MATTERS MARITIME

Gleanings from the news media & Internet

Rememberance Day in the USA - seems things ain't no different there.

Remembering those who served in the Merchant Marines

Marcel Rodriguez

11/10/2006

As a veteran of World War II (U.S. Merchant Marine in the Atlantic War, U.S. Navy in the Pacific War), I was disappointed that The Tribune's Nov. 5 "Tribute to Veterans" chose not to honor the men who served and died delivering the goods that were such a vital part of the war effort.

    In the spring of 1943 I was assigned to the S.S. Robert Morris as a merchant marine cadet and was able to observe America's Merchant Marines as an insider. We waited in New York for three days while a 60-ship convoy was formed, bound for Africa.

    The convoy was escorted by a "free French" destroyer, a British frigate and a "free Netherlands" destroyer. The U.S. Navy was busy elsewhere. An hour out of New York, the convoy was attacked by German U-boats.

    Escorting destroyers, sirens wailing, began making runs outside the convoy lines releasing depth charges at a rapid rate. We could see the nearby geysers of water erupting from the explosions and feel the concussion as the shock waves struck the ship. All hands were at battle stations, which meant that those without specific assignments were at the lifeboats.

    It was there that I noticed the crew was an assortment of men, many of whom could not have passed the physical exam for entry into the armed services. Others were too young, 16 being the required age for going to a maritime service seaman's school. Some were foreign.

    They were sailors from torpedoed Allied cargo ships and had been rescued by the Navy. The cooks and messmen were too old to have been drafted or taken as volunteers in the services. And some commissary staff were African Americans working in an unsegregated environment, unlike the segregated services.

    These, then, were the men of the Merchant Marine. Most did not have to go to sea but they did and they performed their work with e'lan and expertise under the most trying conditions. World War II cargo ships were not today's container ships, operating alongside mechanized port facilities. Shelter from the sea at many wartime ports was marginal, and rigging cargo booms and manning steam winches in a rolling seaway while being strafed by enemy planes was not a job for the faint of heart.

    There were other hardships, not the least of which was the indifference, if not the actual hostility, on the homefront. A young seaman home after a dangerous run in icy waters to the Russian port of Murmansk, a voyage of several months during which the danger of a torpedoing and immersion in freezing water was ever present, often arrived home to be confronted by a gimlet-eyed draft board.

    The draft board only knew that he was home. The details were unimportant. The board wanted him back to sea as quickly as possible or in the Army. I know about this one from personal experience.

    My parents displayed a small banner in a street-facing window. It was red, white and blue, emblazoned with the words "son in the service." Several neighbors went to great pains to point out to my parents that I was not really in the service; I was in the Merchant Marine! It was not a kinder, gentler age.

    Later in the war I accepted a commission in the Navy. As a junior officer aboard an escort aircraft carrier, the USS Anzio CVE 57 operating in the Western Pacific, my experiences were entirely "other." There was an esprit de corps. I knew the folks at home were avidly following the news, that there was genuine concern for my well-being, that I was part of a winning team and not a "draft-dodging, money-grubbing merchant seaman."

    To this day I have the feeling that the folks at home have never understood that whether or not their sons and daughters on the battlefront lived or died was in large part dependent on the ability of the Merchant Marine to deliver the fighting hardware, and they did so, splendidly.

    President Roosevelt, during the signing of the GI Bill in 1944, said, "I trust Congress will soon provide similar opportunities to members of the Merchant Marine who have risked their lives time and again during the war for the welfare of their country."

    It never happened. Roosevelt died and the Sailor's Bill died with him.

    Chances of dying in the services during World War ll were 1 in 34 for the Marines, 1 in 42 for the Army, 1 in 114 for the Navy and 1 in 26 for the Merchant Marine.

    After the war, the merchant seaman received no low-interest home loans, no lifetime compensation for war injuries or disabilities, no use of VA hospitals, no priority for state, local or federal jobs, no paid educational benefits, no Social Security credit for wartime service. The list goes on.

    Some 243,000 merchant mariners served in World War II and the nation has yet to redress the wrongs done them. There are only about 10,000 alive now.

    So, it's a bit late for Congress to take corrective action. It is not too late for the nation to say a belated thank you or to include the gallant seamen who delivered the goods from Normandy to Okinawa in any tribute to veterans. But, as with the Japanese-American citizens wrongfully incarcerated during World War ll, our nation finds apology and redress a painfully difficult process.

   ---

    * MARCEL RODRIGUEZ, Lt. USNR (Ret.) was an engineering officer on cargo ships after the war. He now lives in Springville and is a seasonal interpretive ranger at Zion National Park.

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Survivors remember

11 November 2006 

By MELANIE LOUDEN

From NZstuff.com

Jack Newman and Bill Hunter led similar lives as young navy men. 

 In World War Two they were even in the same part of Italy during a German air attack that destroyed 17 ships and killed hundreds.

But it wasn't until they both joined the Papatoetoe RSA 25 years ago that they met, realised they had much in common and became firm friends. Both men served in World War Two from 1942 to 1946 after joining the merchant navy as 16-year-olds. Mr Newman was in London and Mr Hunter in Scotland.

Today, November 11, the old pals will join thousands of other war veterans and families across the country as they commemorate Armistice Day, the official end of World War One.

They will turn out with their medals for a march organised by the Manurewa RSA. Veterans will march to the cenotaph outside Manurewa Central School where wreaths will be laid and two minutes silence observed.

It will be one of the final public commemorations in the Year of the Veteran which marks the 90th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Returned Services Association.

Jack Newman & Bill Hunter.

At the age of 16, Mr Newman joined the training ship Vindicatrix, based in Gloucester, for a three-month course. 

He spent 18 months in the Mediterranean taking part in the Allied invasions. At one time he was part of a convoy of 70 ships and he worked on vessels that carried around 18,000 troops.

On one journey from the United States to Britain, singer Bing Crosby was on board and performed three shows a day for the troops.

Mr Newman remembers being sent home to London for breaks but it wasn't much of a break, he says.

"You had no peace because there was bombing all through the night. There was no sleep."

1946 he arrived in New Zealand looking for a new adventure.

Mr Hunter joined the navy because he too was looking for an adventure.

He went down to the docks to sign up and forged his parents' signatures.

His first trip was to Iceland and he also took part in the invasions and the liberation of Europe.

On December 2, 1943 Mr Hunter experienced the true horror of war in a mustard gas incident that was to have a long-term impact on him.

He was on duty on board a ship berthed at Bari, Italy, when German JU-88 bombers attacked the port.

Seventeen ships were sunk including an American vessel the John Harvey which was carrying mustard gas intended for use in retaliation by the Allies should German forces initiate gas warfare.

The presence of the gas was highly classified and authorities ashore had no knowledge of it.

The whole affair was kept secret at the time and for many years after. 

There is still dispute over the number of fatalities. One account says 69 were attributed to the mustard gas, most of them American merchant seamen but others put the toll as high as more than 2000 Allied servicemen and Italian.

When the German planes attacked Mr Hunter was blown from the gun deck where he had been firing at the enemy.

He was knocked unconscious and woke to find shell holes through the ship's funnel and the harbour in complete darkness.

A deadly mixture of mustard gas and oil was falling on everyone in the area. Mr Hunter managed to wash himself clean which probably saved his life.

He continued to serve in the merchant navy after the war.

On a ship in New Zealand he was struck by appendicitis and after a stay in hospital decided to make his home here.

The effects of the mustard gas caught up with him and at the age of 58 he retired because of poor health. In 1976 doctors confirmed gas damage to his lungs.

The British government acknowledged its responsibility for Mr Hunter's medical condition so he has returned to the UK several times for specialist treatment.

Both men say Armistice Day is an important occasion and a good chance to recognise the work of navy officers.

"The merchant navy has had very little recognition in the past," Mr Newman says.

"Now they have found out that we have often done more service than men in the air force and army had done."

THE LAST KIWI MANNED SHIP FINISHES

Last Kiwi Crew On Trans-Tasman Vessel Stage Shipboard Protest In Ports Of Auckland    

7:13 am, 04 Nov 2006   

  Members of the Maritime Union are staging a protest today on board a vessel at the Ports of Auckland.

 Maritime Union Auckland Seafarers Branch Secretary Garry Parsloe says the crew members started their protest on the trans-Tasman freighter Rotoiti at the Ports of Auckland Bledisloe Terminal at 7am this morning Saturday 4 November 2006.  

He says the crew are drawing attention to the fact that when the Rotoiti is withdrawn from service on 26 November, it will be the end of the last New Zealand crewed ship working on the trans-Tasman trade.

"The vessel is going yet the cargo remains, but the jobs are threatened, and these New Zealand seafarers want to have some work in their own trans-Tasman trade."

Mr Parsloe says it was not a redundancy situation as the work was still there, but would be going to other vessels – none of which have any New Zealand crew members. He says the crew want jobs for New Zealand seafarers on the trans-Tasman trade and were staging their action to get dialogue with the employer.  The vessel is currently owned by international shipping line Hapag Lloyd but since 1999, crew have been under Anglo-Eastern ship management.

 Mr Parsloe says the situation is a shocking one, considering the importance of shipping to New Zealand as an economically and environmentally efficient transport mode."We are in a situation where New Zealand cargo is being carried, but there is no work for our own people." New Zealand seafarers had worked on the Rotoiti since 1975.

Ed note the photo is of the 'Union Rotoiti' I think it is the same ship as the this media report. uilt in Whyalla South Oz in 1976. Anyhow it will have to 'do' as i couldn't find a photo of any other 'Rotoiti"

He says that the national conference of the Maritime Union in October had committed to action on the issue. The Maritime Union had been in contact with overseas maritime unions for assistance with the matter.  

The Maritime Union has challenged all shipping companies to recognize their social responsibility towards New Zealand crews, and has determined to maintain New Zealand seafarers on vessels that carry cargo on the trans-Tasman and international trade.

ENDS

 Maritime union wins agreement over Trans-Tasman crews

 04 November 2006 

Protesting sailors at Auckland's waterfront have packed up and gone home after a shipping company agreed to talk about the future of trans-Tasman ship crews. Members of the Maritime Union stopped the Hapag Lloyd ship Rotoiti from being unloaded at the Ports of Auckland Bledisloe Terminal early today.

 The 31-year-old ship was due to be retired but the union was worried once that happened the trans-Tasman cargo would be carried on other company ships without New Zealand crew members. However, union spokesman Garry Parsloe said the protest was withdrawn when the company agreed to talk about crews, particularly on the trans-Tasman route.  He said the union was not demanding a ship but wanted berths for some New Zealand sailors. "What we were after was some dialogue. They have some social responsibility to us.

 "They are living off the profits they are getting out of this country and they should be putting something back in."

 Mr Parsloe said the company said today it would discuss keeping some of the New Zealand crew on the trans-Tasman routes. "We are not even asking for another ship. We are just asking for them to pick up a few of our people and share them through the fleet."

 The ship was due to sail for Sydney and Melbourne tomorrow and return to Auckland on November 18

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World's biggest container ship arrives at Felixstowe

04 November 2006  

 The Emma Maersk 

EXCITED ship-spotters came from far and wide to see the spectacular sight of the Emma Maersk - the world's biggest container ship - as she sailed in to Felixstowe port.

With binoculars poised, the enthusiasts had waited patiently from early afternoon, keen not to miss the 398-metre long vessel's approach to Harwich Harbour from the North Sea after its across-the-world journey from Tanjong Pelapas in Malaysia.

The edge of the viewing area next to Felixstowe port was packed with people as the huge vessel came round Landguard Point, ready to be turned around in the harbour with the help of tugs and then berthed alongside the deep water quay at Trinity Terminal.

Earlier a pilot was sent out by launch to the ship when it was about 15 miles off the coast.

 Crowds watch the arrival 

Bigger & Better pictures of the Emma Maersk on the 'A Big B' page.

Hard to believe that one ship can drop of 45000 tonnes as just 'part cargo'

The vessel, which is powered by the largest diesel engine in the world, is on its maiden voyage, laden with goods destined for High Street store shelves for the Christmas shopping season.

It can carry between 11,000 and 14,500 containers - considerably more than the next biggest ship - and was due to unload around 3,000 of these, about 45,000 tonnes.Work on unloading was due to start at 8pm this evening and take a day, before the vessel sails to its next port-of-call, Rotterdam.

WEBLINK: www.portoffelixstowe.co.uk

With a declared capacity of 11,000 TEU, the Emma Maersk is able to handle a significantly greater number of containers than any other ship currently in operation. It has a length of 397 metres, over 31 metres longer than the next longest container ship, the Maersk G classes, and a width of 57 metres, 15 metres wider than any other container ship. If the containers on board were lined up end-to-end, they would stretch approximately 42 miles.Built at the Odense Steel Ship Yard in Denmark, it has a gross tonnage of 156,907, and a maximum draught of 16.5 metres. Its engine yields 110,000 Horse Power, equivalent to more than 1,000 saloon cars.

The vessel is longer than the height of some well-known landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, which measures 320 metres, and the Empire State Building, at 381 metres.

It is four times the length of a normal football pitch, and has arrived at the Port of Felixstowe during the peak pre-Christmas season, laden with goods for the High Street. Amongst the gifts on board likely to be filling stockings this Christmas are Playstations, MP3 players and digital cameras.

Chris Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, which owns of the Port of Felixstowe, commented, “The Port of Felixstowe, the shipping community, and shipping enthusiasts have all been waiting in anticipation for some time to get the first glimpse of the Emma Maersk.

“A vessel of this size will be a spectacular sight - dwarfing its competitors - and we are more than delighted to welcome the Emma Maersk here in Felixstowe."

He continued, “Vessels of this scale have been predicted for some years now, and we are finally starting to see them materialise.

“This proves that containerised trade is growing at an amazing pace, and underlines the need for new facilities, such as at Felixstowe South and Bathside Bay, to meet this growing demand.

Overall, the Emma Maersk has a deadweight approximately 40% greater than its nearest rival, the Xin Los Angeles, operated by China Shipping Container Line. This ship was the previous holder of the world’s largest container ship accolade, when it called at the Port of Felixstowe in July.

Employed on the AE1 Service, the Emma Maersks service rotation includes: Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Algeciras, Singapore, Yantian, Hong Kong, Tanjung Pelapas, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg.

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Veterans' Arctic 'insult' fury

HAZEL MOLLISON

VETERANS of a Second World War "suicide mission" are calling on the Scottish Parliament to recognise their bravery after they were presented with "insulting badges that look like they came out of a crisp packet".

Penicuik grandfather Keith Dyble is leading a campaign to honour those who took part in the Arctic convoys. He is being backed by MSP Christine Grahame, whose uncle took part in the campaign.

Mr Dyble was just 22 when he sailed through the frozen waters to deliver weapons and munitions to their Russian allies. He watched hundreds of fellow Royal Marines and merchant seamen drown when their ships were torpedoed by German submarines.

After years of campaigning, the Ministry of Defence commissioned a special Arctic emblem this year. But Mr Dyble, 86, said many veterans were "absolutely disgusted" that they were only being offered a badge, and some even refused to accept it.

Furthermore, they were disappointed with the appearance of the badge, which is only about the size of a penny piece.

He said: "This is an absolute disgrace. This wee button looks like a shirt button or a badge which has come out of a crisp packet. We fought hard and this is the reward, a button which barely fits on your lapel. This is not about recognition for myself but for those men we had to leave behind. They were crying out, shouting for help. We couldn't stop to pick them up because it was too dangerous. They deserve far more. The survivors, and the wives and children of those who died deserve to be recognised."

Arctic veteran Albert Mortimer displays his arctic Star on the deck of HMS Ark Royal at Rosyth.

He took part in three missions as a gunner's yeoman between 1941 and 1942. On one operation, out of 37 ships that left Iceland for Archangel in Northern Russia only 11 got through. Eight of these limped in after coming under attack. Around 3000 soldiers and sailors lost their lives in the convoys. Despite the heavy losses, the supplies which got through - including 12,755 tanks, 22,200 aircraft, 375,800 trucks and four million tons of ammunition - helped the Russians repel the Germans and turn the tide in the war.

The Russian government has already awarded three medals to British convoy veterans. But the heroics of the 5000 seamen and Royal Marines who took part in the convoys were not recognised in the UK until this year.  Ms Grahame is now calling on Scottish ministers, who have responsibility for veterans' issues under devolution, to properly recognise their sacrifices. She hopes to have the motion debated by MSPs. She said: "Many of the young sailors and seamen were told at the time the convoys were virtual suicide missions and suffered sustained attack by German surface and submarine forces." She said it was "inexplicable" they had been forgotten so far.

*****

Judges say merchant shipwreck can be war grave

Two sisters fighting to have the torpedoed merchant navy ship on which their father died during the second world war designated a war grave scored an important victory yesterday in the court of appeal.

The ruling in favour of Rosemary Fogg and Valerie Ledgard opens the way for others whose relatives were lost in merchant navy vessels sunk by enemy action

while travelling in convoy with military ships to apply for their resting places to be protected as war graves.

The final decision, however, still rests with the defence secretary.

Yachting Monthly, 6 October 2006

*****

Appeals court ruling

The Court of Appeal last week ruled that the wreck of the merchant ship S.S. Storaa, sunk by an enemy torpedo off Hastings in 1943 with the loss of 21 of her

crew, can be protected as a war grave.

Three senior judges, including the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, dismissed a claim by the Secretary of State for Defence that the wreck is not eligible for protection, and they endorsed a High Court judgment made in 2005 that the Ministry of Defence was illegally withholding protection.

This is the latest stage in a long running legal battle, started in 2000 by Dr. Peter Marsden of the Shipwreck & Coastal Heritage Centre in Hastings, for the wreck to

be protected. The wreck is threatened by commercial  salvage, diving souvenir hunters and a nearby scheme to extract over 70 million tonnes of seabed gravel.

Dr. Marsden said "I am thrilled with we result. This has been a roller-coaster ride of claims, counter claims and misinformation that necessitated our having to send a

diving archaeologist to survey the wreck last year. I am grateful to the range of experts who helped identify the ship, its cargo of military vehicles and caterpillar tracks of Sherman tanks, and the bones of a human leg concreted to the deck".

Strictly, the case was brought by the daughters of Petty Officer James Varndell, a Royal Navy gunner who died. They were found by Dr. Marsden with the help of

the Merchant Navy Association. The ship had been armed by the Admiralty, had armed forces gunners, was carrying a military cargo, and was sunk whilst in

action against German E-boats.

When the Ministry of Defence objected to protection because they considered that the ship was not "in military service", Eleanor Sharpston QC, a trustee of the Shipwreck & Coastal Heritage Centre, took the case to the High Court. She is now Britain's Advocate General in Luxembourg.

This is a landmark case that for the first time defines the military status of the wartime merchant navy, and opens up the possibility for protection for several thousand sunken merchant ships, in which over 50,000 seamen died, from both world wars.

There is a special exhibition on the S.S. Storaa at the

Shipwreck & Coastal Heritage Centre in Rock-a-Nore

Road, Hastings.

12 October 2006 Hastings News UK.

AIR INDIA PLANE CRASH INQUEST 

Seamen from British ship give evidence at inquest.

Kim Bolan, CanWest News Service

Published: Thursday, September 28, 2006

OTTAWA -- It was the baby from Air India Flight 182 that most bothered British merchant mariner Mark Stagg.

After hours of helping with the recovery of bodies from the bombed airliner on June 24, 1985, the infant was passed to Stagg on the deck of the freighter Laurentian Forest by a helicopter winchman.

"He is crying as he passes me the bundle," Stagg testified at the Air India inquiry. "I look down into the towel; he or she is perfect and beautiful. I rested my face on the baby's cheek and it was so cold." He was forced to stick the dead baby in a giant plastic bag.

"Now sitting here with all of you, I cannot begin to describe the utter wrongness of putting children in plastic bags," Stagg said.

His shipmate Daniel Brown remembers the look of terror on an elderly Sikh man's face as he dragged his body by its long grey hair into a lifeboat.

Brown wept as he recalled thinking that the man knew what was happening to him when the jumbo jet broke apart in mid-air after a terrorist bomb exploded.

"His eyes wide open, his mouth wide open, he was screaming, his teeth were decayed. He had the look of horror in his face," Brown told Justice John Major, the inquiry commissioner.

Brown and Stagg were hopeful when they arrived at the scene aboard their cargo ship that they would find survivors. Instead they saw only death and devastation.

British and Irish rescuers provided hours of graphic testimony at the inquiry, bringing most in the hearing room to tears.

The men also described their personal turmoil after being thrust into the gruesome recovery task that has haunted them since that day.

Some have had breakdowns. They suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome including nightmares, violent outbursts, anxiety attacks and fear of flying.

Brown said one shipmate walked off the boat that day and never returned.

He remembers seamen vomiting and crying as they helped him drag the bodies into a small open lifeboat which Brown said was identical to the ones the Titanic used.

Seanie Murphy, the captain of an Irish coast guard vessel that spent six hours racing to the wreckage site, said he later coped by not speaking of what happened that day.

"I have never spoken in depth about it," he said, breaking down with emotion.

His vessel nearly ran out of fuel, but still recovered the bodies of a man, three women and a child.

Murphy, who lives on an island off the southwest coast of Ireland, named all the crew from his ship so they would be on the official Canadian record created by this inquiry, for which victims' families have lobbied for two decades.

He has had the chance to meet some of the relatives of those who perished in the bombing.