SS Stolwijk
The SS Stolwijk was wrecked off the coast of Donegal on 6 December 1940. She was part of a convoy (SC-13) sailing from Newfoundland to Liverpool when her rudder was damaged in a fierce storm. Attempts to rescue her by her destroyer escort failed and she went on the rocks off Tory Island Co Donegal. Ten of her crew were lost but the remaining 18 were rescued the following day by Arranmore Lifeboat and landed safely in Burtonport. The rescue of the survivors was conducted in terrible weather conditions and both the RNLI and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands awarded medals to the Irish lifeboat crew.
Construction and History
The steam ship (SS) Stolwijk was built in 1920 and was one of a number of ships belonging to the shipping company Erhardt & Dekkers. She was 280 ft long and she and her sister ships were all named after cities and villages that had 'wijk' in the name (Winterswijk, Schelpwijk and Haulerwijk). The Stowijk was at sea when the Netherlands fell to Germany in WW2. She could not return to her home base of Rotterdam so she became part of the Merchant Navy going over and back across the Atlantic.
Other Convoy Activity
The Stolwijk was part of outbound convoy OB-188 in July 1940 from Liverpool to North America. Four boats were lost during this journey due to u-boats. She returned in August 1940 as part of SC-01. Again four boats were lost during this journey. In October 1940 she went back to North America as part of OB-232 and she was returning as part of SC-13 when she was wrecked.
Slow Convoy 13
The Stolwijk was one of 32 boats in SC-13.[1] There were six escort vessels: HMS Clarkia, Heliotrope, Sabre, Scimitar, Shakiri and Wellington. Violent storms beset the convoy from the outset. On 3 December, the convoy diverted northwest to try to escape the storm and in so doing avoided being intercepted by u-boats who had been attacking another convoy HX-90. [2]
The stranding of the Stolwijk
At 10:30am on 5 Dec 1940 the Stolwijk's rudder broke. Many attempts were made to repair it but they were futile due to the weather. The anchor was dropped but the chain snapped and even going in full reverse did not halt the boats steady course to the rocky Irish coastline. One of the escort destroyers, HMS Sabre, risked its own safety in trying to rescue the crew of the Stolwijk [3] but was herself nearly destroyed.[4] The Stowijk lost one of her lifeboats at this stage and damaged the other. The radio operator was washed overboard in a massive wave and the Stowijk hit the rocks at 11:30pm. Nine sailors made an attempt to reach the lifeboat that had been washed overboard. According to the official court report, some made it to the lifeboat but the storm capsized it and only three bodies were subsequently recovered. The remaining 18 survivors remained on-board and radioed for help.[5]
The rescue of the survivors
Arranmore Lifeboat were notified late in the evening of 6 December 1940 of the ship in distress and given an approximate location. It was too late and stormy to depart immediately. The all-volunteer lifeboat crew departed Arranmore Island at 6:30am on 7 December in a hurricane force gale. Witnesses claim the lifeboat (the KTJS) 'went over one wave and through the next' on the outward journey. The Stowijk had gone aground on rocks called Carraignacrubog (the rock of crabs) just north of Inishdooey and south of Inisbeg. The National Archives in the Netherlands [6] has this information of the rescue from the secretary of the RNLI (C.R. Satterthwaite) in April 1941:
- The lifeboat reached the Stolwijk at noon in very stormy conditions.
- The crew of the Stolwijk were huddled at the stern of the ship and waves were breaking over them.
- The lifeboat anchored to windward and drifted close to the boat and then fired a line to the crew so a breeches buoy could be used to transfer the men. This procedure was repeated three times as the line kept breaking. It took four hours for all eighteen survivors to be rescued in this way, each spending upwards of five minutes in the water.
- It took the lifeboat a further five hours to reach Burtonport on the mainland during which she was nearly swamped by heavy seas.
- The coxswain John Boyle was awarded the Gold medal by the RNLI which according to the report is the Victoria Cross of the Institution.
- The motor mechanic Teague Ward was awarded the silver medal and the bronze medal was awarded to the other crew members Philip Boyle, acting second-coxswain, Philip Byrne, acting bowman, Neil Byrne, assistant motor-mechanic, Patrick O’Donnell, Joseph Rodgers and Bryan Gallagher. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands awarded the Dutch gold medal for gallantry in saving life to Coxswain John Boyle, the silver medal to Teague Ward and the bronze medal to each of the six other members of the crew.[7]
The list of Stolwijk Sailors who perished
The following sailors are known to have been lost on the Stolwijk on December 6, 1940.
- Paulus Vierkant b. 31 May 1920
- Joannes Bruijn b. 29-Dec-1900
- Nicholaas Marinus Melieste b. 17 Aug 1906
- Antonius Adrianus Höfkens b. 12 May 1909
- Arie Hoogerwerf b. 19 Dec 1916
- Johan Wilhelm Tieman b. 13 May 1920
- Elit Hendrik Borgman b. 29 July 1893
- Hendrik Wilhelp Lieder b. 28 July 1902
- Johan Pieter Koorn b. 12 October 1911
- Johannes Theodorus Van Voerbeek b. 10 March 1911
The Immediate Aftermath
- There is little known about what happened the survivors upon landing in Burtonport Co.Donegal on 7 December 1940.
- The Sabre pulled into Derry with sea damage on Dec 7 1940. Her commander, Lieutenant Commander Brian Dean suffered a fractured skull in the rescue attempt and was retired from the sea. The Sabre went to Belfast for repairs and resumed activity on 18 January 1941 under the command of Peter Gretton.
- Only three bodies were recovered following the tragedy. Borgman, Höfkens and Bruijn were originally buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard in Killult (Donegal, Ireland). In October 2000 the bodies were exhumed and re-interred to the war cemetery in Loenen (Netherland).
- The Ashcrest was also part of SC-13 and it also experienced a broken rudder during the storm. It radioed for help but the message was intercepted by a U-Boat. It was torpedoed by U-140 on 8th December 1940 with the loss of all 38 men. Three of the crew on the Ashcrest were Irish.
75 Anniversary song: I'll Go
On 7th December 2015, Arranmore publican and singer/songwriter Jerry Early released a song on iTunes called I'll Go to commemorate the actions of the lifeboat crew.[8] He co-wrote the song with his cousin John Gallagher. It has received considerable airplay in Donegal since the launch and all proceeds are being donated towards the creation of a permanent monument on Arranmore Island.
Facebook Page
A Facebook page was established with the objective of promoting awareness of the rescue, clarifying details of the event, searching for descendants of the Stolwijk and campaigning for a permanent monument to be raised in memory of the crews involved.
References
- ↑ Arnold Hague Convoy Web Database (accessed on 16 Feb 2015) http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/sc/index.html
- ↑ U-Boat.Net reference website, http://uboat.net/ops/convoys/battles.htm?convoy=HX-90
- ↑ Sir Peter Gretton, Convoy Escort Commander (1964) had this to say about the involvement of the Sabre in the failed rescue attempt when he assumed command of the boat in early Jan 1941: Recently she had been badly damaged in a brave attempt to rescue the crew of a Dutch ship which had run ashore on Tory Island on the nor-Western coast of Ireland in a full gale. the Sabre went in so close that she was almost among the breakers; and one great wave swept he decks, flattening the bridge and taking with it all the upper-deck fittings. The Captain had been badly injured and was still in hospital, but his was the worst case and fortunately no-one had been lost.
- ↑ Western Approaches War Diaries, 6–8 December 1940
- ↑ Nationaal Archief 2.16.31 Archief van de Buitengewone Raad voor de Scheepvaart te Londen 1940 - 1946, inv.nr. 23: dossier inzake de stranding van het s.s. Stolwijk
- ↑ Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie (NIMH), Commissie Onderscheidingen Koopvaardij (080), inv.nr. 2, Stolwijk
- ↑ Elder, Michael (1963), For Those in Peril: The Story of the Life-boat Service, publisher J. Murray
- ↑ iTunes single by Jerry Early 'I'll Go', 2015; https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ill-go-single/id1065363792