Seaweed, any report would be great, Thanks. I have been trying to convince my friend Phyllis who was 21 years old at the time, that people did get rescued from both ships. Her boat the “Registan” was very close to the “Yorkshire” when it was hit, she watched from the side of her ship as the Yorkshire went down, and she said she saw nothing left on the surface afterwards, she said it went down in about 14 minutes, at the same time the “City of Mandalay” was hit and went down in about 9 minutes, also she said the water was flat calm.
So I have been trying to get information together to explain, without telling her she was wrong, but she has lived all her life thinking all those poor people died. Although Phyllis is 98 now her mind is as sharpe as anything.
She wrote an account of it 25 years ago:-
"In Warm sunny weather and a calm sea, the convoy of thirty-three ships in three columns of eleven re-positioned themselves. The "Registan" led the centre column, the liner the "Yorkshire" on which I had tried hard to obtain a passage, led the port side column and the liner "City of Mandalay" led the starboard column. The "Nevasa" was immediately astern of the "Registan" and carried masses of khaki clad troops, shoulder to shoulder on the deck and faces were permanently at portholes. The convoy travelled at eight nautical miles per hour, the speed of the slowest ship and zig zagged into the Atlantic which I was told was a method used to mislead the enemy. The frigates were no longer with us and as far as I could see the convoy was defenceless.
One morning I was asked if I would like to see the Radio 0fficer at work and I got no further than opening his door because he worked in such a confined space and by putting an arm out he could touch all four walls as he sat there. He gave me a pleasant broad smile and continued to listen intently through his headphones. I was told that he could receive messages but he could not, send any and that they had received Information that morning that a U-boats were in the area.
After, lunch I was asked if I would like to visit the engine room and at about three o’clock I made my way down the metal companionway to the engine room where the Engineer Officer was standing and he pointed out interesting things to me. I was surprised by the cleanliness, the bright shining brass no obvious smell of engines and much less noise than I would have expected. I thanked the officer for his personal attention to me and retraced my steps on companionway which led up the centre and branched left as well as right as there was an open door onto the main deck from each. I took the left turn and saw that the “Yorkshire" was very close at that moment and exactly level with us. Frequently the juxtapositions of the leading ships altered as one or other gains a little or falls back. I was about, to put my foot out onto the main deck when there was a very loud explosion on the "Yorkshire" and a huge orange flame shot high up immediately in front of me. A torpedo had struck in the middle of the ship. The ship shuddered and stopped.
I ran to the bridge deck, held the hand rail as I stood looking at the doomed ship and surveying the whole convoy. Totally unaware that anyone else was near me I felt a hand grip mine on the hand rail as we both heard shouts and cries from the "Yorkshire". At a glance I saw that the person standing next to me was the young, tall, dark-haired and handsome Reverend Shirehampton, another passenger. Now my thoughts were no longer my own, I could speak them. The “Registan" was gaining speed rapidly trying to race away from the scene, creaking and groaning with the enormous efforts the engines were making and the deck plates shook violently. In only four minutes all the ships had taken different directions and the convoy was dispersing. We realised suddenly that none of the ships could stop to help otherwise they would have been sitting ducks for the U-boats. Immediately there were two more loud bangs and more orange flames on our left. The "City of Mandalay" had been struck and she seemed to rise in the water as the torpedoes struck and then halted. The "Yorkshire" went down in four-teen minutes and the "City of Mandalay"' sank in only nine minutes and they by chance took their last plunge simultaneously. The "Yorkshire" went down by the stern and the "City of Mandalay"' by the bow. Watching two magnificent ships sinking helplessly is a formidable sight and the horror of what was happening on board them can be imagined and the survivors had so little. time in which to save themselves. Somewhere in the Atlantic these two ships are lying very close to each other. We speculated that there must have been two U-boats to have struck the two ships either side of the "Registan" within four minutes when travelling completely alongside each other. We wondered if we were now going to be picked off because it was plain that they were attacking the leaders. We braced ourselves for what we thought was the inevitable but as each minute passed it did not come. Whilst saddened by the events we could not believe our good fortune and as if to relieve my own apprehension I permitted myself the thought that it could be no bad thing that I had got God, by proxy, standing next to me"
My E-mail:-
nicholas.dooley@ntlworld.comNick Dooley
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Topic: Lost at Sea (Read 6618 times)