大象传媒

My grandfather, Joel C. E. Blamey, joined the Royal Navy in 1920 as an apprentice naval artificer. He was subscripted into the submarine service in 1926 aged 22, where he spent the next 28 years surviving both peacetime accidents and World War II. He retired after almost 37 years in the Navy and at the age of 99 is believed to be the oldest surviving submariner, at least in this country. He attributes his survival to God and good fortune.
Shortly before the outbreak of war he was posted to HMS Porpoise from HMS Seahorse replacing the chief engineer who had reported sick. HMS Seahorse was subsequently sunk early in the war with a loss of all hands. This was his first bit of good luck. As the situation in Europe worsened Porpoise was assigned to mine laying duties and initially sent to Malta. It was while she was here that war was declared and she was recalled for mine laying duties in the Skagerrak and around Helgioland. She was later accredited with sinking the first German submarine of the War.
From mine laying Porpoise went on to escort convoys of iron ore shipments from Sweden. There were near misses with the enemy and our own mine fields to avoid in the North Sea.
It was during this period that notice came through that he was to be posted to H31, a training submarine. However at the request of his captain his outside ERA was sent in his place. H31 was subsequently posted missing, presumed sunk when it was sent to sea to prevent the escape of the German ship Scharnhorst which was at the time sheltering in the harbour at Brest. Luck was with Grandpa once more.
Porpoise was assigned to anti U-boat patrols in the Bay of Biscay before being sent on a mine laying operation off the Norwegian coast. They were fifty miles inside a Norwegian fjord when the bows became grounded on an uncharted sandbank in sight of the enemy. Risking hitting the newly laid mines they managed to get off the sandbank by going full speed astern and executing a stern dive. Fortunately the enemy must have been still asleep or looking the other way and they escaped without further incident. The Blamey luck held once more!
After a year of war Porpoise was transferred to escorting Atlantic convoys from Canada. Being an older class submarine they were assigned to the doing the Canadian side of the convoy meeting their counterparts half way across the Atlantic. Throughout the winter they endured extreme weather and survived one particularly bad storm in February 1941 during which the bridge casing amongst other things was badly damaged.
After 6 months Porpoise returned to the UK for a refit before being sent to the Mediterranean, surviving a diving accident on route which damaged the hull. This meant that they could no longer dive below 200 feet and would hamper their evasive action tactics, particularly in the clear Mediterranean waters. After some repairs at Gibraltar they were ordered to proceed to Malta, which was being heavily bombed and blockaded by the Germans. Porpoise was to join the blockade runners delivering vital supplies to the beleaguered island. Negotiating the mine swept channels both around Malta and Alexandria was a hazardous and nerve racking experience, followed by trying to offload their precious cargo at night to avoid enemy air raids. To enable maximum cargo to be carried fuel was kept to a minimum which didn鈥檛 allow for much attacking of enemy ships on the return leg of the journey to Alexandria.
After some near misses, engine trouble and one accident Porpoise was alongside at Alexandria for repairs when the signal came through to evacuate the city. The parent ship Medway left immediately leaving Porpoise to follow on. With repairs complete she set sail 24 hours later. En route they received a signal saying that Medway had been torpedoed and sunk by the enemy leaving the submarine flotilla parentless and with a loss of valuable stores. Fortunately as she took 20 minutes to sink her crew and submarine staff were rescued by her destroyer escorts. Porpoise was transferred to the base at Beirut for the rest of her tour of duty.
Returning to Beirut following yet another Malta run they were ordered to intercept an enemy convoy. Proceeding on the surface just before dawn they were detected and intercepted by a German destroyer which attempted to ram them, narrowly missing their stern. The order was given to dive but before they had a chance to alter course or go into silent routine the enemy was back over them dropping depth charges. Fuses blew and they were temporarily plunged into darkness. They endured further bouts of depth charges, severely shaking the boat, putting gauges out of action and causing many water, oil and high pressure air leaks. The captain used the cover of the noise from the depth charges to change course and depth but was restricted to a maximum of 200 feet due to the hull damage that they had previously sustained. These attacks continued for about 2 hours while the engineering crew were kept busy tightening leaking joints. During this period it became obvious that the ship鈥檚 batteries were being damaged by the force of the depth charges. Suddenly the attacks ceased and all was quiet although it was assumed that the enemy destroyer would continue to patrol the area for some hours to come. Knowing they had suffered considerable electrical damage and with time running out Porpoise was forced to come to the surface. After a few tense minutes expecting to be blown out of the water they surfaced to find the enemy nowhere in sight and though they were unable to dive again they were able to make for base nearly 700 miles away, although they were sitting ducks for several hours the first day before nightfall came. They received escorts for the rest of the hazardous journey before limping into Port Said for repairs. Grandpa鈥檚 luck had held once more!
Fully repaired Porpoise made several more uneventful trips from Beirut to Malta before returning to the UK for a refit in time for Christmas 1942. Early 1943 saw several of the crew at Buckingham Palace where my grandfather amongst them received the DSM. Promotion followed and he was posted as EO to standby HMS Shalimar which was being built at Chatham dockyard. On completion early in 1944 Shalimar was sent for workout trials to Scotland joining the newly built Trenchard and Strongbow. At the last moment with trials almost complete Strongbow鈥檚 EO went sick and my grandfather, much to his disappointment having overseen Shalimar鈥檚 near completion, was urgently requested to be his replacement. Their destination was to be Trincomalee and war with the Japanese!
On arriving in the Far East Strongbow took up war patrols in the Malacca Straits endeavouring to stop supplies and reinforcements reaching the Japanese in Burma. Many supply ships were large Chinese junks which often had to be boarded and sunk with a scuttling charge, a hazardous occupation for all involved.
Early in 1945 they were operating early one morning on the extreme edge of their patrol area and in shallow water when they were spotted by enemy anti-submarine vessels. They immediately went to silent routine but it appeared the enemy had some sort of ASDIC capabilities and closed for the attack. Several hours of depth charging runs followed while Strongbow鈥檚 captain continued to try and find deeper water. The boat became stiflingly hot as the fans had been stopped as part of the silent routine. After 8 hours another severe attack sent Strongbow into a steep bow down dive and she hit the bottom at 170 feet. There were several leaks due to the pressure of the depth charges but the cause of the sudden downward plunge was damage to the rear hydroplanes and steering mechanism. Under my grandfather鈥檚 direction the engineering crew set about effecting temporary repairs, no mean task with the enemy still lurking overhead. Late in the afternoon, with the atmosphere deteriorating, all appeared quiet above and the captain decided to take the boat off the bottom and come to periscope depth. Gingerly they started to surface only to discover that the high powered periscope was utterly useless. Using the attack periscope they were able to spot the enemy at a distance and take evasive action. Eventually at 22.00 they surfaced and were able to ventilate the boat and charge the main batteries. The enemy were still searching for them and they had to take evasive action once more before resurfacing and making towards the Sumatran coast. They limped northwards and arrived back at base 5 days later thanking God for a very narrow escape. However Grandpa鈥檚 celebrations were tempered by the news that HMS Porpoise in which he had served on the Malta convoys had been lost on only her 2nd patrol in the Far East.
Soon after the war in Europe ended Strongbow was ordered to return to the UK and this effectively ended the war for her crew too. Grandpa received the DSC for his efforts when Strongbow was under enemy attack.
30 years ago my grandfather wrote an account of his life in the Navy for his family and last year at the age of 98 his story, including these exploits was finally published.

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