Her Name Was Tregenna.

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Her Name Was Tregenna.

Her Name Was Tregenna is a site created as a tribute to Captain William Thomas Care of Barry, Glamorgan, South Wales and the men of one particular ship, though it now carries additional material.

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Upon Their Lawful Occasions:



Upon Their Lawful Occasions: Reflections of a Merchant Navy Officer During Peace and War Paperback – 1 Aug. 2004.



Vernon Upton served in the Merchant Navy from just before the outbreak of World War II. His experiences of life in peace and war are vividly described in this comprehensive history.

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The S.S. TREGENNA was a 5,242 GRT steamer, built in 1919, but torpedoed and sunk by a U-Boat U-65 on 19th September 1940 whilst in convoy between Philadelphia and Newport, Wales. This wonderful website is a tribute to the S.S. TREGENNA and her crew, only 4 of whom survived the attack. It also records the irony that within little more than 7 months, the U-65 would herself be sunk by a British destroyer, HMS DOUGLAS. One of hundreds of British merchant ships sent to the bottom during World War 2, this website gives a lot of useful information, facts and figures about the sinking of the S.S. TREGENNA, recording for history, the actual, real people behind the statistics.

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William John Thomas

A Survivor of the sinking of the SS Tregenna

Have just found your web-site about the SS Tregenna. My father, William John Thomas, born 18.01.1918 Bargoed, Glamorgan was one of the 4 survivors of the tragedy on the 17.09.1940. He wrote a short report on the sinking and his survival which I am sending.. Unfortunately, my father passed away in 2002, shortly after his 84th birthday in New Quay, Ceredigion.

Regards,
Richard Thomas.

W.J Thomas’s account of the torpedoing of the SS Tregenna.

"I joined the SS Tregenna of St Ives at Swansea on the 26th of June 1940. Soon after leaving, each member of the crew were issued with a Kapok filled waistcoat type lifejacket which we were to wear or keep with us at all times. The voyage took us to USA with a cargo of coal. Homeward, we loaded a full cargo of steel railway lines at Philadelphia. On the 17th September 1940 when nearing the UK we were torpedoed by a German U-boat. This was about 2.30pm. I was asleep at the time and was awakened by the explosion and shuddering of the ship. I put on the lifejacket which I was using as a pillow and rushed out on deck. I could see it was hopeless to go for the lifeboats as I could see they were going under so I decided to jump over the side and get clear in case I would be sucked under with the ship. I saw the stern of the ship disappearing with her propeller still turning. Then the debris started coming up all around me. Fortunately a life raft came up near me and I was able to get on it. That was a stroke of luck. Another crew member joined me shortly after. Within one hour we were picked by another ship of the convoy the SS Phileigh".

My father W. J. Thomas, rarely spoke of that day as it obviously pained him to do so. He once took me up to see the Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill, London and talked about some of the names listed under SS Tregenna and the tears flowed as he talked about the 15 year old cabin boy and others who were even younger than himself.

He told me that he had once received a letter from the mother of one of those missing begging him for news and asking whether there was the remotest of possibilities that her son could have survived.

Many years later he was having a drink in the Buck Inn, Pontlliw, near Swansea (As he used to say "he was never one to pass the Buck"!), he met a man wearing a Merchant Navy tie and they started talking. The other man said in the conversation "I knew a Will Thomas from New Quay, I helped pull him out of the water onto the SS Filleigh during the War after his ship, the SS Tregenna was sunk.

I lent him some of my clothes and he never gave them back to me!" My father brought that man (a guy from the Llandeilo area) back home to meet my mother, went up the attic and gave him a parcel containing the clothes that had been lent him those many years ago. Now I wasn't a witness to this but my mother swears it's a true story and not a seaman's yarn!

Now I'm writing this from Berlin, Germany where I now live (another of life's ironies) and where that U-Boot Kapitän was killed in 1943! and so I have no pictures here of Dad in uniform. I've spoken to my mother (she's 86) and she'll be coming over with a brother of mine next month. I've told her to bring any photos and letters she can find. I'll be able to scan and send any suitable ones to you.

Regards,

Richard Thomas.

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