大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Northumberland on behalf of Albert Henry (Harry) Thompson. Mr. Thompson fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions, and the story has been added to the site with his permission.

In 1942 or thereabouts, Blue Star Line鈥檚 鈥淧acific Star鈥� was loaded down to her marks and lying low in the water, full of the usual general cargo of butter, meat, tinned eggs, wool, etc. She set off on her voyage from the antipodes bound for no particular designated UK port. Only as she neared Freetown (Sierra Leone) would she have been assigned to a convoy, to complete the journey home.

In the almost inevitable U-boat attack she was hit by a torpedo, leaving a large hole around Number 2 Hold. In normal circumstances, then might have been the time to abandon ship but the order to do so was not given because she sank only three or four feet forward and, for some reason, it was felt that was as far as she was going to sink. She struggled home at a much reduced speed, perhaps five knots.

Long before she got back to the UK, it was obvious that major repairs were needed, so, eventually, she sailed into the river Tyne and up to Newcastle, to berth near Spillers Flour Mill where a start was made to unload her cargo. The stevedores were given strict instructions not to make any opening in Number 2 Hold, rather to concentrate only on Numbers 1, 3, 4, and 5 Holds.

Number 2 Hold held the secret to why the ship did not sink when torpedoed. It was full of frozen lambs, which after the attack became one giant block of buoyant frozen water and meat. A dry dock was prepared at one of the shipyards downriver, where Number 2 Hold was defrosted and cranes were used to pull apart the mass it was holding. Of course, the defrosted meat was not fit for human consumption, yet it was put to good use by being sent to a nearby glue factory!

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