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War Sky - a general history

Official No. 142666: Code Letters JVKL.

Owners: 1918 British Government; 1919 Hartlepools Seatonia SS Co Ltd (Hessler & Co mgrs) West Hartlepool-renamed Vera Kathleen; 1927 JE Murrel & Sons, West Hartlepool-renamed Thurston.

Masters: 1920 J Brown; 1940 Benjamin Allen (died February 1940) 1940 William Carr Fortune (b. 1879 Whitby C.N. 35708 West Hartlepool 1904).

Bound from Takoradi for Daker & Workington, Cumberland with a cargo of manganese ore & a compliment of 68 Thurston was torpedoed by German submarine (U-29 Otto Schuhart) & sank 32 miles W by N of Trevose Head on 4 March 1940. 34 lives lost.


Lives lost March 1940;

Ali Jowad, Fireman/trimmer, 33

Boyle, Charles James Stuart, able seaman, 42 (son of Patrick & Sarah)

Couchman, Charles Ernest, 3rd engineer, 41, W Hartlepool

Craggs, Joseph, cook, 50, W Hartlepool

De Silva, TDM John, fireman/trimmer, 26, Pettah, Ceylon

Deacon, Frederick Allan, sailor, 20, Cardiff

Earl, Jack, sailor, 35

Elliott, John Oswald, 3rd officer, 24

Farman, George A, able seaman, 32, East Kirkby, Nottinghamshire

Fortune, William Carr, master, 57

Gill, Albert, boatswain, 54, Hebburn, Co. Durham

Gordon, Alfred, boy, 18, Cwmbach, Glamorgan

Johannesen, Olaf, able seaman, 62

Johnston, Richard Pearson, 2nd officer, 35 (son of Richard & Emma Alice)

Mandi Abdul, fireman/trimmer, 47

Nicholson, William, steward, 50

Parker, Charles Henry, able seaman, 20, Teignmouth, Devon

Pearce, William R, sailor, 25

Phillips, Thomas William, able seaman, 24, Balham, London

Robson, John Robert, chief engineer, 60, Hartlepool

Shirley, Edward Astley, 2nd engineer, 50, Great Barr, Birmingham

Spencer, Clive F, radio officer, 21

Sullayman, Sheriff, fireman/trimmer, 35

Ullah Rehan, fireman/trimmer, 28

Weston, Albert, boy, 17

Wilson, John Charleworth, ordinary seaman, 18

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