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Shaw, Savill & Albion
Source: Duncan Haws
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Besides its own fleet Shaw Savill manned and managed the four remaining Bay Class ships of which Jervis Bay was one. All the company ships now carried wireless; this mistake of the previous war had been rectified, also each ships Commander was in receipt of sealed orders from the Admiralty in the event of hostilities, all ships in the British Merchant Service had also received similar orders. On the 3rd of September 1939 these orders were opened, all British vessels on the high seas were instructed to make for either their next port of call or the nearest intermediate port available, on arrival they were to await orders regarding the formation of convoys. However not everything learned during the First World War was implemented, for example the arming and armouring of A.M.C.'s was as inadequate this time round as it was 1914-18, the Jervis Bay was to pay the ultimate price a year later.
Soon after the outbreak of war the Ministry of Shipping was set up utilising the managerial expertise of a cross section of British Shipping, this organisation was soon to become the Ministry of War Transport. Shaw Savill's Mr Basil Sanderson M.C., was immediately sequestered and served as Director of Shipping in Port & Transit Control. The first of the company vessels to be taken up for war duties were Arawa, Esperance Bay, Jervis Bay and Moreton Bay, all were converted for use as Armed Merchant Cruisers. Prior to the war the Admiralty had given much thought to the manning of A.M.C.'s and decided that where possible they would utilise the merchant crew already onboard, articles/contract signed were called T.124 and in most cases the Deck, Engine and Catering Officers were granted R.N.R., commissions. The men of the Merchant Service volunteered virtually en mass, regardless of age or fitness. The ships themselves were totally inadequately prepared, but as much that could be done was, each was fitted with eight six inch guns, old models long out of date and in some cases considerably worn. Air armament was perfunctory and had to be seriously updated later when the ships were faced by the full might of the Luftwaffe, concrete slabs were fitted round the brides and wheelhouses and the engine room skylights had wire mesh stretched across them in an attempt to deflect shrapnel. The magazines were fitted with great care into the lower holds. As well as dazzle paint other forms of subterfuge were used, note the destroyer painted on the side of Esperance Bay during the early years of the war.
Esperance Bay.
The inherent weakness of the ships however can't be dismissed, the guns couldn't elevate to the angle required and didn't have the range enjoyed by their turret mounted cousins on conventional cruisers, the ships sides were unprotected and the boiler rooms and steering gears were above the waterline. Ammunition passages and magazines were extremely vulnerable to shellfire and the risks great but recognised by all concerned. The ships roles were confined to convoy and patrol duties as until as such time as the Navy's greatly accelerated building program could provide the ships to replace them.
Disguise was also extended to three of the company's cargo ships, Pakeha, Mamari and Waimana. The first picture shows them before rebuild, the second as pseudo-battleships of the Royal Sovereign Class and the third as the Aircraft Carrier Hermes. The vessels anchored in the Firth of Forth during the early part of the war to act as decoys, when the necessity ceased Pakeha and Waimana were reconverted back to refrigerated cargo ships, sadly Mamari was wrecked on the East Anglia coast on her way to the Naval yard at Chatham for reconversion in the July of 1941.
At the close of the first year of war Tairoa built by Armsrong Whitworth became the first company casualty when she encountered the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic on the 2nd of December. She suffered sixty-nine hits before finally succumbing, fortunately none of her crew was killed, those uninjured were put aboard the Oiler Altmark later to be rescued by H.M.S. Cossack in Jossing Fjord, Norway. Graf Spee put the wounded ashore at Montevideo prior to the ships scuttling.
In 1940 Dominion Monarch, Mataroa and Tamaroa were all engaged in trooping duties, Akaroa, Temistocles and Ceramic all maintained the Government controlled service. Ships losses were Matakana which sank during a storm, Maimoa sank by the armed merchant raider Pinguin, irony being they were landed at Bordeaux by Pelagos an ex Shaw Savill ship which when captured was working as a Norwegian whale factory ship. However it was the company's biggest loss of the year, which must have hurt the most, that of Jervis Bay on the 5th of November. Onboard Jervis Bay of Shaw Savill were Chief Officer G.L. Roe, Second Officer W. Hill, Third Officer N.E. Wood and Fourth Officer H.G.B. Moss all of whom had been given commissions in the R.N.R. Chief Engineer J.H.G Chappell had been commissioned as an Temporary Commander (E) and all his Engineers who had volunteered were given R.N.R. commissions in accordance to their rank within the ship. The Purser Mr E. White was commissioned as a Paymaster Lieutenant Commander, a large proportion of the crew also volunteered and those selected by the Admiralty signed on the T.124 Articles, the Admiralty also appointed Petty Officers and key ratings which included gunners.
JERVIS BAY
A. Duncan
Built: 1922 by Vickers Ltd., Barrow.
Tonnage: 13,839 grt, 8,423 nrt.
Engines: 4 x Parsons Turbines by builder, 9,000SHP, 15 Knots.
Passengers: 12 1st Class, 712 3rd Class, 216 Crew.
Launched 17th of January 1922, completed September 1922.
Until her final voyage Jervis Bay had been employed escorting other convoys backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. Convoy HX 84 consisting of 38 ships had formed at Halifax for the long voyage to Great Britain, Jervis Bay was their sole escort. The Commodore of the convoy was Rear-Admiral H.B. Maltby and he was onboard the cargo steamer Cornish City, soon after sailing one of the ships lost position and dropped astern. On the afternoon of the 5th in calm weather a ship appeared on the horizon and soon closed with the convoy, after opening fire from a range of eight to ten miles she was clearly identified as the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, her 11inch shells weighing 670lbs were soon falling amongst the convoy. Admiral Maltby gave the order for the convoy to scatter and make smoke, as dusk fell and with no other option Jervis Bay turned and headed towards the Admiral Scheer, opening fire as she went with her small 6inch guns, hoping that her action would give the convoy time to escape in the failing light.
Jervis Bay headed towards the Scheer with all her for'd bearing guns firing at their total elevation, the shells all fell woefully short, this however did not deter the gun crews of which two thirds were merchant seamen or the rest of the crew led by their Commander, Acting-Captain E.S. Fogarty Fegan R.N. Jervis Bay managed to get so close to Admiral Scheer that fearing the British ship could inflict irreparable damage Admiral Lutjens gave the order to concentrate all Scheer's firing capability at Jervis Bay, thus giving time for the rest of the convoy to escape.
JERVIS BAY
By Montague Dawson entitled "The Convoy Got Through "
As the AMC steamed towards the warship she dropped smoke floats further obscuring the Germans view of the escaping convoy. With her salvo's still falling short Jervis Bay started to take shell after shell from Scheer and in quick succession she lost her for'd gun turret, bridge and steering gear, her Captain retired to the after docking bridge and steered with her two engines until the deck crew could ship her hand steering gear aft, all this achieved under intense fire. During the next fifteen minutes Jervis Bay received hit after hit and with all her gun turrets out of action, her Captain severely wounded, the engine and boiler rooms out of action Jervis Bay slowly came to a blazing halt. Even whilst the ship, obviously out of control with fires raging on and below deck, the German warship continued to rain shells down on Jervis Bay eventually holing her below the waterline. Her end was mercifully near and when the order to abandon ship was given the crew discovered that only one lifeboat remained. Supplementing this with four life rafts the remaining crew jumped for their lives as the ship began to settle by the stern. The Admiral Scheer continued to pound away at not only Jervis Bay but her crew floundering around in the water, all this as Captain Fogarty Fegan and hoped gave the fleeing convoy yet more time to escape the carnage now underway, in fact another invaluable thirty minutes were to pass before Lutjens broke off the action and set off in pursuit of the convoy. Of the crew of Jervis Bay which had numbered 263 only 65 survived and were subsequently rescued by Captain Olander and the crew of Stureholm who had taken a vote that night to return to the scene and search for survivors.
Amongst the survivors were Third Officer Wood and Fourth Officer Moss, Third Officer Wood was subsequently awarded the D.S.O. for his courage and devotion to duty and in the London Gazette when announcing the award went on to say - " Among those who went down in the Jervis Bay there must have been many, and among the survivors others, whose gallantry, were the whole truth known, deserved decoration. The appointment and awards should be taken as an honour to their ship as well as to those who earned them." Other members of the crew were awarded decorations and mentioned in despatches, none deserved more so than the posthumous V.C. awarded to Captain E.S. Fogarty Fegan, the Navy later stating that none was better earned.
Captain E.S. Fogarty Fegan, R.N., V.C.
Due to the bravery initially shown by those Officers and men of Jervis Bay, Admiral Lutjens, only succeeded in sinking a further six ships when the total should have been far higher. Maiden of Brocklebanks, Trewallard of Hain, Kenbane Head of Heyn, Moban of Elder & Fyffe and Fresno City of Reardon Smiths were all casualties but the final ship sunk also contributed in great measure. She was of course Beaverford which is covered in Canadian Pacific's history on this site and deserves a mention here, she to turned and faced the enemy with only a 4inch gun able to be brought to bear, an action that totally confused Lutjens and thus enabled the remainder of the ships in the vicinity to escape.
Those ships of the company, which had been converted to look like warships were decommissioned for their normal roles, save for Mamari, which sank when on her way to Chatham. War losses for 1941 were Zealandic, sank by torpedo when three days out of Liverpool on the 17th of January by U-106, Kumara sunk by the Battlecruiser Scharnhorst on the 9th of March and Waiwera sunk by torpedo on the 29th of June by U-754 with a loss of 8 lives. In the renowned "Operation Pedestal" the company were to lose a further three ships on the 13th of August 1942, Wairangi and Waimarama and the managed Empire Hope.
WAIRANGI
World Ship Photo Library.
Built: 1935 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast.
Tonnage: 12,436 grt, 7,647 nrt.
Engines: Twin screw, 2 x 10 Cylinder by builder, 1,631NHP, 16 Knots.
Completed in February 1935.
Wairangi had been taken up by the Government in 1941 and had made one supply voyage to the Middle East. Due to a decision taken by the War Cabinet she found herself sailing in the heaviest defended convoy ever to put to sea bound for Malta. Prior to Churchill's demands the two previous convoys that had attempted to get through suffered terrible losses with only two ships arriving, therefore it had been decided that this convoy must be protected at all costs. On the 10th of August fourteen merchantmen sailed eastwards through the Straits of Gibraltar escorted by battleships Rodney and Nelson, aircraft carriers Victorious, Indomitable, Eagle and Furious, the latter carrying Spitfires for the defence of the Island. Cruisers Sirius, Phoebe, Charybdis, Kenya, Nigeria, Manchester and Cairo, thirty two destroyers and finally six corvettes protecting the two tankers.
The fourteen merchantmen were, Dorset, Wairangi, Waimarama, Port Chalmers, Melbourne Star, Brisbane Star, Clan Ferguson, Duecalion, Glenorchy, Rochester Castle, Ohio, Empire Hope and two American vessels, Santa Eliza and Almeria Sykes.
When the convoy had reached eighty miles north of Algiers on the 11th Furious started to fly off her Spitfires bound for Malta, accompanying her was Eagle, as the planes were being successfully launched Eagle was struck by four torpedoes within seconds of each other, ten minutes later she sank, of her crew of 1,160 two hundred and thirty perished, in the attack Indomitable was also disabled At sunset the convoy was attacked again, this time by a force of forty bombers, no direct hits were received and four enemy planes were shot down.
The following day the convoy was attacked by bombers and torpedo bombers escorted by fighters, time and time again the planes dived down in amongst the ships, some dropped mines ahead of the convoy, Deucalion was an early casualty and to further aggravate the situation a pack of U-Boats arrived. As the convoy approached the Skerki Channel they were ordered into two lanes because of the narrowness of navigable water, this of course increased the risk and vulnerability. At eight in the evening more waves of bombers attacked and soon four ships were seen to be on fire and it was then that it appeared Empire Hope had been singled out as the next target.
Eighteen near misses slowed her to a halt and more than once some of her crew were blown overboard, only to swim back and man her defences. When number four hold received two direct hits igniting the coal laid to protect the high explosives beneath did Captain Williams give the order to abandon ship.
EMPIRE HOPE AND WAIMARAMA SEEN UNDER ATTACK CENTRE.
Wairangi was attacked in the early morning of the 13th by a motor torpedo boat and a torpedo struck home abaft of number three hold which immediately began to flood the engine room rendering her pumps useless. With what remained of the convoy under intense attack, Captain Gordon decided that with no chance of a tow possible, to scuttle and abandon his ship, HMS Eskimo successfully picked up all the ships company. With Malta a virtual certainty Waimarama came under attack by bombers and this time was struck by four bombs in rapid succession on or immediately aft of the bridge killing everyone present. The cargo of cased petrol caught fire and soon she was ablaze from stem to stern, she then took a list to starboard before righting herself and then sinking three or four minutes after being hit. HMS Ledbury made gallant attempts to rescue her crew but out of the crew of 105 only eighteen were saved including two Officers, Cadet Treves and the Third Radio Officer.
Of the original fourteen merchant ships which commenced the voyage only five made it to Malta, they were, Melbourne Star, Brisbane Star, Rochester Castle, Port Chalmers and Ohio the latter being written off once her precious cargo had been discharged. Ohio's Master, Captain D.W. Mason was later awarded the George Cross and Admiral Burrough's last signal to him as he entered harbour was "I'm proud to have met you". The Royal Navy's losses were Eagle, Manchester, Cairo and Foresight.
OHIO ENTERING VALETTA.
Go to Shaw Savill Part Four