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Please post all questions onto the appropriate forum
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Thank You Doc Vernon
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23rd May 2017, 02:35 PM
#1
Hello
I have just joined this website, and better confess from the outset that I am ex-Army, but my interest stems from the fact that my father, John (Ian) MacArthur, was Merchant Navy, starting as a cadet in the 1920s, serving in the Second World War as a Second Officer and Chief Officer, and as a Captain from 1946 until he died in 1985. He spent most of his time with Currie Line, based in Leith.
During the Second World War he served as a Second Officer on Gibraltar Convoys on SS Brandenburg (the Germanic name coming from when Currie Line took over the Hull and Hamburg Line in 1919, some of whose ships had such names. The Brandenburg was very old (built 1910) and my father left her immediately before she was sunk with all hands in February 1940 (fortuitous for him and me, otherwise I would not exist, since I was born three years later). My father subsequently served as Chief Officer on SS Gothland (Rescue Ship) on Atlantic Convoys, before moving to the (then) brand new SS Lapland as Chief Officer in October 1942. He remained on Lapland as Chief Officer for the remainder of the war, serving on Russian Convoys and the D-Day landings with her. He became a Captain in 1946, and served on several more modern Currie Line Ships.
I give talks on Military History to raise funds for military charities, and have just started preparing one on my father's Second World War service and how I researched it to support my claim for his Arctic Star medal. I will probably give this talk to several organisations, and will give any donations to the Mission for Seamen, which my parents supported.
Rod
Last edited by Rod MacArthur; 23rd May 2017 at 03:27 PM.
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23rd May 2017, 02:47 PM
#2
Re: Hello
Welcome aboard this virtual ship and hope you sail with us for some time, we have some other Army guys aboard and some lasses as well, one of whose father served on rescue ships in WWII and no doubt she will be contacting you. Being in the services you will be used to some robust language and points of view, well we MN types are the same, so feel free to join in, you are now aboard, the gangways in, and you're Shangied until the next port
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23rd May 2017, 03:51 PM
#3
Re: Hello
What a brave man your father was, he and all the others who served must never be forgotten.
The Russians also issued the Ushakov Medal to all the British Seamen who served on the Arctic Convoys.
Maybe contact the Russian Embassy in London as they were searching for those Seafarers.
Cheers and Welcome,
Brian
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