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THE STOKER, A VERY BRAVE MAN,
GAVE HIS LIFE TO SAVE THE SHIP'
G.T.H. Green, Birmingham
I was a radio telegraphist when, towards the
end of April 1941, we left Iceland aboard
H.M.S. Foresight, a fleet destroyer, bound for
Murmansk. There were 14 merchant ships, the
cruiser H.M.S. Edinburgh, H.M.S. Forester
(our sister ship) and four older ex-American de-
stroyers... On the night of April 31, Edinburgh,
Forester and ourselves were ordered to search
for three German destroyers who were hunting
the convoy. I was on the second dog watch
(6pm - 8pm). The sea was very rough, visibility
only a few yards, driving snow squalls and tem-
perature about -60 degrees. Suddenly the low-
frequency receiver crackled, telling me that
Edinburgh had received two torpedo hits from a
U Boat ((U 356) which had blown her stem
away. She could neither steer nor make way.
We and Forester made our best speed to reach
her. Our Captain decided he would try to tow
her to Murmansk. For 12 hours we tried to get a
wire hawser aboard. When we did the strain
was so great that it snapped, recoiling like a
whiplash. It would have killed any man in its
path... Suddenly the three destroyers we were
searching for found us. Before we realised it,
shells were exploding round us. We received
Admiralty orders to sink Edinburgh quickly to
prevent her being captured. We put two
torpedoes into her, sinking her in minutes.
The three Germans decided to sink Forester
first. They came three abreast, throwing every-
thing they had at her. In a matter of seconds she

was a blazing hulk. All her superstructure had

been blown away and all her officers, with
many of the crew, killed. Knowing she was no
danger, they turned to fight us. In the interim,
we had fired torpedoes and hit the Herman
Schoemann, sinking her. But during those few
seconds they hit us with two direct hits. One of
exploded in the boiler room, killing all who
were down there and ripping a hole the size of a
bus in our port side. The ship slowly came to a
halt, listing badly. We all felt this was the end of
our story. The Chief Stoker, a very brave man,

gave his life to save the ship. He went into the
wrecked boiler room in scalding steam to turn
the main taps off and prevent the ship from
blowing up. He died within minutes. I cannot
understand why the two destroyers didn't finish
us off. Instead, they turned away.
Our Captain gave the order to abandon ship.
We knew that if we went into the sea we would

last about five minutes; there were only rafts
for the crew. Then the Captain discovered that
his lifeboat was frozen to the davits and could
not be lowered. He rescinded the order to
abandon ship and asked us if we would be
prepared to save her or go down with her. We
gave three cheers — and he placed a barrel of
rum on the deck to help ourselves. The ship
was now listing 30 degrees, in danger of
capsizing. We moved everything to the
starboard side. After eight hours she had nearly
righted and the hole was out of the water. We
plugged it with hammocks, kitbags, everything
we could... Towards midnight we got an
auxiliary engine going, giving us about five
knots. We put a hawser to Forester who by that
time had put out the fires. It held fast. By the
grace of God we arrived at Murmansk. All that
was left was to bury our dead. There were 35 .of
them, sewn up in their hammocks. They were
committed to the deep a few miles from Kola.

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