September
1939
Dramatic Story On His Return
Among
the survivors of the aircraft carrier ‘Courageous’, which was
torpedoed by a German submarine on Sunday, with the loss of 578 lives
out of a compliment of some 1,260 men, is Stoker David Smith, aged 22,
the youngest of the 12 children of Mr. and Mrs J.C. Smith, of Monkhill
Avenue, Pontefract.
Smith
arrived home on Wednesday, looking fit and well but carrying a ‘souvenir’
of the disaster in the form of acid burns on the left arm, received when
the submarine was destroyed. He was in the water for about an hour and
half, and his watch, parts of which were burnt away by the acid, stopped
at 8 o’clock.
Stoker
Smith, told a representative of ‘The Express’ yesterday of his
experiences from the time his ship was struck until he was landed in
England on a destroyer. Had the explosion occurred five minutes later
than it did, he said, he would have been on duty below decks, where the
torpedoes struck.
"We
had just struck planes at 7.30," he said, "and were pursuing a
zig-zag course, at a steady 12 knots. Two of our destroyers had left us
to answer an S.O.S. The sea was becoming choppy. I was just leaving the
stokers mess to go on watch when, without warning, two loud bangs
occurred; the lights went out; and I was thrown back."
"With
my messmates I made my way to go to the upper deck and found most of the
lads lining the ships side. The ship had a steep list to port, and when
she gave a second lurch, I was right forward at ‘abandon ship’
station on the starboard side. I saw the Chief Stoker come from the
boiler room. There was no panic whatever. I could not see any sign of
the submarine."
"We
received orders to abandon ship - every man for himself. I stripped,
threw a plank into the water, and followed it. I missed the plank, but
swam about 300 yards to a second plank, and five of us climbed on to it.
The sea got more choppy, and three of my companions let go of the plank,
but we pulled them back on again."
Quietly,
Stoker Smith then told how those three - one of them a particular chum
"threw their hands in and went down."
"We
made for a destroyer," he continued, "but the sea was taking
the destroyer away from us. I felt the ship go down - it drew me back a
distance - and turned round and saw a merchant packet. The sea was
running towards it. Those on board threw us ropes, and in the darkness
pulled us round to a ladder. We climbed up, but we were too exhausted to
climb over the rail."
"At
about 11pm we were transferred to a destroyer, one of those that had
answered the S.O.S call. The boys emptied their lockers for us, and
cared for us. On the journey towards land the destroyer dropped depth
charges, and I think they sank a submarine, because there was oil on the
water."
Although
Stoker Smith did not see the submarine which torpedoed his ship, he said
some who had seen it told him that she was "blown out of the
water."
The
disaster occurred just three years to the day after Stoker Smith joined
the Navy. He was a scholar at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic School,
Pontefract, and always had a liking for the sea. He would have joined
the Navy a year earlier but for a bereavement in the family. Before the
outbreak of war he was in the Home Fleet, and had served on another
aircraft carrier.
One
of his brothers George Smith, was killed in the Great War, and another
served in the West Yorkshires. Stoker Smith is now on 14 days leave.
1939 INDEX
Years
in Focus is researched by Maurice Haigh and reproduced with the kind
permission of the Pontefract and Castleford Express.
