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William Andrew Tyrrell my father was born at Arklow County Wicklow Ireland 1887 and at an early age went to sea in the family owned sailing ships. In 1912 he transferred to steamship serving in West Country owned ships of G.Heyn and Liverpool ships of Alfred Holt 鈥攖he Blue Funnel Line gaining his Foreign Going Master鈥檚 Certificate of Competency in Steam Vessels with Sailing Ship Endorsement in 1916. He then served at sea throughout World War 1.mostly engaged in ships whose cargoes were those of munitions and troops to various theatres of war as far afield as Turkey Then after a spell with the Blue Funnel Line returned to the family sailing ships but during the Depression these ships were laid up so in 1929 he then joined Ellerman Papayanni serving as 2nd officer.
When World War 11 broke out he was 2nd officer serving on ships employed with transportation of the B.E.F. to France in 1939/40 and also troops from West Africa for the French forces. During the fall of France the role was reversed to evacuating British Forces and his ship the 鈥楩abian鈥檞as in St Nazaire on 17 June 1940 when the Cunard Liner Lancastria evacuating troops and civilians was bombed. She sank within 15 minutes and somewhere between 6000 and 9000 were killed; estimates vary as the government of the day, realising what a terrible tragedy this was, clamped on a 鈥淒鈥� notice so that the publicity was very curtailed; the story only breaking in the USA.
Nearby ships including the Fabian went to the aid of the sinking ship. The Fabian safely reached the UK with over 1000 troops and civilians on board which in view of her small size (3059 tons gross) must have been a nightmare voyage.
On November 16 1940 U 65 commanded by Korvettenkapten Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen off West Africa at 02.49 N 15.29W torpedoed the Fabian.
. She sank with the loss of 12 crewmembers and the remaining crew took to the lifeboats .The U Boat surfaced after the Fabian had sunk and assisted with medical aid giving them some food and blackcurrant juice. Von Stockhausen pointed out to the survivors that it was war and as the Fabian had a gun fitted on the stern there was no alternative. Included with the food was some chocolate with coupons on the wrapping, which stated that if a number of these coupons were collected and submitted a photograph of Adolf Hitler would be given as a reward! They were picked up about 48 hours later and landed at Freetown later retuning to England.
My father returned to sea duty on the 29th March 1941 joining the Algerian until the 23rd of June.(This ship was requisitioned in 1943 and was one of 10 ships that laid the pipeline, better known as Pluto, to carry petrol from England to Normandy)
Subsequently he served in a variety of areas including the Atlantic when he was in command of the Limerick Steamship Company鈥檚 Lanahrone in the dreadful convoy OG71 (UK to Gibraltar). This was the only convoy during the war that never reached its final destination. It sailed from Milford Haven on 12th August 1941, the following day was joined off the Isle of Man by the Liverpool ships assigned to it including the Yeoward Line passenger ship 鈥楢quila鈥� which carried the convoy鈥檚 commodore and 22 women of the Women鈥檚 Royal Naval Service bound for duty at Gibraltar. On the !5th August the ships from Scotland joined off Rathlin Island. The escorts were HMS Leith ,HMS Bath and 6 corvettes HMSs Campanula,Campion,Zinnia,Bluebell,Wallflower and Hydrangea.
A Focke-Wulf spotter plane found the convoy on the 17th reported to U Boat HQ and Admiral Doenitz ordered 鈥榓 wolf pack鈥� of U-559,U-204,U-201,U-552,U-564, U-75-and U-106 to assemble and attack. On the 18th 2 Junker 88 bombers attacked one ship which was unharmed.
However in the early hours of the 19th the destroyer HMS Bath was torpedoed and 3 minutes later the rear commodores ship was torpedoed. Not long afterwards the Aquila was sunk by a torpedo sinking in one minute and there were only15 badly injured survivors; none of the WRNS surviving. The vice commodore鈥檚 ship 鈥楥iscar鈥� was ere long also sunk. And so it went on day after day until on the 23rd fearing annihilation the Admiralty ordered OG71 to divert to neutral Lisbon.
In this convoy 10 ships were sunk including HMS Bath and HMS Zinnia with the loss of over 400 lives.
The chronicle of OG71 is the basis of Nicholas Monsarrat鈥檚 story The Cruel Sea and also a chapter in his Three Corvettes.
On the 5th September my father sailed to Gibraltar and joined convoy HG 73 which leaving on the 17th U Boats again attacked with 9 ships being sunk. However, the Lanahrone arrived back safely in Belfast on 2nd October. He left the Lanahrone on 9th October 1941 at the docks at Barry S.Wales.
For the rest of the war years he was in command of coastal ships. One of them the 鈥楪lenbride鈥� had as armament 2 parachute rockets, each with a long trailing wire, to be fired if attacked by aircraft in the fond hope that the wire would wrap itself around some vital part of the aircraft and bring it down. Luckily these were never put to the test!

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