Merchant Navy Day - S.S. Aviemore

 

Merchant Navy Day is observed on the 3^rd of September or the nearest day.

The History of Merchant Navy Day, on the 3^rd of September.  On this day in 1939, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany reacting to Germany's invasion of Poland two days earlier.   King George V bestowed the title of Merchant Navy on British merchant seafarers following the sacrifices of seafarers during the First World War. 3^rd of September 2000 was the official day of Merchant Navy Day. 

S.S. Athenia 1933

The first ship, to be sunk during the Second World War, was the S.S. Athenia, a steam turbine passenger ship, was sunk when U-30 fired a torpedo.

S.S. Athenia, under Captain James Cook's command, left Glasgow on the 1^st for Montreal.  She was carrying 1,103 passengers – 500 Jewish refugees, 4679 Canadians, 311 US citizens and 72 UK subjects, and a crew of 315.  The following day, the 2^nd despite clear indications that war would break out any day S.S. Athenia departed Liverpool.  On the day of the British declaration of war on Germany, 3^rd, S.S. Athenia was 60 nautical miles south of Rockall, and 200 nautical miles south of Inishtrahall, Ireland, when U-30 sighted it. U-30 followed Athenia for three hours when both vessels were between Rockfall and Tory Island, when commander Oberleutant Fritz-Julius Lemp, ordered that two torpedoes should be fired. One exploded on Athenia’s port side in the engine room, when she started to settle by the stern.

S.S. Athenia remained afloat for 14 hours, when she finally sunk, the following morning, the 4^th with the loss of 98 passengers and 19 crew.

S.S. Aviemore
credit - uboat.net

S.S. Aviemore left Swansea captained by Morton Forsythe and a crew of 35 on a voyage to Buenos Aires with a cargo of 5105 tons of tinplate and black sheets.  On the morning of 16^th of September 1939, U.31, under the command of Johannes Habekost, fired a torpedo at the first ship of the convoy, that they were following.  The torpedo hit the Aviemore, which was not part of the convoy OB-4, having travelled ahead of it.

The Aviemore was 220 miles southwest of Cape Clear. 22 crew and the master were lost.  11 crew members were picked by H.M.S. Warwick and landed on the 18^th at Liverpool.

Aviemore was the first ship to be sunk during an attack on a convoy.

Tower Hill Memorial
credit - www.benjidog.co.uk 

Three men from Swansea were lost in the sinking – Alfred Herbert Blake, 37, Boiler Attendant; Iorwerth Rees and William Stanley Vickery both 17-year-old and ranked Ordinary Seaman.  The men are commemorated on both the Tower Hill Memorial, London, and locally at Swansea Merchant Navy Memorial. 

South Wales Daily Post 
21^st September 1939

South Wales Daily Post 
21^st September 1939

The South Wales Daily Post, on the 21^st of September, reports the sinking and those that survived.

H.M.S. Warwick
credit - uboat.net

South Wales Daily Post 
4th March 1944

H.M.S. Warwick, a Royal Navy destroyer with a crew of 160.  U-413 fired two torpedoes at H.M.S. Warwick on 20th February 1944, 15 miles from Trevose Head, north Cornwall.   Three officers and 64 crew members were lost in the sinking.  One of those who lost their lives was Sidney Percival Coates, 18, Able Seaman.  Coates, is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.