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This story is submitted by Malcolm Mort of the Cardiff Merchant Navy Association, on behalf of Leslie Alan Boucher and is added to the site with his permission.

From what I can remember we were a fair way into our journey when we became the second victim of seven sinking in an afternoon submarine attact.

I was standing on a plank staging in the engine room wiping part of the ships side when there were two loud bangs. The ship shuddered and felt the platework rippling and turned away losing my balance and falling on top of one of the main engines. The sea was gushing in from the hole in the ships side. Fortunately one of the engineers managed to help me off the top of the engine, and on to the stairway which between the two main engines. After climbing the stairs to the engine room exit door, we found that were unable to open it.

The water below in the engine room was rising fast. In the day light through the engine room skylight, we climbed up the stairway to the funnel spaces, and got on to the boat deck. The lower deck was awash and we were listing to one side and down by the stern. Being concerenced about being sucked down by the sinking ship when it finally went down, we jumped in to the sea and swam clear of it. I noticed that there were two other crew members nearer the ship hanging on to bales of wool. I was not a very good swimmer but managed to stay afloat until somebody in a lifeboat grabbed me by the neck and got me out of the water. From what I could see the escort ships were dashing about in their attempts to protect the convoy. But as soon as they moved from their original positions in pursuit of the ememy, the ships which they had been protecting were changed. The first torpedo had hit the hold just aft of the bridge filling it with water.

Suddenly our ship sunk beneath the waves taking the two crewmwn and the wool bales with it. However after a short time they resurfaced still hanging on to the bales and were picked up by the lifeboats, afterwards we made our way to be taken on board the Baron Dunmore which was a 鈥楧efensively equipped merchant ship with an open forcastle where the DEMS gunners hung their hammocks. Come to think of it. Thank god for the hammocks because a couple of us used to lay in them when the gunners used to go up to the guns to do their watch.

Our first meal was a stew with a large hard wartime biscuit which I would not have eaten if I had鈥檔t been so hungry. Some of the crew told us that they normally had very little food without taking us on board and sharing what they had鈥檔t got. Such was the Merchant Navy crew humour about wartime ships food.

We were transferred to a Red Cross Ship on arrival at Loch Uewe where we spent the night before being driven in an army lorry to a seamens boarding house in Glasgow. Fortunately all of our crew survived. The next day our shipping agent came to see me and gave me 拢100, to buy clothes and pay my train fare home to Cardiff.

A week passed before I visited the office of our Cardiff shipping agent who paid me 拢700 in compensation and earnings for that voyage.

My next voyage was on the MV Arosa, another Norwegian ship. Apart from the daily ship going routine we experienced no enemy action until we returned to Hull in the UK eight months later while it was being bombed by German aircraft.

Throughout the rest of the war I did鈥檔t experience any attacks at sea. I was awarded the 1939-45, War Medal. The 1939-45 Star, and the 1939-45 Star.

After the war I joined the British Merchant Navy which for pension purposes refused to count my Norwegian sea time, inspite of me remaining in the MN until I reached my age of retirement.

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