The Rescue Ships and the Convoys: Saving Lives During the Second World War

224 pages

David Childs

Saving lives at Sea is the title of a very popular TV series that highlights the wonderful work of the RNLI. The lives in this book were saved in raging seas, from blazing ships, in the presence of hostile bombers and submarines. Yet, until the republication of this account, little has been written about the gallant 30 small ships that risked their all to snatch seamen from certain death. The spirit of the men that manned them can be summarised in one sentence that states that during the height of a gale, with German U-boats delivering a concerted and sustained assault, the poorly armed Rescue Ship Gothland – “left the convoy and proceeded in the direction of the attack”. By so doing she plucked over 80 survivors from the icy ocean.

There were never enough Rescue Ships to provide support for every convoy and their absence was sorely missed. The ships were mostly taken up from coastal trade and thus not designed for Atlantic gales. They were generally around 1,500 gross registered tons, and capable of 12 knots, allowing them a sufficient head of steam to pick up survivors and rejoin their convoys – just!  Zamalek, a typical ship was converted to provide accommodation for 26 officers and 56 survivors. Each ship carried a Royal Navy medical officer and at least one sick-berth attendant.  They had a busy life, not only dealing with cases of hypothermia, trauma injuries and burns, but also the general medical emergencies that occur on ships many leagues from shore, including one brain operation and the removal of over fifty appendixes.

As well as converting the accommodation for their task modifications, such as booms and nets, were fitted to make the task of picking up survivors, swifter, simpler an easier, a matter of great importance in U-boat infested seas. With each rescue lessons were learned and new ideas tried out, even introducing jackstay and derrick transfers to get injured seamen to safety or to send a doctor over to a vessel without having to lower a sea-boat.  Although their task was obviously a humane one it did not grant them immunity from attack under the Geneva Convention.  This was turned to advantage by arming the vessels and also fitting them with HF/DF equipment to detect submarine transmissions.

Space precludes inclusion of the first-hand experiences of those involved in the rescues description of the many rescues described in this book: perhaps, suffice to say that they were so wonderful that they even cast a lighthouse ray on the shambles that was PQ-17. At war end 4,194 lives had been saved from 14 separate nationalities. Of course, some of the ships saw little action, others a great deal. Zamalek, on 31 voyages rescued 665 survivors: Rathlin, some 634: while Dewsbury, during her 24 voyages, was called upon to rescue just five.  Their service came at some cost:  by the end of the war, seven of the 30 ships had been sunk or destroyed, with the loss of 216 men, constituting over 10 per cent of those employed in trying to save the lives of others.

On the cessation of hostilities, the Admiralty sent a BZ message to all the Rescue Ships thanking them for:

“The steadfast gallantry with which the Masters, Officers and crews of these ship carried out their duties in the face of great danger has played no small part in our victory at sea, and has won the admiration, gratitude and esteem of the Royal Navy”.

Yet, they received surprisingly few awards and I can’t help feeling there would have been more had they been wearing an RN rather than a MN uniform.

The time for gratitude and esteem may have passed but time cannot dim the ‘admiration’. I put this book down and, immediately, read through it again. At the end I felt both humbled and elated. A reviewer cannot order his readers to purchase a book but, if I could, I would.