Naval Association honours Merchant Navy
A message from the Naval Association of Australia
The Naval Association will remember the Merchant Navy at its next monthly ceremony to be held at the Jack Tar Memorial, South Brisbane Memorial Park, Southbank on Thursday 25 August at 11.00am.
In 1939, thousands of men who had chosen the life of a merchant seaman found themselves in the very different role of combatant sailors. Armed with only basic weapons and almost no training they were soft targets for the enemy, and more than 30,000 died, a larger proportion than any of the other services. The merchant ships laboured so we could receive those vital goods, foodstuffs and medicines that were so desperately needed in a time of war.
Forty-four Allied merchant vessels were lost by enemy action in Australian waters in the Second World War. With a total tonnage of 196,073, the ships ranged from the 12,568-ton United States Meigs to the 274-ton British Duranbar. Eighteen were sunk by submarines, sixteen by aircraft, six by surface craft and four by mines.
Off the Queensland coast lie three ships sunk by Japanese submarines, now watery graves for many merchant seamen. One of the most well-known, the AHS Centaur, the hospital ship infamously torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off Moreton Island, was partly crewed by civilian sailors as well as Army nurses and doctors. Centaur, 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship, was a motor passenger ship converted in early 1943 for use as a medical facility and of her crew 75 were merchant seamen.
Though brightly lit as a hospital ship with red crosses, it was torpedoed and sunk, with 45 merchant seamen losing their lives. Of the 332 persons on board, only 64 survived. These survivors spent 35 hours on rafts before being rescued.
After 24 April 1943, a Japanese submarine fired three torpedoes at the Australian armed cargo ship SS Kowarra in the Coral Sea northeast of Sandy Cape at the tip of Fraser Island. One torpedo hit Kowarra, which was on a voyage from Bowen, Queensland, to Brisbane with a cargo of sugar, and triggered a boiler explosion, causing her to break in two and with the loss of 21 lives. Engine Room Trimmer Maurice of Almaden, North Queensland was among them. The US Navy submarine chaser USS SC-747 rescued her 11 survivors.
In the European theatre, the Atlantic convoys transported vast amounts of cargo from the United States and Canada to Britain in highly dangerous situations, tracked and attacked by the German ‘wolf packs’ of submarines. One of the most famous convoy battles was fought by HMS Jervis Bay, while escorting a convoy of 38 merchant vessels. Jervis Bay was a former merchant ship built in 1922 for the Australian trade, and a regular sight in Brisbane until war came in September 1939. Immediately requisitioned by the Admiralty to become an armed merchant cruiser (AMC), many of her former merchant service crew were retained, called up as Naval Reservists. The AMC’s role was to escort the convoy and if attacked to draw fire, in theory allowing the convoy to escape. The ships in the convoy were under orders to make no attempt to turn around to pick up survivors.
On 5th November 1940 Convoy HX84 was spotted mid-Atlantic and attacked by the heavily armed infamous German cruiser Admiral Scheer, so Jervis Bay left the line and commenced firing, allowing most to escape. Jervis Bay’s Captain - Edward Fogarty Fegen RN and many of his crew fought bravely to the death, knowing they were sacrificing the ship and themselves for the convoy. Captain Fegen who had been mortally wounded during the attack was posthumously awarded the only VC of World War 2 for convoy protection.
Also lost was Engineer Sub Lieutenant Robert Lindsey Hall RNR from Brisbane, aged 26. Robert had attended Coorparoo State School and Brisbane State High, later training in the engineering plant of Brisbane Meatworks. Having gained sea experience and higher qualifications in England, Robert Hall joined Shaw Savill Line as 6th Engineer assigned to then SS Jervis Bay in August 1939, shortly before the liner was requisitioned to become a warship assigned to convoy protection. Sadly he was one of the total 332 personnel of Convoy HX84 who died in the Atlantic that day.
Robert has relatives in Brisbane who are aware of his service and his name is on the Liverpool Merchant Seamen’s Memorial. His niece, Beth McIntosh of Carindale knows the story of Robert very well, a story passed down in the family even though she was born long after he died.
‘We are all very proud of the uncle we never knew,’ said Beth ‘In those dark days, the bravery of the Merchant Navy on those convoys helped save the world, but so few people know about their service.’
Merchant Navy Day on 3 September commemorates the sinking without warning of the Donaldson transatlantic passenger liner, S.S. Athenia, 10 hours after war had been declared in 1939, by the German submarine U30, with the loss of 117 lives.
For more information, please contact Jayne Keogh on 0418 882408 or jayne [at] jkpr.com.au.