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had a further reply from my mp ......dear mr capps thank you for your recent e mail..brringing this matter to my attention.....i will bear in mindyour comments in any discussion and debates in parliament....many thanksfor highlighting this to me...julian smith ..MP
Well done Cappy, better results than mine, nothing heard from my mp, kt
well kieth i did mention in a time when people were complaing about there great great great great great great grandfathers being taken from africa to the west indies and the states ....and looking for reparations.perhaps a look closer to home for our own MN seamen ...and non payment by a labour gov would be more appropiate......cappy
When this post first appeared I began looking again at notes and newspaper clippings my dad left. He was outward bound to Montevideo with a cargo of coal on SS Sithonia. The ship was torpedoed 12 July 1942 in the Atlantic, for some reason all of the crew thought the submarine was Italian but after research I found it was Uboat 201 commanded by Adalbert Schnee. His name translates as snow and there was a snowman painted on the conning tower. Three men were killed and two lifeboats were launched from the Sithonia, Schnee gave them three bottles of cognac, thirty gallons of water and a compass. The lifeboats were separated in rough weather, one with the Mate in charge was picked up by fishermen off Las Palmas, not sure how long they were drifting for before rescue. The boat my dad was in had Captain Brown in charge with twenty five other men. After twenty days at sea their boat washed up in Dakar, West Africa where they were taken as POW by the Vichy French. My dad kept a log written in pencil on scraps of paper which are very hard to read because the writing is so blurred and faded. The men were held in Timeris and later taken by fishing boat to a prison camp in Port Etienne. They were given fish and rice to eat and sometimes camel meat, they slept on the floor. They were marched and transported to many other locations but I cannot read the names. The American consul in Bathurst, Gambia negotiated for their release and eventually they were repatriated from Freetown, Sierra Leonne to Scotland in 1943. Some of the men never made it home, three died and others were left in West African hospitals My dad was very bitter towards the Vichy French and also to the shipowner. This is what they demanded he repay.
Debts on wages £11. 4. 10. Advances overseas £4. 0. 0. Advances on landing £2. 0. 0. Total £17. 4. 10. He also had to repay his rail fare from Scotland to Liverpool.
I used to be in touch with Brian Clarke who at nineteen was the third radio officer on Sithonia and the last survivor of the crew.
More on the Citron can be found here.
WWW.BBC.CO.UK>history>stories Ww2 people's war-a fateful voyage.
The Wartime Memories Project - Preserving Memories of The Great War and World War Two
These can be found by googling citron ww2.
Vic
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Harrowing tale Louis on how civilians (MN) were treated, its a pity you cannot decipher the faded writing, as it would make really interesting reading.
Thanks for posting
Vic
Among the papers is a badge which could be worn in a hat or coat lapel. I don't know how to send photos on line but if I describe it some of you may know what it is. It is circular, around the edge is written. For Loyal Service with a ➕. In the centre is a crown and underneath the letters G R J.
Thanks Lou.
Cargo ship Sithonia, 6,723grt (Henry M. Thomson) loaded a cargo of coal at Barry, Wales for Montevideo and sailed to the Belfast Lough where the ship joined up with the 40 ship Freetown bound Convoy OS-33, which departed Liverpool on the 1st July 1942. On the 11th July once clear into the Atlantic the Sithonia left the convoy and set her course for Montevideo. On the 12th July, a number of ships, which had detached from the convoy were attacked and sunk by U-boats, which the Sithonia had picked up by radio transmission and immediately set up an evasive zig zagging pattern. In the early hours of the following day, Sithonia was sighted by U-201 West of the Canary Islands and struck by one torpedo in the ships stokehold followed almost immediately by a second torpedo in the same area breaking the ships back. Abandoning ship in two lifeboats the ship sank rapidly within eight minutes in position 29' 00N 25' 00W with the loss of six crewmembers. The U-boat then broke surface and began to question the survivors inquiring about the ships details and the condition of the survivors before leaving the area. The two lifeboats one of which was motorised took the other boat in tow until the petrol ran out. For six days the boats kept in sight and contact with each other until the weather took a turn for the worst and they became separated and lost contact with each other. The weather eventually calmed and the survivors now began to suffer from the blazing heat of the day followed by the freezing cold nights. After eleven days, sailing in an easterly direction the weather deteriorated once more and the boats had to be continuously baled to stop from sinking for the next twenty-four hours. The following day the Chief Officers boat sighted a Spanish fishing schooner who supplied the men with what little fresh water and food they could, took the boat in tow, and at nightfall lifted the boat onto the schooners deck. Contact was made with a second fishing schooner who were able to supply the lifeboat with enough water for them to proceed towards land on their own and finally after fourteen days they landed Las Palmas, having navigated over 800 nautical miles of ocean. One crewmember died from the effects of exposure shortly before landing ashore. The lifeboat and survivors in charge of by the ships Master landed at Timiris, Senegal after eighteen days and were interned by the Vichy French at Port Etienne, Mauritania, where one crewmember died in captivity. The ships Master would die in 1946 and was buried in his home town of South Shields.