My 2nd draft H.M.S. SUNFLOWER

I arrived in Chatham on the 13th August 1942 and remained there until I was drafted to a Flower Class Corvette named the SUNFLOWER Penant 41 I served aboard her from the 3/11/1942 until the 27/2/1943, built and launched in 19/8/1940 and based in Londonderry and scrapped in August 1947. It was a repeat of my previous journey to join the Destroyer H.M.S.LEAMINGTON. On arrival, I was billeted with a very nice family, the house was just outside one of the Gates of Londonderry. While I waited for the return of the Sunflower from convoy duty in the North Atlantic,I was kept busy doing fire watching duties at night and brushing up on the Morse code and signal flags during the day. I joined her on 2nd November 1942. The ship's company was made up of British, Newfoundland and Canadian ratings, we were all volunteers.

The Flower class Corvettes were designed to escort and defend merchant shipping from U-boat attacks. They were definately not designed for comfort. It was said of these Corvettes that they could stay at sea in all weathers. They were capable ofapproximately 16 knots and at that speed the range was 2360 nautical miles, at 10 knots the range went up to 5000 nautical miles. The armament consisted of a 4-inch gun, in the SUNFLOWER'S case, it was manufactured in 1914. A single barreled Pom Pom gun, mounted on a raised platform midships. The starboard and port side well decks each had a Depth Charge thrower and on the stern were two chutes with depth charges all ready primed and only requiring a "Depth" to be set before being released off the stern. There were 2 further storage racks of depth charges, all primed and ready to replace those that had been dropped. We carried approximately 65 Depth Charges. The ship's compliment was approximately 65 officers and ratings.

On the day we were moving to another berth in order to take on stores and fuel, I fell over board as I was attempting to pull a fender in-board. I leaned on the guardrail which, unfortunately, had not been made secure so into the river I went. I had no life belt on. When I surfaced, I could feel the throb of the turning propeller as the corvette started to move. I was fearful of being sucked under and as I desparately struggled to stay afloat, a "heaving line" hit me; I grabbed it and hung on for dear life. A red bearded Newfoundland able seaman, by the name of Furey, who had seen me fall over board had thrown the heaving line down to me. So there I was hanging on to the end of a heaving line, being towed along to the new berth further along the quay. Only when the Corvette was tied up, and the engines stopped, was I then pulled in-board. After I had stripped off my wet clothes, had a wash down and put on dry clothes the Chief Bosun came down into the "Mess" and informed me that I had been put on the defaulters list for "jumping ship"(desertion). He allayed my fears when he said that it was a nautical term, to cover the incident of falling overboard. He then escorted me down to the Officers' Flat (Wardroom) in front of the officer of the day who happened to be "Jimmy the one"(Second officer in command). He inquired if I was alright after my experience, I replied in the affirmative. He handed me a large glass of Rum (some times refered to as Nelson's Blood) for medicinal purposes he hastened to add. After he dismissed me, I went looking for my rescuer to thank him for his quick action at saving me. My mess mates were very good; they had washed my wet clothing and hung them in the boiler room to dry. My naval issue belt contained some coins and a one pound note, one of my mess mates had even ironed out the one pound note to dry it.

It is my wish, one day, to be able to sail across the Atlantic and visit the last surviving Corvette H.M.C.S.SACKVILLE berthed in HALIFAX Nova Scotia. While I had been awaiting the return of the SUNFLOWER, I had the great pleasure of meeting a school friend by the name of Ted Adderley. We had been in the same form at Hymers College,Kingston upon Hull. He had been drafted to join the Destroyer FIREDRAKE (Penant H79.) She was leader of the flotilla of escort ships of which the SUNFLOWER was one. I applied for a transfer to be with Ted but was told that it would not be possible at this late stage.

We departed Londonderry to join the westbound convoy of 43 merchant ships (code name ON153) to be part of the escort, which consisted of four Corvettes the LOOSESTRIFE/Built in 25/8/41. The ALISMA/ built in 17/12/40. PINK/ She was scrapped after heavy damage after being torpedoed on the 27/6/1944 by the U-988. The SUNFLOWER Built in 19/12/40, and two Destroyers the FIREDRAKE (H79) of 1320 tons. The RIPLEY (G79), one of the 50, four funneled American destroyers, its original name being the USS SHUBRICK. The Wolf Pack,RAUFBOLD sighted our convoy on the 15th December 1942 and consisted of 13 U-boats,the U135,U203, U211,U365,U409,U410,U439,U600,U609,U610, U621,U623,U664. This wolf Pack, in their short life times, were responsible for the sinking of 70 Merchant Ships. As soon as darkness fell, the U-boats began their attack. The U365 sinks a tanker, then the U610 sinks another tanker, a freighter falls victim to the U621. It was on the 16/12/42, at the position 51.00'N by 25.00'W late in the evening, the U211 attacked the convoy. One report said that the U211 fired a spread of four torpedoes into the convoy hoping to have a kill and in doing so sunk the FIREDRAKE. (For the record, the U211 was sunk on the 19th of November 1943. East of the Azores by a British Wellington bomber,Sqdn. 179/F). Action stations had been sounded late in the evening, my station was cordite supply to the 4 inch gun. I was standing on the gun platform with the cordite container on my left shoulder, ready to supply a reduced charge of cordite to the breach loader. The mountainous waves were coming over the bows and drenching the guns'crew. It was freezing cold, a gale force wind was blowing and the only clothing I had on, was a pair of socks, sandshoes, underwear, a pair of overalls with my lifebelt strapped around my chest. The order was given to load star shell with reduced charge and when ready, SHOOT. After two star shells had been fired and burst high in the sky, the stern section of the FIREDRAKE was sited at about 00.15 on the 17/12/1942. Stand down from action stations was sounded.The captain of the gun told me go and get some warm clothing on, then with other ratings, go down into the starboard well deck to put the scrambling net over the ship's side. This net was there for the very reason it was being used this very night. There was another net situated on the port side. I could just make out that some of the survivors were on the stern section of the FIREDRAKE, other survivors were hanging on to a floating corked net about 30yards off our starboard beam. The corvette was going up and down like a Yo Yo. It was then, one of our party, a Newfounland rating by the name of Fury, with a heaving line tied round his chest, lowered himself down the scrambling net into the freezing cold sea. He set off to swim towards the floating cork net, when he finally arrived he entwined his arms in the netting and so became a human link in the towing line. We then pulled the corked net along side the Sunflower. Able seaman Fury remained in the sea to assist the men up and on to the deck. He was never to receive a Medal for his bravery for his action. As this very brave action was taking place, the starboard bridge communication signal lamp was being used intermittedly to spot other survivors. It was being used in this manner in fear of becoming a second target for a U-boat. In the beam of the light, a rubber dinghy was momentary illuminated, with two men inboard. One of them was stretched out, in the bottom not moving, the other man had a small paddle which he was using, in an attempt to make his way towards our ships side. The moment the light had flashed on him, I heard him call out to us to help the men in the water first, before rescuing them both. They were probably stokers from the Firedrake's boiler room, as they only had vests and trouser overralls on. The hands of the man, who was paddling were blackened and appeared to be badly burnt, but he seemed to be void of pain. An able seaman W.Kay was rescued unconscious and covered in black fuel oil. He was carried down aft and put in the Petty Officers' tiled wash room where I assisted the Sickbay Rating to remove all his clothing. We then poured warm water over him in an attempt to raise his body temperature and at the same time clean off the stinking black oil. Sadly our efforts were in vain. He died a short time later. After we had all the survivors safely on board, the Sunflower moved off to continue her escort duties. Sadly my friend Ted Adderley was not among the 26 survivors, he was such a gentle young man. According to the German Naval records of the U211, The corvette SUNFLOWER scuttled the stern section of the FIREDRAKE with gunfire, but I must say, that I cannot recall that action taking place. The escort group was now reduced to four Corvettes and the Destroyer RIPLEY. We were reduced to three Corvettes when the Corvette PINK was despatched on the 20/12/1942 to the Azores to take on fuel.Two of the merchant ships were unable to maintain the speed of the convoy owing to the atrocious weather; they fell further and further behind and were sunk by the U621. Their names being the OTINA (UK) was on the 20/12/42 and the OROPOS (Greek)on the 21/12/42.

After the 21/12/1942, no ships were lost to the best of my knowledge. Xmas day dawned and we received a signal from a large merchant ship on our port side; we closed so as to enable a line to be passed between us. When the line was secure, large baskets, full of Christmas fare, were transferred over to us. They must have taken pity on us. We accepted the Christmas fare with gratitude. Then one of the corvettes was detailed to escort the Merchant ship, that had given the Christmas baskets to us, to go on ahead. It was rumoured to have V.I.P's on board. Our ASDICS (an acronym for Allied Submarine Detection Investigation committee) had failed, the fault was found to be in the Asdic inspection compartment situated down on the keel. The "Dome" into which the Asdic arm is lowered had been damaged by the heavy pounding of the sea which had flooded the compartment. The SUNFLOWER was finding it heavy going with this extreme weight of water. So it became necessary for a steam pressure hose to be led from the boiler room, through the Mess Decks down to the hatch top of the flooded compartment. Then connected to the one way pressure valve situated on the hatch top. When the steam was turned on it forced the sea water out and took the extreme pressure off the hatch bolts. This jury rig remained in operation until the proper repairs could be carried out later,in port. The final stroke came when the RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) broke down, So we were without any means of detecting submarines or surface craft except by lookouts, for the remainder of the voyage. Eventually we arrived at the dispersal point and the merchant ships who had run the gauntlet of the U boats, dispersed and went on to their ports of destination.
After approximately 3 weeks at sea I found serving aboard a Corvette very waring, with the extreme cold, never in a dry environment and the constant pressure of the U-boats. There was not much chance of survival if we were torpedoed with so few compartments the ship would sink in seconds. Living and sleeping conditions were very cramped in the forecastle for the seamen but not too bad for the Officers and Petty Officers. When the perishable food was consumed after about four days after leaving port it was tinned Corned Beef for the three meals a day. I must say, at this point, that I did like and still do like Corned Dog, as we used to refer to it. I understand that the conditions on the Castle Class Corvettes and the new Frigates was much improved, I never got to serve on either. We arrived in ARGENTIA Newfoundland, which was an American Naval and an Air Base combined, and tied up alongside an American repair depot ship. Divers went down to repaired the damaged dome on the keel, and then the sea water was pumped out of the compartment so that the ASDIC apparatus could be repaired.

The American naval repairmen, who were fixing the ASDIC, were surprised when they were told that our Corvette had crossed the three thousand plus nautical miles of the Atlantic Ocean, from Northern Ireland, without having to refuel.
While these repairs were being carried out, shore leave was given so I decided to go ashore. It was snowing very hard as I boarded the bus that serviced the Air base. One of its stops was the USO Canteen so I ventured in and had a very nice meal finished off with a large portion of their most wonderful ice cream. It was a complete change to the plain food of the past three weeks. It also took me a little while to get used to walking on firm ground after being bounced about for weeks at sea.
When the Sunflower was made ready for sea, we sailed round to the port of Saint Johns to await orders for the return voyage. Again shore leave was given and I put on my "Number ones" (best uniform) and wrapped up well to go ashore as the temperature was well below freezing. From where we tied up on the quay, a short boat trip had to be taken across the harbour to get to the Canadian canteen, or else set off and walk round the harbour rim approximately a mile. The canteen was warm and was run by lady volunteers and they just loved to "mother us lonely sailors". I had a very nice meal, all free gratis. A nice young lady, who was serving in the canteen, invited me to her home where I was introduced to her family; it seemed to be the usual thing to invite naval ratings to their homes. While in conversation with her father he said to me that if I returned after the war and I would find a job waiting for me. I wonderful thought but it was not to be.