|
|
MR. DAVID (JOCK) NEILSON
.BATTLE.OF.THE.ATLANTIC.1939.TO.1994
THIS SITE IS DEDICATED
TO MY FATHER MR. DAVID (JOCK) NEILSON 1919 TO 1995
PLUS ALL THE MEN WHO SERVED IN THE MERCHANT NAVY DURING THE
SECOND WORLD WAR
OVER
30,000 MEN DIED SERVING IN THE MERCHANT NAVY. THE HIGHEST DEATH TOLL OF ANY OF
THE SERVICES IN THE WAR
DAVID
NEILSON FROM PAISLEY DIED 8th MAY 1995 22
MERCHANT
NAVY HISTORY WW2
From
SEA BREEZES No. 560 August 1992
I signed on the Crown Arun as
fourth engineer at
We had been shadowed all night by a
U-boat and were torpedoed at daybreak. The torpedo struck forward bur no one
was hurt as the crew were housed aft and the ship did not sink because we were
loaded with timber and pit props. We left her in two lifeboats and pulled away.
The submarine then surfaced and shelled our ship and after about 30 shells she
started to break up.
In the meantime we had pulled further
away. The captain and the mate had a discussion on where to make for; the mate
decided on the Western Isles and the captain for somewhere further south. This
was my boat. After that the mast was rigged, sails set and we headed away from
each other. A couple of hours later the submarine was sighted coming up astern.
They hailed us to lower the sails, then asked us the name of our ship, where
from and to, what cargo, was anyone injured and did we know our course to land.
Then the submarine dived and a few
minutes later an aircraft came over and flashed a message to us to say to
remain where we were as a ship was on her way. We waited all night and early in
the morning the destroyer Winchelsea arrived, picked us up and went
looking for the other lifeboat, our captain going to the bridge to advise them
on the mate's probable course. They were picked up later that day and we made
our way to
I am sorry to have taken up your time but
all I want to know is whether the Crown Arun was the first German ship
to be captured in the war. When I sailed in her she was managed for the
Ministry of Shipping by Salvenens but I was told that she war formerly the Hannah
Boge, of Hamburg, and that she had been captured somewhere to the north of
Scotland while on her way home with a cargo of nitrates from the west coast of
South America. She had been taken to Scapa Flow and then to
THE “CROWN ARUN" Was sunk by U99, Captain
Otto Kretuchmer on 17TH September 1940 after the war Otto Kretuchmer
became head of the German Navy and died in 1998?
MY
FATHER DIED IN THE YEAR OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF WW11
Last week we celebrated
50 years since V.E. Day with street parties’ fireworks dances, as though it was
a grand game most of the people who sang cheered and laughed have never lived
through a war.
The died where remembered by old
comrades.
What was never shown was the physical and
mental scars that for 50 years since the war where left on the people who
survived their war time experiences. P.T.S.D these days is recognized
BELOW IS THE CONTENT OF HIS FUNERAL
Joe has ask me as Seaman's Chaplain to
take this service for Dave as I would understand that seamen are a breed unto
themselves and in most cases never go near a church or vicar.
A ship is a home and its Captain not only
gave the orders but was a clergyman to his ship.
PRAYER.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave from an early age had a great love
of ships and the sea.
In 1939 Dave was a young man of 20 years
for the next 5 years he served as a Marine Engineer in the Merchant Navy. In
the North and South Atlantic Mediterranean Caribbean as well as coastal waters
at the time of the blitz bringing ship loads of coffins to
He survived the bombs and was torpedoed
and sunk three times surviving the cold Atlantic waters.
Over 30,000 men died serving in the
Merchant Navy.
Joe told me how his father would before
going on watch down in the engine room would go on deck and look at the sky and
sea. As he never knew if he would see them again.
As we know Dave had cancer and when the
time came to go to a nursing home, Joe picked a room with a bed next to a large
window which gave a view of the
Two days before he died, Joe visiting
Dave found him on his bed he was feeling cold although the day was hot Joe put
blankets on Dave to warm him. He said the only time I am frightened when I am
cold. (His memories from freezing in life boats during the war)
We should think of Dave and men like him
who not only gave their youth to the war but the burden they have had to carry
for the rest of their lives.
He was highly decorated for his war time
service.
POSTSCRIPT.
His bravery at sea continued after the
war his last year of sea time in 1974. When his ship the Greta. C. capsized in
a storm off Portland Bill
At the Board of Inquiry in to the sinking
he was commended by the board in his attempt to help save the ship and putting
his own life at risk trying to save the Captains life after their life raft
became entangled with the sinking ship.
One thing that Dave
liked was poetry. Instead of a prayer at the grave this was quoted.
Under the wide and
starry sky dig the grave and let me lie. Gladly did I live and gladly did I die
and laid me down with a will. This is the verse you grave to me. Here he lies
where he longed to be. Home is the Sailor home from the sea. R.L.S.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANY
PERSONS WHO MEET JOCK AT SEA PLEASE CONTACT