大象传媒

On New Year's Eve, 1942 I was on of two coders serving on a destroyer based at Plymouth and escorting a coastal convoy from Portsmouth to Milford Haven. A westerly force- eight gale was blowing and we were pleased to get into harbour at about 7pm. We oiled up straight away and had orders to replenish food supplies the next morning and be ready to sail at 10am. We fully expected to be taking another convoy to Portsmouth, but at 10pm. we had orders to sail immediately to search for a torpedoed oil tanker, the Regent Lion, which was drifting in the Atlantic about 700 miles west of Ireland.
Going into a head-on sea, whipped up by gale-force winds, we were rolling. pitching and tossing. We made slow progress and the crew suffered several injuries. Eventually, after about 72 hours, we found the Regent Lion drifting in the Atlantic. By this time the gale was subsiding and it was possible to put an officer and about a dozen of our crew aboard the tanker which had been sailing light in a convoy back to America. Having secured a tow on board we started the long journey back to England. There was a note in the captain's cabin to say that the tanker had been torpedoed and all the crew had been taken off on to a destroyer escort.
Naturally there was no lighting or electricity on board the tanker and the fridges had all stopped working. The only food worth having was a large quantity of tinned fruit, corned beef and the like which was duly transferred to the destroyer to be distributed among our crew.
We were only allowed to receive coded signals from England and we were not able to transmit a reply because it would have been picked up by the Germans and used to find our position. A flying boat shadowed us each day and messages were transmitted to it by means of hand-held aldis lamps and these messages were passed to Plymouth by wireless.
For 22 days the destroyer had towed the torpedoed oil tanker the Regent Lion across 700 miles of Atlantic Ocean but as the two vessels neared Land's End another gale blew up and the tow parted. By now, in sight of land, we were able to use visual signals to one of the many shore stations and a Dutch ocean-going tug was sent to the rescue and brought the tanker safely into Falmouth.
Our captain reminded our relief crew on the tanker that they were still under his command and in no circumstances were they to leave until they had direct orders from him, no matter how much anyone tried to persuade them. Apparently this was because the Dutch would have been able to claim all the salvage money if none of our crew were aboard.We were told that all our crew would receive salvage money but possibly not until the war was over.In 1952 I received a letter from the Admiralty asking to send any information I had that I had served on HMS Melbreak in order to claim the salvage money. I was quite excited in October 1952 when I received the letter and had high hopes of seeing a bumper cheque inside for all the hardships we had endured but my dreams were quickly scuppered when I found a cheque for my share- it was a cheque for 拢2 16s 8d!

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