大象传媒

This is an account as written by my dad ...

S.S. Helmspey had been out from the U.K. approximately nine months and was homebound at the time of the sinking. The majority of her cargo consisted of manganese ore and bales of raw rubber loaded at various Asiatic ports. The length of the voyage and the nature of these ports caused the ship鈥檚 bottom to be quite fouled with corresponding loss of speed and this possibly contributed to her sinking.

On leaving East London South Africa, after taking on oil bunkers she was found too slow for coastal convoys and was independently routed to Cape town for inclusion in a slower U.K. bound convoy.

At the time of the sinking I was asleep in my cabin on the starboard side just abaft of the no. 2 cargo hold when the first torpedo struck on the port side of that hold. It is hard to believe now but I slept through that explosion and it was necessary for an able seaman running to his boat station to shake me awake through an open porthole, youth is a marvelous thing!

At this stage the vessel had a slight list port but there was no danger of sinking. Engines were stopped; the crews ordered to abandon ship and both port and starboard main lifeboats were lowered into the water. The port lifeboat was directed to stay alongside and wait for await the arrival of the Captain and First Officer who were making a damage inspection of the ship. During this period the second torpedo struck the port side of the engine room and directly under the port lifeboat, which was still alongside. All loss of life and injuries were amongst the crew in this lifeboat. The Captain and First Officer were blown from the main deck into the forward well deck, luckily this was partly full of water and they were not injured.

Our starboard lifeboat picked up the survivors from the water and after approximately four hours a South African Air Force rescued us launch responding to our S.O.S. While awaiting this launch we watched our vessel break it鈥檚 back and sink in what seemed like an agonizing length of time. This was extremely sad to me, as I had served three months on her as a cadet. We were taken into Port Elizabeth and spent three months there before being repatriated to the U.K.

In retrospect it is my considered opinion that this vessel should not have been lost. Being as we were so close to the coast I feel sure that if we had kept way on the ship and turned to starboard we would have avoided the second torpedo and run aground. Of course it鈥檚 so easy to surmise these things afterwards but a totally different situation at the time.

T.E. Price

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