Lone Survivor

[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

[j.sabourn]

Eric I was sailing as 1st. mate at 26 nearly 27. The 2 and 3 mates were to me much older and both at sea during the war. They went out of their way to put every obstruction in my way, but they picked On the wrong person as saw them both out of a job. Both swaggered around sporting medal ribbons , the usual that most wore in those days. I won’t go into too much detail , but just give an example of extreme enlargement of the truth. The 2 Mate was always boasting about how he navigated the R.N. To Australia during the war, he was part of that group T something or other.plus all his great feats during the war years. I did some checking up and found he was stationed ashore in Sydney Australia in the naval depot for stores during nearly all the war years. The 3 Mate was just as bad but he is a different story all together, he was from South Shields also , and used to write a column in the Shields paper. Another load of rubbish. There must have been others like these two reprobates using others as their outer covering. The thousands of genuine heroes had the usual hangers on. Regards JWS.

PS In 1964 the 2 Mate was 65 and the 3 Mate was 66 . You would of thought at that age they would have known better. The 2 Mate had a 1 mates certificate and the 3 Mate had nothing, just the gift of the gab. JS.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Was it T24X
Des

[j.sabourn]

That’s it Des. I was on the Pennyworth at the time one of Dalglieshs ore carriers. These two characters wouldn’t dirty their hands. Both would have made good dummies in Madam Tussauds. Cheers JS