hello - S.S Devonshire

[DeepSea]

Albert Miller PoW No. 71 was held at the Merchant Navy camp Milag Nord.

Cargo liner Devon, 9,036grt (Federal SN Co.) was captured and sunk by the German commerce raider Komet South-West of the Galapagos Islands on the 19th August 1941 sailing from the Tyne to Wellington via Balboa and Auckland. Between 124 to 135 of her crew were interned at Milag at some point. It is possible Albert was first held at the Sandbostal Concentration camp as Milag Nord was not finished until 1942.

---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 PM ----------

It looks like the crew were possibly all Indian (Lascars) as I don't have the names on file, but three of the four men from the ship repatriated before the end of the war were Indian crew. The ships Chief Officer Sydney Evans was also repatriated in 1943.

The list below are the names of the Officers who were still at Milag when it was liberated in April 1945.

AIRTH, H.K. (2nd R/O)
ANDREW, J. (4th/Eng.)
BARTLEY, R.H. (Ch./Stwd)
BEESLEY, R.S. (4th/Off.)
BRODIE, N. (Appr.)
CONNOLLY, F.C. (2nd /Off.)
CULLIS, J.P. (J/Eng.)
DAVIS, J.C. (J/Eng.)
DOWDNEY, A.G. (Appr.)
ERRINGTON, W. (Appr.)
GIDDENS, F.T.J.W. (3rd R/O)
HENDERSON, J. (Ch./Eng.)
HUGHES, H.W. (Appr.)
MCDOUGALL, H.C. (3rd/Eng.
MILLER, A. (2nd Ref./Eng.))
PRITCHARD, W. (3rd/Off.)
RATCHFORD, G. (J./Eng.)
REA, P.K. (Ch./Ref/Eng.)
REDWOOD, R. (Master)
SCOTT, D.N. (Appr.)
SMITH. R. (5th/Eng.)

[Hugh]

Here is his seaman's pouch and medal file.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.go...s?uri=C8154735

http://discovery.nationalarchives.go...s?uri=D4316760

The medal file can be downloaded to your computer for £3.30 but the pouch will have to be obtained from Kew.

Regards
Hugh

[robpage]

Seeing Billy's list of prisoners above , would the apprentices have to take their incarceration out and reset the clock on their apprenticeships , or was an allowance made ?

[Ron B Manderson]

Right or wrong picture.
Welcome to the site matey.
Hope to see your next posting
Ron the batcave

[DeepSea]

Seeing Billy's list of prisoners above , would the apprentices have to take their incarceration out and reset the clock on their apprenticeships , or was an allowance made ?

According to Gabe Thomas's book Milag: Captives of the Kriegsmarine schools were set up at Milag by some of the senior officers to teach the necessary skills to pass Board of Trade examinations for those who chose to continue at sea after the war. These classes included lessons in algebra and geometry to both engineer and deck cadets. Text books were obtained through the Red Cross and the Board of Trade sent candidates examination papers, where the exams were overlooked by German Officers. These papers were then returned to London via Geneva. Some 75% who undertook the written part of the exam for their Master's or Mate's tickets passed.

On another note, those of us who have been to sea were all too well aware of the danger of appendicitis. At the hospital within Milag were a team of mainly army surgeons who would undertake the removal of men's appendixes even to those not suffering from appendicitis, who were planning on returniing to sea, as well as fixing those suffering with hernias.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Thank you Billy for that, it only goes to show the calibre of the men who went to sea in those dark days and faced their privitations with fortitude and resourcefullness.

Teacher needed a hammer and chisel to teach me algebra.

[John Arton]

Billy
As Ivan says, those guys who studied and passed tickets whilst being incarcerated and not knowing if they were ever going to be released or if they were under what nationality they would become, yet throughout they maintained their belief that one day Germany would be defeated and they would be able to sail once again under the British flag....well I cannot say how much pride I have in such people and the debt that we all owe them.
Regretfully in the 70 years since we seem to have allowed our country to go to pot, I just wonder what any of them, if still alive, think of todays U.K.
rgds and thanks for a very informative post.
JA

[j.sabourn]

#17 Like

[robpage]

Thanks for that Billy , I had a vision that after several years those guys may have had to start again , it is nice to see that at least they kept their seniority up . It i gratifying to know that