Were they forgotten?
by Published on 25th November 2024 04:42 PM
Several of the ships I sailed on had previous incarnations in war yet I/We knew nothing until reading about it in books, magazines and the internet.
During the First World War for Ropners, my second ship Wandby in April 1917 had an artillery exchange with a U-boat in the Bay of Biscay and won sinking it. My third ship Thirlby(1) was held for two years by the Russians in the Gulf of Finland. Later that April 1917 also in the Bay of Biscay it was attacked by three torpedoes and 150 shells being hit once. The Thirlby(1) with its 57th shell hit the U-boat’s conning tower causing it to leave. Luck had run-out as on the 2nd July it was torpedoed and sunk off Fastnet. My first ship Romanby(2) sank in September 1917 after a collision in the North Atlantic.
For Ropners at the start of the Second World War in October 1939, my fourth ship Stonepool(1) in the Atlantic was shelled by U-42 being hit twice but the return fire caused U-42 to submerge and fire a torpedo which missed. They re-commenced shelling each other with a lifeboat smashed and a hole in No.1Hold, but the 15th shell hit U-42’s deck gun so they parted company again after four and a half hours. In September 1941 U-207 torpedoed and sunk her. Another Wandby(2) in 1940 was torpedoed and sunk on her maiden voyage. Another Romanby(3) in April 1940, laden with iron ore was sunk alongside during the German invasion of Norway. Another Thirlby(2) in April 1941 North Atlantic was attacked by two torpedoes, one missed and the other failed to explode. By the Isle of Lewis, she was attacked by plane three times involving cannon, machine gun and bombs, taking to the boats then re-boarding limping to the Clyde. She was torpedoed and sunk in January 1942, but Thirlby(3) survived the war. For Reardon Smith Welsh City bombed and sunk by German aircraft at Piraeus, Atlantic City was bombed 1941 Greece, Fresno City April 1943 torpedoed by U-563 and later sunk by U-706 North Atlantic.
On the later iterations I sailed on there were no accounts or photos of past history. If the companies wanted to forget they would not have carried on the names. I do not think our morale would have been affected or upset a German cargo shipper. Was this typical?
