When the 42 man crew of the Dutch owned SS Beemsterdijk departed Greenock for Cardiff in January 1941 none of them could have known that all but three would ever see their families again. Those three fortunate men that survived had the keen eyes of the men in the Brownstown LOP and the prompt action of the crew of the Dunmore East Lifeboat to thank for their salvation.
The
SS Beemsterdijk departed the Clyde for
bunkers in Cardiff in January 1941. It was during WWII and ships faced a threat of submarine attack or sea mines. The cargo ship had an international crew aboard and was sailing with a new
degaussing system to offset the threat of magnetic mines. However the system seems to have impeded the ships compass and it is thought that the ship lost its way. On Sunday January 26th the ship struck a mine and was abandoned, all the crew getting safely away. An SOS had been sent and a reply received confirming a rescue was imminent. After an hour a party went back aboard the ship as she was staying upright in the water. Following and examination all the crew returned and the lifeboats were hauled aboard. They waited on deck all Sunday and through the night with eyes on the horizon for the rescue that never came. By the morning of Monday the ship had sunk very deeply and the captain decided to abandon ship again. The lifeboats were just away when the
ship sunk and because of the suction all hands were thrown into the water.
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| Photo credit wwwopac maritime digital |
The crew were swimming around trying to grasp what they could to help stay afloat. Some overturned lifeboats were righted and men managed to climb aboard, the four castaways of our story managed to reach a life raft. In time the shipwrecked men drifted apart and four men found themselves alone in the Atlantic on an open raft. Although it had holds for food and water, these were empty. The men were; 4th Engineer Van t’Hoff, Steward Peter Schrage, Bosun’s boy Stanley Gillard and a galley boy named Lennerts. Alone they drifted and although they came within sight of land at times they had no way of signalling. At one point on Tuesday 28th they were washed off and had to swim back to their raft. On the Wednesday Lennerts became overcome and disappeared off the raft overnight. On Thursday 30th they were spotted by the look out post on Brownstown head
(LOP 17) and the alarm was raised. (1)
The
Dunmore Lifeboat received the call to launch at 10.20am and were launched and heading west in very rough conditions within ten minutes. The raft was spotted heading towards the rocks on Newtown head but in challenging conditions the lifeboat managed to get safely alongside. The bowman (Muck Murphy) lept aboard the raft and the weakened and distressed sailors were helped aboard the
Annie Blanch Smith.(2)
The raft was left to drift and the lifeboat headed back east towards Dunmore East where a reception committee was awaiting. Red cross volunteers and an ambulance were on hand under the direction of the chair of the local branch
Arthur Wescott Pitt. Once ashore the men were placed onto stretchers and removed to a local hotel owned by Mr McCarthy* where they received all the attention they required. Meanwhile the raft the men were on was smashed to pieces on the rocks under the Metal Man. Although the
Tramore Coast Watching service had turned out in full readiness, one wonders if in the men’s weakened state, they would have survived(3)
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Annie Blanche Smith. At Waterford 4th April 1953. Robert Shorthall Collection.
With thanks to Andy Kelly |
There were two others who deserve a mention on the fateful morning. David Tobin, Brownstown and John Power, Coxtown also spotted the men on the raft. They attempted to row out to rescue them but in the heavy seas an oar was broke and both men had a difficult enough job to regain the safety of the shore.(4)
Of the men’s fate thereafter I could find no more. They were finally decided to be well enough to travel in late February, being removed to the Waterford County & City Infirmary for follow up treatment.(5) The Waterford Standard of the following day has an interview with both Van t’Hoff and Stanley Gillard in the Sailors Home in Henrietta St, where they are under the care of Mr and Mrs Marno. Both men are fulsome in their praise for their rescuers and the kindness shown to them in Dunmore and Waterford. Young Gillard is keen to get back to sea.(6) Perhaps the older Van t’Hoff is more careful of what he wishes for!
(1) Waterford Standard. Saturday Feb 8th 1941. p 1 An article featuring an interview with Arthur Wescott Pitt who gave a description of the incident based on talking to the three survivors.
(2) Jeff Morris. The Story of the Dunmore East Lifeboats. 2003
(3) Cork Examiner. Friday January 31st 1941. p 4
(4) Waterford Standard . February 1st 1941. p 1
(5) Munster Express. Friday February 21st 1941. p 5
(6) Waterford Standard. Saturday February 22nd 1941. p 3
* McCarthys was later known as the Ocean and is now known as the Three Sisters. Thanks to David Carroll for the information.
Following publication Peter O’Connor sent on the following link which gives much extra detail of the events: http://www.nederlandsekoopvaardijww2.nl/en/
I was also lucky to receive an email for a dutch gentleman who had researched the above piece via Brendan Dunne of Dunmore. John van Kuijk replied with the following information that he had gleamed on the survivors:
“Hallo Andrew,
Back in 1941 , after a long recovery period Willem van’t Hoff and Peter Schrage both served on other ships and survived the war.
Willem van ‘t Hoff received further leave and treatment at Cape town SA. During the rest of the war he served on ten ships or more. I contacted his daughter. She told me that after the war, as an engineer, he had his career in the Holland America Line serving on various ships. In 1966 he ended his career being the main engineer on board the ss Rotterdam, which now proudly is national heritage as a floating hotel / museum / event in Rotterdam Harbour. Ironically he died shortly after retirement and before sailing, having been presented with a free trip for both him and his wife to New York. In stead his wife and daughter could make this trip.
After recovery Peter Schrage also served on many ships, being torpedoed in 1944 while on board the ss Bodegraven near West Africa. He survived again! After the war he got married, had his family and sailed the waters of Amsterdam Harbour. So I was told by his closest daughter. In 1953 he went to the rescue of the victims when the dikes in the province of Zeeland gave way to enormous flooding.
Stanley William Gillard, at the time only 17 years old, had soon recovered from his injuries and was, back in England, able to identify the bodies of some crew being washed ashore near St. Davids’s in Wales. I contacted one of his sons, who was only two years old when his father died in 1954. From hearsay he gathered his father also served on more ships. He then was shipwrecked and for 6 days adrift at sea and suffered frostbite. Until just before his death in 1954 Stanley was working for a die casting firm X raying the castings for defects. His ambition was to run his own fishing boat out of one of the channel ports and set his own wet fish business up.
That’s the story!”
Many thanks to John for sharing this with us.
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