The following is a result of a chance meeting with a local man on the 104 bus from Colchester to Harwich a few weeks ago. He was born in Harwich, as were his forefathers. He was born in 1944, has stark recollections of the flood in 1953 and remembers everyone staying in the pubs during the week of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. He never knew his father as he died on HMHS Amsterdam in August 1944.

The following technical details are from Shipping Times.

Image by courtesy http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Ships/SSAmsterdam.html

The SS Amsterdam was built by John Brown at Clydebank in 1930. She was powered by 4 x steam turbines, SR geared to 25C shafts, generating 1520 nhp. Her tonnage was 4220g, 1989nt. Her length was 350.8 ft.; breadth was 50.1 ft.; depth was 20 ft. SS Amsterdam was owned from 1930 to 1940 by London and North Eastern Railway Company and was employed as a passenger ferry on the Harwich to Hook of Holland link. She was registered at Harwich.

In 1940 she was requisitioned as a Ministry of War transport, operating out of Southampton. In May/June 1940 she participated in Operation Dynamo - the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk.

In 1942 she was fitted out as Hospital Ship No. 64. In 1943 she was converted as a Landing Ship for the projected Normandy landings the following year. In 1944 she once again became a hospital ship for the evacuation of wounded from the Normandy beaches.

On the 7th August 1944 she struck one or possibly two mines and sunk with the loss of 106 lives. She was off Juno Beach at the time. The loss of life was 55 wounded, 10 medical staff and 30 crew members. In addition 11 German PoWs were among the dead.

The following eye-witness account is taken from the BBC's WW2 Peoples' War website. The eyewitness and writer was Patrick Manning.

"...in Feb. 1944 they gave me my first job as a galley boy on the L.N.E.R. ship SS Amsterdam. Before I could sign on I was asked if I was willing to volunteer for combined operations and gave a "v" put in my identity card. I agreed and joined the ship.

Nearly all the crew came from Harwich and Lowestoft, having been with the ship since the days before the war, when it was a regular passenger ship sailing from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. They were nearly all related to each other, fathers, sons, brothers and it created a family atmosphere on board.

The ship had been camouflaged and carried 6 x LCAs [Landing Craft Assault], 3 on each side on davits. Every week from Feb till June we would carry American Rangers round to Swanage, where we would anchor off the cliffs. The troops would then go ashore...and scale the cliffs for practice. In between times we would go in and out in the Channel and pick up people in small boats that had come across from France. Eventually D-Day dawned and we arrived off the coast of France around 3.00 am. Our LCAs, loaded with US Rangers, left the ship and headed towards the cliffs and Omaha Beach. When they arrived we could see them firing the rockets up with ropes attached to them with hooks so they caught on the rocks. We then watched as USS Texas, HMS Belfast and what I think was HMS Glasgow bombard the coast.

...We left the French coast at night and sailed to Glasgow. Approximately 4 weeks later the ship had been completely refitted out as a hospital ship containing wards, operating theatres etc. The crews' quarters had been changed and all the catering staff were put in cabins amidships. There was not enough room for my friend and myself, so we were put in a small cabin right at the aft end of the ship. We didn't think much of this at the time but, as it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise. We sailed back to France and for the next few trips we ferried the wounded from the field hospital, then we would return to Southampton.

This went on until the first week in Aug. It took 3 to 4 days to load the ship. On this particular evening the ship was full and we were due to sail the next day around 6.00 am...Suddenly there was a muffled explosion, the lights went out, and the ship listed. We managed to get our trousers and lifejackets on, but as we looked out of the porthole, all we could see was water and the deck was wet underfoot. There was a horrible smell of ether in the air. We found the cabin door but couldn't open it. In desperation we kicked and banged on the door but nothing happened. We then noticed that a piece of one of the bunks was jammed against it. This was all happening within minutes but seemed like forever. It was a nightmare. We managed to get out into the alleyway and made our way to the stairway. It was there we found Artie Mallows... [steward]... standing by the stairs with blood running down his face...We found him a lifejacket and helped him on deck.

It was approximately 7.00 am and foggy; the ship seemed to be broken in the middle with one half listing one way and the other half the other. One of the funnels and the mast were down and the screws were out of the water. Only one LCA could get away to pick up survivors.

There seemed to be only us three on the aft end...when we heard someone shouting...There was a sergeant in the medical corps standing there, ready to jump over the side. If he had he would have almost certainly have hit the propellers and died. We managed to take him back... [Patrick and the others managed to jump over the side]...There was quite a heavy swell so, finding it hard to swim in a lifejacket, I paddled.

I kept thinking to myself that I had to get away quickly in case I was sucked down with the ship. Then I spotted an LCA. As I reached it I was told there was no room as there were already overloaded and were afraid of capsizing...

I could hear a lot of screaming and shouting. I looked around and could see some of the wounded soldiers jumping over the side [of the ship] and there were 2 people stuck in the portholes. I was told afterwards that they were nurses.

As I continued paddling I heard a gushing noise then saw what looked like ashes shooting out of the funnel amid lots of noise. Then there was nothing, just wreckage floating in the water and deathly silence... [Patrick was rescued from the sea by an American Torpedo Boat]...Afterwards I found out that nearly all the catering staff were killed (around 30 men). Artie Mallows, the steward, also died after he was picked up. I was told afterwards that the ship had sunk in 8 mins. It seemed a lifetime."

The nursing sister in overall seniority onboard the ship was Miss Dorothy Anyta Field of the QAIMNS (Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service). She and Sister Molly Evershed went below decks after the Amsterdam was struck in order to rescue the wounded. They succeeded in rescuing 75 men, even though the ship had listed and was, therefore, difficult to move around on. During a second attempt to rescue those below decks, they were tragically less successful. They went down with the ship. Sisters Field and Evershed were mentioned in Dispatches and each of the men that they had rescued wrote to the nurses' parents expressing their gratitude.

Another hero of the tragedy who was lucky enough to have survived is recorded in the Irish Times of the 7th July 2010:

"Eileen Hourigan, who has died aged 93, was a nurse whose life-long vocation included an episode during the Second World War during which she displayed great bravery and devotion to the welfare of others.

Serving on a hospital ship [HMHS Amsterdam] that was torpedoed [sic.], Hourigan stayed on board saving patients as the vessel sank. As it upended and slid beneath the waves, she was one of the last to make for safety - which she did by sliding down the deck as the ship went under. For this, she received the MBE (Military)".

The wreck of the Amsterdam lies 5 miles north of Arromanche in 25 metres of water. She is explored by divers and is reported as laying on her port side, broken but still quite recognisable, although the wreckage is spread over a wide area. "The Hold areas are accessible". From channeldiving.com



Martin Wakley (copyright)