Miscellaneous Ship Histories

Viking Star

 

Viking Start was in service from 1920 and took part in a number of convoys during WW2. She was sunk by a German U-boat in 1942 whilst sailing independently. Seven lives were lost, and there was great hardship to the survivors before they were recued. Viking Star had a working life of 12 years.

Service Pre-War

 

The following account of life on Viking Star before the war was recorded by Capt. E. Ashton-Irvine in 1969. The full article is available on-line at Ext. Ref. #11. Clearly Ashton-Irvine didn’t think too much of Viking Star, but his comments on the state of the ship after being laid up are interesting.

 

Looking back it seems a long tine since I joined my first ship as a cadet in 1927, but the recollection is as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.

 

I joined the SS Viking Star belonging to the Blue Star Line of London, on the 1st of April and no one needs to remind me of the day. I travelled up from Liverpool in my brand new cadet's uniform (and, of course, it was too big to allow for my growing - let's remember it was the start of the worst part of the depression and money was hard to come by), but more about that later. I arrived in Newcastle and found that the ship was down the river in North Shields. I finally found my way there - it was raining hard, a filthy night, and my bag was heavy but I found a boy who toted it from the train to the Coal Staiths for 2 pennies. That was a walk of about two miles and a dirty one too.

 

My first sight of the ship really was a sickener. She had been laid up for nearly a year at the buoys and had just been taken off them to bunker (coal - so you can imagine, or can you, because I really don't think you can). She was a ship of about 8,000 tons flush decked, with a three-tier bridgehouse; number 3 hatch or the bunkers amidships and the afterhouse and fidley around the funnel which was large, had a dome top and looked awful. Coupled to the fact that she was rusty from end to end and covered with coal dust.

 

I found my way up the ladder and after stumbling through feet deep coal - and coal dust that was more like mud), I found myself in the officers' alleyway and managed to locate the cadets' room. My two mates were lying in all their glory - dungarees, coal dust, et al - in the lower of the four bunks. The room was thick with smoke, both ports were open, and it looked as if they had been open for the past year because everything was so dirty it was impossible to tell what colour the bulkheads were. I found they were both 3-year cadets and well experienced. They both suggested I should beat it home forthwith and, frankly, I think I would have done well to have done so. I was taken to see the "mate", a hard case "Georgy" who hated two things - the sea and "silly ass cadets." I got small change from him. I went to meet the Captain, a very old gentleman of over 71, who had shares in the company, had been an ex-Salining shipowner, and was in his dotage. He promptly forbade me to go ashore because the Tyne was full of pubs and loose women. Needless, to say, I stayed on board that night and earned the derision of my mates who came beck stoned and said they had had a fine time. I still wonder if they did, I was sent to bed after a very poor dinner, but it was all new to me and I think I put up with it and made as if I liked it, but doubted if I really did.

 

The next day I was up at 5:00 a.m., got tea for the other two, shaving water and a bucket of water to bathe in, scrubbed out the room and bathroom--that really was a misnomer as it was about the size of a wardrobe, 3 feet by 3 feet and 6 feet high and there was nothing in it but cold air of which there was plenty, so we bathed in the room which, as I said, had four bunks in it, one settee like a shelf and nothing else. All our gear went into the spare bunk. I then went out on deck to try and clean up the mess, shovelled coal all day, had meals off the table in the pantry - and what meals! Ugh - weren't fit for pigs. We left the coal berth, went to get water and on the 4th of April we sailed for the River Plate. What a trip! We shovelled coal all day and after it was out of one deck, we shovelled it into another deck and into the stoke hold.

 

The ship was a refrigerated cargo ship carrying chilled and frozen meat so the whole vessel below decks had to be cleaned to the most perfect standards in the 17 days taken to get to Buenos Aires. We were at it from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. every night and we managed to get her to the state that we started loading, after a minute inspection, soon after we docked.

 

In Buenos Aires it was no stopping day and night, and in three days we had a half full ship. We went to Freybentos for frozen lamb and corned beef, then back to Buenos Aires for frozen offal (hearts, livers, etc.); then up to Rio for more meat thence to Santos for bananas. Not once did my feet touch the shore except to go on the quay to paint the hull. If we were not looking after cargo we were painting the hull and it was all very hard work. Food had improved and our room had been painted so it wasn't too bad but we knew no better and that's one reason, I think, we stuck it out.

 

The homeward-bound trip to London from Santos was chipping and painting, and get the ship to look something at least clean, because she was a vessel that no one could ever take pride in - she was just a misfit built after the first World War in depression periods, and was cheap and nasty in every way.

 

We were only four days in London and out again - no leave at all. So it went on with only one variation and that was in September when we changed our run and went out to the Pacific Coast to Vancouver, Seattle, Olympia, Everet, Tacoma, Portland and San Francisco, also to Los Angeles for fruit, fresh and tinned. After calling in Kingston for coal bunkers, we went to the Havre, Hamburg, Rotterdam and Copenhagen to discharge.

Participation in WW2 Convoys

 

Viking Star took part in 19 convoys before being sunk according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb   - see  Ext. Ref. #5. She was sunk whilst sailing independently.

Image 1

Image 2

Loss of Viking Star

 

Viking Star was sunk on 25 August 1942 by torpedoes fired by German submarine U-130 commanded by Ernst Kals. She was sailing independently and carrying 4,519 tons of refrigerated cargo and 200 tons of fertilizers.

 

Out of a total of 60 on board (some accounts say 61), seven seamen lost their lives and the survivors underwent an arduous trip in rafts and boats before they were rescued. It appears that there were two main groups of survivors from the ship - both of which had a very hard time of it and we are fortunate to have accounts of events for both groups.

 

· An account given to the Shipping Casualties - Trade Division by the Chief Office Mr. F MacQuiston is reproduced HERE.

· An account by John Rigiani, the 3rd Officer of the Viking Star at the time of her loss is HERE.

· An account by Stan Mayes, who is mentioned in MacQuiston’s account is HERE.

· An account by the father of Alan Wells who was on Tuscan Star when she was torpedoed and encountered survivors from Viking Star is HERE.

· An account of the sinking by Clifford Mawes is HERE.

 

Roll of Honour

 

The table below lists those who died as a result of the sinking of Viking Star. All but Richard Boardman are listed on the Tower Hill memorial. I am not sure if his name is missing from here because he died some time after the ship was sunk or because he was a  RN Gunner - though this seems very strange to those of us looking at the memorial over 60 years later.

Images

 

1. Images #1, #2 and #3 provided by Stan Mayes

Basic Data: Viking Star

Type: Refrigerated Cargo Ship

Registered owners, managers and operators:

Blue Star Line

Builders: Napier & Miller

Yard: Old Kilpatrick, Glasgow

Country: UK

Yard number: 225

Registry: Brazil

Official number: 145113

Signal letters: N/K

Call sign: GDLT

Classification society: N/K

Gross tonnage: 6,445 tons

Net tonnage: 3,928 tons

Deadweight: N/K

Length: 122 Metres

Breadth: 15.9 Metres

Depth: N/K

Draught: N/K

Engines: Triple expansion steam engine

Engine builders: Dunsmuir & Jackson Ltd.,

Works: Glasgow

Country: UK

Power: N/K

Propulsion: Single screw

Speed: 10 knots

Cargo capacity: 37,009 cubic feet of refrigerated space

Crew: 60 at time of sinking including 5 gunners

Image 3

Image 3 is a photo of the plaque for Viking Star at the Tower Hill Memorial. Stan Mayes places poppies there every year in memory of his friends who were lost with the ship.

Viking Star was a refrigerated ship and according to Lloyds List for 1944 this equipment was built by Haslam Foundry and Engineering Co. Ltd. She had two refrigeration units with two compressors, used an Carbon Anhydride (now called carbon dioxide) based cooling system and was insulated with cork & silicate and cotton. She had 23 refrigerated compartments with a total capacity of 337,009 cubic feet.

Survivors

 

The lists of survivors in the tables below was compiled by Stan Mayes.

 

The table below lists those that survived in a lifeboat for 6 days.

 

The table below lists those that survived on a raft for 12 days.

 

The table below lists those that survived on a raft for 10 days.

 

The table below lists a member of crew who survived alone on a raft for 10 days.