Caithness Map :: Links to Site Map Paying too much for broadband? Move to PlusNet broadband and save£££s. Free setup now available - terms apply. PlusNet broadband.  
Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Jervis Bay

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    1,940

    Default Jervis Bay

    On November 5th, 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer attacked Convoy HX84 in the Atlantic Ocean. Their only escort, SS Jervis Bay, was an old passenger liner that been converted into an armed merchant cruiser. To give the convoy time to disperse, Captain Edward Fogarty Fegen held the Scheer's attention by trying to ram the warship. Jervis Bay was sunk about a mile from her target and many on board were lost. Although five other ships met a similar fate, thirty vessels managed to escape. Captain Fegen received a posthumous Victoria Cross. Signalman Bill Danby, twenty-year-old son of Hamiltonian, Grandma Danby (now one hundred-and-one years old), did not survive the action.
    Another heroic feat was achieved the following day: Tanker San Demetrio , carrying a cargo of aviation fuel, had been hit during the engagement and the crew hurriedly abandoned ship. Dawn found the ship afloat but still on fire. Fifteen men voted to row their lifeboat back to the burning ship where they managed to extinguish the blaze.
    Chief Engineer Charles Pollard got the ship under way. Although the chart room had been destroyed in the flames, Second Officer Hawkins used a school atlas to help him navigate the vessel. They anchored in Rothesay Bay nearly two weeks later (November 16th), adding her vital cargo to the Blitz defences.






    THE BALLAD OF CONVOY HX84
    (for Grandma Danby)

    From Halifax one cold, dark night,
    some ships got under way.
    Group HX84's sad plight
    is quite a tale they say:
    when merchant ships met Nazi might,
    and it, the Jervis Bay.

    Gone were the days of rich resorts,
    and folk who sought the sun,
    she'd plied the planet's pleasure ports,
    her time was almost done.
    The navy sadly lacked escorts
    when war had just begun.

    They fitted her with six-inch guns,
    one fore, one aft, they say,
    they were out-gunned these mothers' sons
    who died with Jervis Bay.

    The War had waged for but a year
    on that November day,
    a host of ships felt naked fear
    on cold, cold seas of grey:
    In wait, here lay Admiral Scheer
    to fight the Jervis Bay.

    This battleship had little fear
    when stalking easy prey,
    convoys were flocks of sheep to Scheer,
    to slaughter, sink, and slay;
    till one old ewe bleats, "Fegen's here -
    aboard the Jervis Bay!"





    "Convoy dispersing" signals say,
    they flee like hell from here,
    as Jervis Bay steams through the fray
    to ram the mighty Scheer.
    Poor Jervis Bay has gone below
    as though she'd never been,
    she's gone to where good sailors go
    for berths in Fiddler's Green.
    *
    *Good sailors go to Fiddler's Green when they die, bad sailors go to Davy Jones' Locker.
    Ships are foundering here and there,
    a few ablaze I think,
    men are drowning everywhere
    in bunker C's foul stink.

    That frightful cry: "Abandon ship!"
    loud klaxons vent their spleen,
    and ships begin their final trip
    below, to Fiddler's Green.

    The tanker San Demetrio,
    becomes a ship of fire:
    "It looks as though she's gonna blow!
    The situation's dire."
    Into the boats the crew all go,
    or else she'll be their pyre!

    Dawn came cold on a wintry sea,
    the ship was still aflame:
    A blazing ship? A cold, cold sea?
    The choice is much the same.

    So back on board climbed fifteen men
    who bravely doused the blaze,
    and brought her safely home again,
    it took them many days:
    And all because of fine seamen
    as brave as Jervis Bay's.

    This poem won second prize in the 1996 Grugin Award in West Virginia Poets Society annual competition and consequently published in the WVPS Anthology.



    The above beautiful poem is by Francis Kerr Young born Lanarkshire.
    please google to find more about this man ( I am having trouble typing )


























    Last edited by trinkie; 05-Nov-10 at 08:57. Reason: update

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    1,940

    Default Jervis Bay

    Remembering with the greatest respect.

    James Anderson 27years
    James Bain 27years
    John Bain 27years
    David Bremner 32 years
    William Bremner 32 years
    John Innes 33 years
    William Miller 27 years
    John Munro 27 years
    Alexander Webster 31 years

    5th November 1940.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    2,532

    Default

    Thank you for that Trinkie; a very moving tribute.

    When in Nova Scotia I was taken to a site where you could look out to sea in line with where the Jervis Bay went down; a point of contact for relatives and survivors. I also stayed in the Merchant Navy Hotel in London which had a Jervis Bay Room where there was a display showing the details of the battle.

    The hotel is now closed but I'm afraid I don't know what happened to the display....

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    8,200

    Default

    I have just read the article in todays Groat, and I think that is terrible, vandalising the Jervis Bay memorial, I hope it is able to be cleaned off, and they can catch the little darlings

    http://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/...y_vandals.html
    Last edited by golach; 05-Nov-10 at 15:49.
    Once the original Grumpy Owld Man but alas no more

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    2,532

    Default

    I haven't seen this article yet....

    Time that the ignorant, crass idiots who can even think of doing such sacrilege were sent to somewhere like Afghanistan.

    Mind you, who would want them there? Certainly not the trained professionals who are out there doing such a dangerous job!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •