FOUR SHIPS SUNK

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1944, Page 2

FOUR SHIPS SUNK

MALTA’S SIEGE HAPPENING LONDON, December 28. “How three of the latest and fastest motor cargo vessels of the Shaw Savill fleet, the Waimarama, the Wairangi, and the Empire Hope, were lost while raising the siege of Malta in August, 1942, can now be told,” says “The Times.” “The Waimarama brought many thousands of tons of wheat, meat, and dairy produce from New Zealand and Australia to Britain before the war, and the loss of these large refrigerator-capacity vessels had its effect on the food situation in Britain. The Empire Hope was a new vessel, an exact sister ship of the Waimarama. “Malta was critically short of food and petrol for Spitfires when an armada of the Merchant Navy’s finest ships was dispatched for its. succour. The convoy’s naval protection was acknowledged to be inadequate, particularly in air cover. High-level bombers first attacked the Empire Hope, but she escaped unscathed, although H.M.S. Eagle, close astern, was torpedoed. The loss of the Eagle made it impossible for the convoy to pass through the Sicilian Narrows (‘Bomb Alley’) without heavy Losses. Massed attacks concentrated on the Empire Hope the following evening, the enemy scoring 18 near miss.es in 30 minutes. These damaged the engines and made her a sitting target. The gun crews were blown out of the gun positions, and more than once crawled back to the guns. Some of the crew were blown overboard and swam back to the ship and their guns. Two direct hits set the snip, which was carrying kerosene and explosives, on fire. The destroyer Penn, towing a damaged tanker, picked up the survivors of the crew. . “The Wairangi became a casualty the following day about the sametime as the Waimarama. After evading several aerial toroedo attacks she was hit and badly damaged by an enemy torpedo-boat. The crew scuttled the ship to deny the enemy the munitions she was carrying. Tne destroyer Eskimo picked up the entire crew. The Waimarama met a sudden ana tragic end. The enemy scored three or ‘four hits near the bridge, which disappeared completely with everybody on it. Petrol caught fire and she‘went down in less than lour minutes. H.M.S. Ledbury gallantly tried to rescue the crew, but the greater part were lost, including the commander, Captain Pearce. “The Ceramic, another well-known liner, was torpedoed in December. Only one survivor has been reporter: of the passengers and crew totalling 656. , “Captain G. Williams, commander of the Empire Hope, and the third officer, Mr G. V. Connolly, Captain H. Gordon (now Sir Henry), commander of the Waimarama, and the chief engineer, Mr A. Chalmers, were all awarded the Distinguished Ser- . vice Cross.”