Lifeboats - Mumbles Lifeboat
Gold Medal rescue 1944 H.M.C.S. Chebogue
Last Updated (Monday, 18 January 2010 20:15) Friday, 08 January 2010 16:31
GOLD MEDAL RESCUE H.M.C.S. CHEBOGUE
H.M.C.S. CHEBOGUE on trials.
HMCS Chebogue was a 1,446 ton River class frigate built at Esquimalt, British Columbia, and commissioned in February 1944. She had a short active life but played a vital part in the Battle of the Atlantic. The vessel took her name from the river and community of Chebogue close to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. After sea trials, and exercises to bring her young crew up to scratch, she sailed for the Atlantic via the Panama Canal arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 12 April. At Halifax she was fitted out with extra accommodation so that she could embark the senior officer of an escort group and his staff.
After further exercises at Bermuda the ship spent a couple of days at Yarmouth. N.S., showing the flag before leaving St John's, Newfoundland, on 24 June with her first convoy of 94 merchantmen bound for Britain. She then left Londonderry with a westbound convoy arriving at St John's on 18 July. One of the largest convoys of the war, 134 merchant ships, sailed from St John's on 31 July with Chebogue as senior escort. Three of the ships were unable to keep up but the remainder reached Britain without challenge from the enemy.
After some weeks spent on anti-submarine patrols off the Scottish coast Chebogue sailed from Londonderry on 30 September as senior vessel to the group escorting the westbound convoy ONS 33. On 4 October, when about 550 miles south west of Cape Clear, the frigate detected a U-boat transmitting a radio message. The enemy was seen on the surface but dived before an attack could be mounted. Three corvettes from the escort joined Chebogue in an asdic search but no positive contact was made. Later that day radar indicated what was believed to be a surfaced U-boat about five miles away and Chebogue closed to attack. On a zig-zag course, and firing starshell, the frigate lost contact but shortly after was struck in the stern by an acoustic torpedo which caused massive damage, blew off her propellors, and killed six of the crew. Most of her complement of 140 were evacuated leaving thirty six men and six officers aboard. She was then taken in tow by a succession of salvage tugs and arrived in Swansea Bay in tow of the ocean salvage tug Earner soon after midday on 11 October after a haul of 890 miles.
The weather deteriorated rapidly and soon gale force winds lashed the battle-scarred ship. Within three hours the wind had risen to force nine with squalls of hurricane force working up a heavy breaking sea from the south west. The tug Earner kept her engines running to keep the frigate's head to the wind but the tow parted and the tug, now damaged herself, steamed down channel to ride out the storm in deeper water. At the mercy of the storm the frigate drifted across Swansea Bay and stranded stern first on Port Talbot bar.
There was some delay in contacting the lifeboat station as the telephone lines were down but the Edward, Prince of Wales got away at 7.45 p.m. and, as the coxswain said later, "flew before the gale to the rescue". When the lifeboat found the frigate the night was pitch dark with heavy hail squalls, and the wreck so smothered in the seas that it was hard to see her. The commander, Lt Cdr M. F. Oliver RCNR, hailed the boat and asked if all his crew could be taken off. "Yes" shouted back the coxswain "if they keep their heads". It was impossible to anchor and veer down as there was danger of fouling the frigate's anchor cables, nor could station be kept to rig a breeches buoy. The only course open was to take the boat shorewards into the surf, round the frigate's stern, and run as close to the ship as possible. It was possible to be alongside for only a few seconds at a time. With the ship's stern aground and the bows yawing to the seas there was the danger of the lifeboat being struck and becoming a wreck herself. The lifeboat made the hazardous circuit of the ship twelve times. On each run three or four men jumped. Of the forty two men saved three failed to jump clean: one broke a leg in falling onto the lifeboat, Lt Cdr Ian McPhee fell between the hulls and was hauled from the water, and a third man fell onto the coxswain who was badly bruised against the wheel.
The rescue had taken an hour and a half. The lifeboat returned cautiously to Mumbles and landed the Canadians but the conditions prevented her from getting onto the slipway to be rehoused. She then crossed the bay to shelter in the river at Swansea.
In his report of the incident the naval commander at Swansea wrote: "The commanding officer and all his men were unanimous in their admiration of the splendid way in which the lifeboat was handled by Coxswain Gammon and say that the whole crew were magnificent".
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution made the following awards:
to Coxswain William John Gammon the Gold Medal for conspicuous gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum
to William Gilbert Davies, the mechanic, and Thomas J. Ace, the bowman, each the Bronze medal
to Charles R. Davies, Thomas A. Davies, William John Eynon, Alfred D. Michael, and William Michael lifeboatmen each the Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum.
With most of the younger men in the forces this was a largely veteran crew: two of the crew were in their seventies and two others in their late sixties. Charlie Davies was a survivor of the capsize at Port Talbot in 1903.
The Chebogue in Port Talbot docks.
The extensive damage to Chebogue's stern caused by the acoustic torpedo.
Coxswain William John Gammon was awarded the Bronze medal of the RNLI for the Cornish Rose rescue in 1941, and the Gold medal for the Chebogue rescue in 1944.
The crew who rescued forty-two men from the Chebogue.
Back row left to right: William Eynon, Gilbert Davies mechanic, Charles Davies, Tom Davies. Front row: William Michael, Coxswain William Gammon, Tom Ace bowman, Alfred Michael.
Coxswain Gammon is presented with the Gold medal by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, President of the RNLI.