A few years ago I was reading the book reviews in a morning newspaper. One book caught my attention , "Making Shore", the first novel by Sara Allerton. This won the 2011 Peoples Book Prize for fiction presented by the best selling author Frederick Forsyth.
This book is based on the recollections of an old family friend , Brian Clarke , the last remaining crew member of SS Sithonia which was hit by two torpedoes and sunk 12.7.1942. Two other ships from the same convoy OS.33 were also sunk , SS Cortona and SS Siris. Her book is not a factual account as she turned it into a love story but some of the events are true. The ships were sunk by U201 commanded by Adalbert Schnee , his name means snow and there was a snowman with iron cross painted on the conning tower. Two lifeboats were launched one with the captain the other with the mate , the U boat surfaced and Schnee asked for the ships name and destination , he gave their present position and said he would send an SOS.
I emailed the book publishers asking for contact details of Sara Allerton as my father was in the same lifeboat as Brian Clarke , I spoke with her and she called Brian to see if he was willing to talk with me. A little while later he phoned and we had a long conversation about the sinking and events which happened in the boat and when the crew were taken prisoner , Brian was in his late 80's , I do not know if he is still alive .
My sister had found papers of my fathers written in pencil and folded many times which made them hard to read , they were a record on scraps of paper he had kept. Brian had told me five men had jumped overboard from the boat but in fact it was only one , Toby a West African fireman. He also said there were knife fights over water rations , this was not true. The Chief Engineer , named Murray , had made a still out of the boats broken down engine parts , it did not produce much fresh water but it did keep them alive. Brian said the boat landed in Mauritania , it actually landed in Timiris Senegal after 18 days at sea. The other boats crew were picked up by Spanish fishermen off the Canary Isles after 14 days at sea. I did not question Brian about his recollections , he was an old man who was entitled to his memories.
My father and the rest of the crew were held POW by the Vichy French , I have written about this before so will not repeat it.