MR. DAVID (JOCK) NEILSON

BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC 1939 TO 1994

THIS SITE IS DEDICATED TO MY FATHER MR. DAVID (JOCK) NEILSON 1919 TO 1995
PLUS ALL THE MEN WHO SERVED IN THE MERCHANT NAVY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

OVER 30,000 MEN DIED SERVING IN THE MERCHANT NAVY. THE HIGHEST DEATH TOLL OF ANY OF THE SERVICES IN THE WAR


MERCHANT NAVY HISTORY WW2

From SEA BREEZES No. 560 August 1992

DAVID NEILSON FROM PAISLEY DIED 8th MAY 1995 22 Ashington Gardens Peacehaven Sussex BN10 8UD BURIED NEWHAVEN

MERCHANT NAVY HISTORY WW2

From SEA BREEZES No. 560 August 1992

I signed on the Crown Arun as fourth engineer at Leith on November 20, 1939, and was in the ship when she was torpedoed on September 17, 1940. We were traveling alone having been left behind by the convoy because we had great difficulty in steaming her due to the very bad coal we had taken on at Sydney, Cape Breton.

We had been shadowed all night by a U-boat and were torpedoed at daybreak. The torpedo struck forward bur no one was hurt as the crew were housed aft and the ship did not sink because we were loaded with timber and pit props. We left her in two lifeboats and pulled away. The submarine then surfaced and shelled our ship and after about 30 shells she started to break up.

In the meantime we had pulled further away. The captain and the mate had a discussion on where to make for; the mate decided on the Western Isles and the captain for somewhere further south. This was my boat. After that the mast was rigged, sails set and we headed away from each other. A couple of hours later the submarine was sighted coming up astern. They hailed us to lower the sails, then asked us the name of our ship, where from and to, what cargo, was anyone injured and did we know our course to land.

Then the submarine dived and a few minutes later an aircraft came over and flashed a message to us to say to remain where we were as a ship was on her way. We waited all night and early in the morning the destroyer Winchelsea arrived, picked us up and went looking for the other lifeboat, our captain going to the bridge to advise them on the mate's probable course. They were picked up later that day and we made our way to Liverpool and home.

I am sorry to have taken up your time but all I want to know is whether the Crown Arun was the first German ship to be captured in the war. When I sailed in her she was managed for the Ministry of Shipping by Salvenens but I was told that she war formerly the Hannah Boge, of Hamburg, and that she had been captured somewhere to the north of Scotland while on her way home with a cargo of nitrates from the west coast of South America. She had been taken to Scapa Flow and then to Leith where her cargo was discharged.

THE “CROWN ARUN" Was sunk by U99, Captain Otto Kretuchmer on 17TH September 1940 after the war Otto Kretuchmer became head of the German Navy and died in 1998?

MY FATHER DIED IN THE YEAR OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF WW11

Last week we celebrated 50 years since V.E. Day with street parties’ fireworks dances, as though it was a grand game most of the people who sang cheered and laughed have never lived through a war.

The died where remembered by old comrades.

What was never shown was the physical and mental scars that for 50 years since the war where left on the people who survived their war time experiences. P.T.S.D these days is recognized



BELOW IS THE CONTENT OF HIS FUNERAL

Joe has ask me as Seaman's Chaplain to take this service for Dave as I would understand that seamen are a breed unto themselves and in most cases never go near a church or vicar.

A ship is a home and its Captain not only gave the orders but was a clergyman to his ship.

PRAYER.

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Dave from an early age had a great love of ships and the sea.

In 1939 Dave was a young man of 20 years for the next 5 years he served as a Marine Engineer in the Merchant Navy. In the North and South Atlantic Mediterranean Caribbean as well as coastal waters at the time of the blitz bringing ship loads of coffins to London.
He survived the bombs and was torpedoed and sunk three times surviving the cold Atlantic waters.

Over 30,000 men died serving in the Merchant Navy.

Joe told how his father would before going on watch down in the engine room would go on deck and look at the sky and sea. As he never knew if he would see them again.

As we know Dave had cancer and when the time came to go to a nursing home, Joe picked a room with a bed next to a large window which gave a view of the South Downs and the sky.
Two days before he died, Joe visiting Dave found him on his bed he was feeling cold although the day was hot Joe put blankets on Dave to warm him. He said the only time I am frightened when I am cold. (His memories from freezing in life boats during the war)

We should think of Dave and men like him who not only gave their youth to the war but the burden they have had to carry for the rest of their lives.
He was highly decorated for his war time service.

POSTSCRIPT.
His bravery at sea continued after the war his last year of sea time in 1974. When his ship the Greta. C. capsized in a storm off Portland Bill

At the Board of Inquiry in to the sinking he was commended by the board in his attempt to help save the ship and putting his own life at risk trying to save the Captains life after their life raft became entangled with the sinking ship.

One thing that Dave liked was poetry. Instead of a prayer at the grave this was quoted.
Under the wide and starry sky dig the grave and let me lie. Gladly did I live and gladly did I die and laid me down with a will. This is the verse you grave to me. Here he lies where he longed to be. Home is the Sailor home from the sea. R.L.S.