Melbourne Star
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 1:25 pm
Built: Cammell Laird & Company Ltd., Birkenhead , ON: 165326 , Dimensions: 530.0 x 70.4 x 32.2 feet , Tonnage: Gross :11076 Net: 6788 , Propulsion: Two 10-Cyl. 2 S.C.S.A. oil engines from Sulzer Bros., Winterthur, Switzerland, driving twin screws , Type: Refrigerated Cargo Liner , Launched: 7/07/1936 ( Yard No.1014) as MELBOURNE STAR for Union Cold Storage Co. Ltd. (Blue Star Line Managers) , Completed: 11/1936 , Bombed & gunned: 5/10/1940 by German aircraft when west of Achill Island, Co Mayo in position 53.27N, 15.12W. Repaired and returned to service. , Damaged: 24/07/1941 by E-boat attack en-route for Malta but arrived at Valetta safely.
Pedestal - MELBOURNE STAR's Captain DF MacFarlane already a veteran of Malta Convoy 'Operation Substance' recalls:-
“At 8.10am 13th August 1942 a covey of dive-bombers suddenly came screaming out of the sun and a stick of bombs fell on and around the Waimarama which blew up with a roar and a sheet of flames with clouds of billowing smoke, to disappear in a few seconds.”
“We were showered with debris from this ship,” Captain MacFarlane wrote. “a piece of plating five feet long fell on board. The base of a steel ventilator half an inch thick and 2½ feet high which partly demolished one of our machine gun posts, a piece of angle iron, at the same time, narrowly missing a cadet. The sea was one sheet of fire, and as we were so close we had to steam though it. I put the helm hard to port and had to come down from where I was on the monkey island to the bridge to save myself from being burnt. It seemed as though we had been enveloped in smoke and flames for hours, although it was only minutes, otherwise the ship could not have survived. The flames were leaping mast high, indeed, air pilots reported that at times they reached 2000 feet.”
“The heat was terrific. The air was becoming drier every minute, as though the oxygen was being sucked out of it, as, in fact it was. When we inspected the damage afterwards we found that nearly all the paint on the ship’s side had been burnt away and the bottoms of the life boats reduced to charcoal.”
A few survivors from the Waimarama were rescued among them a 17 year old cadet on his first voyage.
During this incident, thinking that the MELBOURNE STAR had been struck and thinking that if they stayed on board they would be blown up, 36 of her crew jumped over the side. In the circumstances this was not an unnatural thing to have done.
It has to be regretted that 14 lost their lives ~ 9 MELBOURNE STAR Crew and 5 Naval Army Gunners the other 22 being rescued by the Destroyer HMS LEADBURY.
Transferred: 1943 to Fredrick Leyland & Co. Ltd.- same managers.
Torpedoed: 2/04/1943 and sunk by the German submarine U-129 when S.E. of Bermuda at position 28.05N, 57.30W. She was on a voyage from Liverpool and the Clyde to Cristobal, Panama and Australia with 8,285 tons of Government stores and general cargo, including torpedoes and ammunition. Only 4 of her crew of 75, 11 gunners and 31 passengers survived.
On March 2nd, 1943 the MELBOURNE STAR sailed from Liverpool on her way to Sydney through the Panama Canal. She carried a crew of 87 with 31 passengers, and was commanded by Captain James Bennett Hall, whose name will be remembered as having been in command of the ANDALUCIA STAR when that vessel was sunk by an U-boat on October 6th, 1942. Among those on board the MELBOURNE STAR who had been in her during her historic voyage to Malta in August, 1942, were the Chief Officer, Mr. L. Parsons; Mr. H. Blandford, the Chief Engineer. Mr. C. W. Almond, the Chief Refrigerating Engineer; Mr W. E. Richards, the Second Officer, and Mr. J. Cook, the Boatswain.
The ship carried a heavy cargo of torpedoes, ammunition and other munitions of war, and once clear of the most dangerous submarine area sailed unescorted.
Few of the details of her loss are known, except that at about 3.0 a.m. on April 2nd, when 480 miles south-east of Bermuda in the bad weather that was raging all over the North Atlantic, she was struck by two torpedoes almost simultaneously. The double explosion detonated portions of her dangerous cargo, for three-quarters of the vessel were destroyed in a flash. The explosions were so sudden and devastating that neither passengers nor crew could muster at their boat stations, even if any boats had been left intact. . Practically the entire complement perished simultaneously, and the shattered remains of the ship went to the bottom in less than two minutes. As she foundered several of the life-saving rafts floated free to which a few of the survivors managed to scramble. Their plight was made even worse by the heavy sea and low visibility, and when the dawn came only 11 people were left alive on the rafts.
At daylight the U-boat approached the two rafts in turn and her commander questioned the occupants as to the name of the ship and the nature of her cargo. Then they were left to their own resources, and the rafts drifted apart. There had been no chance to send off an S.O.S., and the first news of the MELBOURNE STAR loss came through the usual boastful German broadcast.
One of the rafts was never seen or heard of again. The other, which contained four men named W. Best, W. Burns, R. Nunn, and L. White, had on board eight tins of biscuits, some tins of chocolate, malted milk tablets, pemmican, 22 gallons of water and a two gallon tin of massage oil for use against exposure. By the mercy of Providence the weather remained stormy for only three days, after which it became calm and they just drifted at the mercy of the breeze and current. Improvising fishing lines they caught about 50 fish, which, eaten raw, probably saved their lives. The special oil was most valuable.
Every morning when daylight came they gazed round the heaving horizon, hoping for the sight of a ship or perhaps a feather of smoke moving in their direction. Each morning they were disappointed. The great ocean remained barren, shining like burnished steel in the glare of the sun. The days passed in dreadful monotony and anxiety. Many times they gave themselves up for lost, wondering, perhaps, what would happen when their water was exhausted.
It was on May 9, 38 days after the MELBOURNE STAR had been sunk, that they were sighted by an American flying boat which came down on the water and taxied alongside. After a flight of two and a half hours they were landed at Bermuda. They were all covered in salt water ulcers and had to have medical attention; but considering the length of time they had been adrift were in unusually good condition.
In the London Gazette of August, 1944, 16 months after their rescue, it was announced that William Best, Greaser; William Joseph Burns, Greaser; Ronald Nunn, Ordinary Seaman; and Leonard White, Able Seaman, had all been awarded the British Empire Medal for outstanding qualities of courage, fortitude and endurance which enabled them to survive the hardships and perils of the long and hazardous ordeal on the raft.
Nunn did not survive to receive his award. He lost his life by enemy action in S.S. Dungrange when that vessel was torpedoed and sunk by an E boat off St. Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight, on June 10th, 1944.
Sources: http://www.bluestarline.org/melbourne1.html. http://www.melbournestar.co.uk/Operation_Pedestal.html.
Blue Star by Atkinson & O’Donoghue – WSS Publication.
Information Mr P Crichton.
Pedestal - MELBOURNE STAR's Captain DF MacFarlane already a veteran of Malta Convoy 'Operation Substance' recalls:-
“At 8.10am 13th August 1942 a covey of dive-bombers suddenly came screaming out of the sun and a stick of bombs fell on and around the Waimarama which blew up with a roar and a sheet of flames with clouds of billowing smoke, to disappear in a few seconds.”
“We were showered with debris from this ship,” Captain MacFarlane wrote. “a piece of plating five feet long fell on board. The base of a steel ventilator half an inch thick and 2½ feet high which partly demolished one of our machine gun posts, a piece of angle iron, at the same time, narrowly missing a cadet. The sea was one sheet of fire, and as we were so close we had to steam though it. I put the helm hard to port and had to come down from where I was on the monkey island to the bridge to save myself from being burnt. It seemed as though we had been enveloped in smoke and flames for hours, although it was only minutes, otherwise the ship could not have survived. The flames were leaping mast high, indeed, air pilots reported that at times they reached 2000 feet.”
“The heat was terrific. The air was becoming drier every minute, as though the oxygen was being sucked out of it, as, in fact it was. When we inspected the damage afterwards we found that nearly all the paint on the ship’s side had been burnt away and the bottoms of the life boats reduced to charcoal.”
A few survivors from the Waimarama were rescued among them a 17 year old cadet on his first voyage.
During this incident, thinking that the MELBOURNE STAR had been struck and thinking that if they stayed on board they would be blown up, 36 of her crew jumped over the side. In the circumstances this was not an unnatural thing to have done.
It has to be regretted that 14 lost their lives ~ 9 MELBOURNE STAR Crew and 5 Naval Army Gunners the other 22 being rescued by the Destroyer HMS LEADBURY.
Transferred: 1943 to Fredrick Leyland & Co. Ltd.- same managers.
Torpedoed: 2/04/1943 and sunk by the German submarine U-129 when S.E. of Bermuda at position 28.05N, 57.30W. She was on a voyage from Liverpool and the Clyde to Cristobal, Panama and Australia with 8,285 tons of Government stores and general cargo, including torpedoes and ammunition. Only 4 of her crew of 75, 11 gunners and 31 passengers survived.
On March 2nd, 1943 the MELBOURNE STAR sailed from Liverpool on her way to Sydney through the Panama Canal. She carried a crew of 87 with 31 passengers, and was commanded by Captain James Bennett Hall, whose name will be remembered as having been in command of the ANDALUCIA STAR when that vessel was sunk by an U-boat on October 6th, 1942. Among those on board the MELBOURNE STAR who had been in her during her historic voyage to Malta in August, 1942, were the Chief Officer, Mr. L. Parsons; Mr. H. Blandford, the Chief Engineer. Mr. C. W. Almond, the Chief Refrigerating Engineer; Mr W. E. Richards, the Second Officer, and Mr. J. Cook, the Boatswain.
The ship carried a heavy cargo of torpedoes, ammunition and other munitions of war, and once clear of the most dangerous submarine area sailed unescorted.
Few of the details of her loss are known, except that at about 3.0 a.m. on April 2nd, when 480 miles south-east of Bermuda in the bad weather that was raging all over the North Atlantic, she was struck by two torpedoes almost simultaneously. The double explosion detonated portions of her dangerous cargo, for three-quarters of the vessel were destroyed in a flash. The explosions were so sudden and devastating that neither passengers nor crew could muster at their boat stations, even if any boats had been left intact. . Practically the entire complement perished simultaneously, and the shattered remains of the ship went to the bottom in less than two minutes. As she foundered several of the life-saving rafts floated free to which a few of the survivors managed to scramble. Their plight was made even worse by the heavy sea and low visibility, and when the dawn came only 11 people were left alive on the rafts.
At daylight the U-boat approached the two rafts in turn and her commander questioned the occupants as to the name of the ship and the nature of her cargo. Then they were left to their own resources, and the rafts drifted apart. There had been no chance to send off an S.O.S., and the first news of the MELBOURNE STAR loss came through the usual boastful German broadcast.
One of the rafts was never seen or heard of again. The other, which contained four men named W. Best, W. Burns, R. Nunn, and L. White, had on board eight tins of biscuits, some tins of chocolate, malted milk tablets, pemmican, 22 gallons of water and a two gallon tin of massage oil for use against exposure. By the mercy of Providence the weather remained stormy for only three days, after which it became calm and they just drifted at the mercy of the breeze and current. Improvising fishing lines they caught about 50 fish, which, eaten raw, probably saved their lives. The special oil was most valuable.
Every morning when daylight came they gazed round the heaving horizon, hoping for the sight of a ship or perhaps a feather of smoke moving in their direction. Each morning they were disappointed. The great ocean remained barren, shining like burnished steel in the glare of the sun. The days passed in dreadful monotony and anxiety. Many times they gave themselves up for lost, wondering, perhaps, what would happen when their water was exhausted.
It was on May 9, 38 days after the MELBOURNE STAR had been sunk, that they were sighted by an American flying boat which came down on the water and taxied alongside. After a flight of two and a half hours they were landed at Bermuda. They were all covered in salt water ulcers and had to have medical attention; but considering the length of time they had been adrift were in unusually good condition.
In the London Gazette of August, 1944, 16 months after their rescue, it was announced that William Best, Greaser; William Joseph Burns, Greaser; Ronald Nunn, Ordinary Seaman; and Leonard White, Able Seaman, had all been awarded the British Empire Medal for outstanding qualities of courage, fortitude and endurance which enabled them to survive the hardships and perils of the long and hazardous ordeal on the raft.
Nunn did not survive to receive his award. He lost his life by enemy action in S.S. Dungrange when that vessel was torpedoed and sunk by an E boat off St. Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight, on June 10th, 1944.
Sources: http://www.bluestarline.org/melbourne1.html. http://www.melbournestar.co.uk/Operation_Pedestal.html.
Blue Star by Atkinson & O’Donoghue – WSS Publication.
Information Mr P Crichton.