SS Peterton
by Published on 1st December 2020 10:10 AM
My thanks to Cliff Phillips for this not to be forgotten article.
15-year-old James Nicholson Meeks from South Shields boarded SS Peterton bound for Buenos Aires. Still two months short of the minimum age of 16, it was his first voyage as a Merchant Navy Apprentice.
He was joined on board by an even younger recruit, Edward Briggs Hyde from Cullercoats, who had only turned 15 earlier that summer.
Less than four weeks later on the 17th September 1942, SS Peterton was sunk by three torpedoes fired by German U-boat U-109, commanded by legendary U-boat Ace Heinrich Bleichrodt.
The ships master was taken prisoner by the U-boat and landed at Lorient on 6 October 1942 whilst eight crew members were lost in the sinking.
The surviving crew members found themselves in two lifeboats drifting in the Atlantic, hundreds of miles off the west coast of Africa.
Twelve crew members in one boat were picked up by the ‘Empire Whimbrel’ after 8 days and landed at Buenos Aires on 11 October.
A further 18 crew members and four gunners were picked up after 49 days in the open boat by HMS Canna and landed at Freetown.
The two 15 years olds were in this boat but whereas Meeks survived, young Edward Hyde died of bronchial pneumonia in a hospital at Freetown and now lies in Freetown (King Tom) Cemetery, Sierra Leone
The U-109 was sunk on May 04, 1943 south of Ireland by 4 depth charges from a British Liberator.
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Last edited by Brian Probetts (Site Admin); 1st December 2020 at 11:30 AM.
Brian Probetts (site admin)
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