September 1940... http://filestore.nationalarchives.go.../cab-66-12.pdf

Document starts at page 83, scroll to page 86 (document page 4) for the entry, scroll back a page to the start of the paragraph and you will see that the H.M.S. Cumberland was "in the vicinity of Dakar on the 16th" and intercepted "the Spanish S.S. Domine (6,914 tons) S.W. of Dakar and placed an armed guard on board to take her to Freetown."

So either more research is needed to verify the name of the 1942 ship (spelling, flag), as that may be the error, or perhaps like the original destination of this document the small print shoud be kept under lock and key with limited access.

On his cert of discharge https://www.crestwood.on.ca/wp-conte...2/IMG_6948.jpg the Domine is not listed after the Barrgrove although I can't read the ship's name. However looking at the dates, he is discharged from the Barrgrove in July 1942 (Newport) and then works on the [Nurtureten?] from Sept 1942 (Cardiff) to June 1943 (Durban) So could he be on a ship that is not on this cert. between July 1942 and Sept 1942 that has a name like Domine and was torpedoed? Or on the Domine (correct part of the world) in that period but it's not listed on his cert? And this Spanish ship is torpedoed (but was not in a convoy)? (But then that should still appear on certain databases?)

As ships carried 3 R/Os, the other 2 must have died.

I have a list of all R/Os killed during the War and none was on a ship called Domine.

Well post #11 sure does tell a lot and i am sure that Craig will be pleased with it.
I am hoping that there may be more on this in time .
Amazing what can come to light if researched in the correct manner
Cheers

Yes, I am the son of Harry Morgan Sanders. As a kid growing up, my father never talked about the war or any of his experiences. It’s unusual that over 70 years later, he would write a memoir about his years with the Merchant Navy, and telling this incredible story of survival. I need to know if it really happened. I’m thinking he was losing his facilities, and made the entire story up. It’s concerning that he could not recall the name of the Vessel?? As Doc suggested, this historic event must b documented by the BMN. Keep looking gents, much appreciated. Craig

Craig
Not to put a damper on any of this i am sure that your dear Father would not make up such a Story and to me reading all this although a very harrowing account,i am sure it did happen.
We can only carry on the search in the hope that the incident would have been recorded in some way by the Persons at the time.
But as he was a lone Survivor who or how would this be ??
As said just possibly there may be something somewhere.

I am as i have told you in the process of my own research on this still,and may come up with something,its taking time but i should get some reply again within possibly a Week.

So the name of he game now is Patience ~ LOL
Cheers

Yes, I am the son of Harry. As you suggest, Harry did not end up in POW Camp. But for some reason, he could not recall the name of the MN Ship that was torpedoed and sank. I am in the process of getting his Discharge Records which should provide all the Ships he served on. I will post when available. Thx. Craig

thanks Gerry for your findings. Yes, this story was told to the local press here in Canada last year. He was 94 at the time, 74 years after the fact. It begs the question, why would he wait over 76 years to tell his story? He never once spoke about it to my Mother or our family. And HOW could he remember all those 'details'. Like he said, he didn't keep a Diary. I am convinced he made this whole story up, it's rubbish. He was an old lonely demented sole, with no friends or family. He ran off with his Mistress (29 years his junior) at age 74, estranging himself from his family. So he constantly craved attention by making stories up about his War days. Surely if the S.S. Domine was sunk by the Germans as Harry told the 'story', and was the LONE SURVIVOR, this would be well documented and vetted by the British Merchant Navy. I'm hoping one of your Members can confirm this historical event really happened or didn't at all. I thank you for your research and efforts and look forward to your next reply/ comments. Craig Sanders

Brian Clarke died in 2011 and I knew him as an acquaintance for some 30 years. I had heard that he had a lucky escape from a merchant ship during WWII but knew none of the details. Only a week before his death I attended a meeting at which Brian presented a talk on a book that had been written with his assistance about his narrow escape. By then Brian was very frail and struggled with the effort of giving the presentation but his comments and descriptions of the events were none the less vivid despite his age, about 90. The book tells the story of the sinking of and Brian's (namesake) escape from the SS Sithonia which was torpedoed by U 201 on the 13th July 1942 200 miles west of the Canary Islands. The lifeboat in which he escaped was washed up in Senegal.

Harry Morgan Sanders was not on the SS Sithonia, or on the crew of any documented sinking on uBoat.net which is comprehensive source of information. There is however a record of a Harry Saunders who was on the Erato sunk 27 July1941 by U-126. This Harry Saunders died in the attack so presumably was not your relative. Did Harry Morgan Sanders perhaps sign up with a different name because of his age?

Sorry I can't help any further but Brian's story is a fascinating one and although the book is a work of fiction with names changed Brian 's spoken account varied very little from that in the book which I believe is a narrative of much of what happened. The book, which won the "Peoples Book Prize 2011" and is still in print and available for on Kindle, is called "Making Shore" by Sara Allerton and is a worthwhile read.

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Originally Posted by Craig Sanders

thanks Gerry for your findings. Yes, this story was told to the local press here in Canada last year. He was 94 at the time, 74 years after the fact. It begs the question, why would he wait over 76 years to tell his story? He never once spoke about it to my Mother or our family. And HOW could he remember all those 'details'. Like he said, he didn't keep a Diary. I am convinced he made this whole story up, it's rubbish.

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You may be being too hard on him, my father never talked about the war, he was serving in the MN, then volunteered for the army in 1939, he was a survivor of Dunkirk, rejoining the MN in 1941 at the request of the authorities as the MN had lost so many experienced personnel until leaving in 1960's. Lots of seamen (and servicemen) never ever talked about the horrific things they saw, men burning in blazing oil, getting shelled and being covered in bodyparts of comrades, would you want to re-live that, they didn't. I had to traverse a bombed graveyard at El-Gamil airfield in Suez 1956, the sight and smell will never leave me.

As for remembering things from 70 years ago, you can remember them as clear as daylight even I you cannot remember what happened last week. For those who served on a number of different ships on short trips, you got moved from one to the other, it is easy to forget a name or transpose one vessel for another in a recounting of events. We didn't have the advantage of computers/I-pads/ etc etc to record and back-up and moving around your notes (if you kept any) were not your priority, so a bit of latitude should be allowed to the tale teller

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Originally Posted by Doc Vernon

Hello Craig
One would think that such an event would be well documented. There must be somewhere that it is! This is a good challenge and hopefully all will look into it.
Just one thing (and nothing meant) Sierra Leone is off the West Coast of Africa Freetwon,and not South Africa. Just mentioning this as it could help the search
Cheers and thanks for the Thread. Do you know the name of the Ship Craig ???

I will be doing some research on this in the coming days ,possibly there may be something out there. Will of course Post of any progress made if any!

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After further research, my father Harry Sanders claims he was the ONLY survivor on the SS Domine that was apparently torpedoed and sunk by the Germans in June, 1942. True or false??? Thx, Craig