How was HMS Exeter repaired in Dec. 1939 - Jan. 1940?

[Sid Guttridge]

On the internet there are two versions of how HMS Exeter was temporarily repaired after her clash with Graf Spee in December 1939:

1) She went to Cumberland Sound in South Georgia and was repaired at the whaler's dockyard there.

or

2) She was repaired in Port Stanley with plates sent from the whaler's dockyard in South Georgia.

I incline to the second proposition.

However, if it is correct, some other vessel must have transported the plates from South Georgia to Port Srtanley.

Does anyone know what this vessel's name was and any other details of her mission?

Many thanks,

Sid.

[Orwell1984]

Hi Sid
Not sure if this is one of the links you found but pages 3 and 4 might help you track the exact details you need down.
The account is written by Lieutenant Ron Atwill who served on the Exeter during the battle.
http://www.navyhistory.org.au/hms-exete ... r-plate/3/

Mark

[phylo_roadking]

Sid, are you aware of this first-person account of Exeter's action and subsequent events? It definitely refers to repairs at Stanley (and early in the account mentions crewmen who died in the hospital there) It's uploaded from the Naval Historical Society of Australia's "Naval Historical Review" - March 1977.

But page four is the most important regarding your query...
http://www.navyhistory.org.au/hms-exete ... r-plate/4/

Nothing else in the world could have done more to urge us on in our efforts to make our ship seaworthy for the thousands of miles that lay between us and home. So we set to work with a will. But what were we going to use, for what in some instances were extensive repairs? For instance, that very large hole starboard side forward?

Luckily, the small cargo and passenger vessel owned by the Falkland Island Trading Company was at Buenos Aires, and through official channels we were able to order steel plate and sheet to back up our normal stores quota. We also ordered plenty of electric welding rods as we had a useful welding generator in the Engineers’ Workshop and on shore there was a portable petrol drum generator which, although some years old, had never been used.

So that identifies what ship - shouldn't be too hard from that to get a name???

As for the source of the plate...

The ship’s side abreast the refrigerating machinery compartment was riddled with splinter holes from a very close near miss, some very near the water line. I covered nearly one hundred holes with patches of quarter inch thick mild steel. By the time that that job was completed our plating for the forward hole had arrived from Buenos Aires. That repair gave no end of trouble - our new three eighths thick steel plate was as straight as could be - the ship’s side, even after we had burned away all the ragged edges, was distorted and rippled - anything but straight or a nice fair curve.

[phylo_roadking]

Sid, the Falkland Islands has operated its own Red Ensign register since 1861, [email protected] might supply you with the information regarding the ship's name, it's the email addy for The Registrar of Ships, Customs and Immigration Department, Byron House, 3 "H" Jones Road, Stanley.

[Orwell1984]

This might be the boat you're looking for: the A K Ilen
Launched in 1926 for the Falkland Islands Company and served for approximately 60 years as the service boat.
http://bigboatbuild.com/big-boat-build- ... nnings.php

[phylo_roadking]

Ken, I think we're looking for something bigger...

The Falklands Link

Throughout her long life, the Ilen has been a lucky ship. From January 1927 onwards, she was working for her living in some of the most demanding waters in the world, ferrying people, school teachers, sheep, stores and mail between the scattered island communities of the Falklands. Her traditional rig and reliable old Kelvin engine gave trustworthy service year after year, and the familiar shape of her rugged hull became part of the fabric of life in those remote islands whose threatening rocks failed time and again to wreck her.

....it's not going to be carrying much in the way of steel plate across the South Atlantic from BA to Stanley!

[phylo_roadking]

Ok, I think I've got it. First I came across THIS -http://www.far-eastern-heroes.org.uk/al ... _plate.htm

...which includes the tale of a trip by a group of nursing staff from the British Hospital in Bueonos Aries down to Montevideo, where they saw the casualties being brought off the docked Graf Spee; from there, they were taken by an SS LAFONIA in the wake ofthe damaged Exeter to Port Stanley, where they helped nurse its injured crew.

I then found THIS - http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?16386

The SS LAFONIA was a 1,872grt cargo/passenger ship built as yard number 330 (official number 131348) by Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Co. for Samuel Hough Ltd of Liverpool and launched as the DOROTHY HOUGH on the 29th April 1911. Her sea trials were held at Aberlady Bay on 10th June and she was completed on the 27th.

She had a single screw powered by a 249 nhp triple expansion engine (21 13/16", 35" and 57" cylinders with a 39" stroke) with two 3-furnaced single-ended boilers from J.G. Kincaid & Co, Greenock and was 283.3 x 36.1 x 19 feet.

In 1913, following the amalgamation of three Liverpool coaster companies which formed Powell, Bacon & Hough Lines, Ltd of Liverpool, she was renamed SOUTHERN COAST. Then in 1936 she was bought by the Falkland Islands Co, Ltd and renamed LAFONIA with the company´s current LAFONIA being renamed FITZROY. In November of that year she was fitted for fuel oil and her high pressure cylinder was rebored from 21" to 21 13/16". In 1942 she was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport and placed under the management of Elder Dempster Lines Ltd.

On March 26th, 1943, while on a voyage in ballast from London to Greenock, she sank after a collision.

So that gives us EITHER the Lafonia OR the Fitzroy....

...but THEN I found a comment in A Falkland Islands Story a Doctor on Horseback by Tom Hopwood regarding the 342-ton Fitzroy! IT....according to Hopwood's book it had a reputation as a VEY badly handling, rolling ship....seems to have remained in the Falklands, and plied both around the island groups....AND made regular five-day trips back and forth to the mainland.

And here it is!



Now THAT is more like a "small cargo and passenger vessel"

Sid, my personal opinion would be that the "small cargo and passenger vessel" was the SS Fitzroy; it's definitely small...a lot smaller than the ~2,000-ton SS Lafonia...and was plying a regular route to and from the mainland.

[Orwell1984]

Phylo's definitely narrowed it down to two excellent choices.
Some follow up information that may have bearing:
Captain Parry also reported that, as soon as the first news of the River Plate action was received, the British Community Council in Buenos Aires provided at their own expense complete hospital equipment for 100 men and despatched it immediately to the Falkland Islands. A radiologist and fourteen trained nurses, all of whom gave up their own work at short notice, went with the equipment in the steamer Lafonia. Although this assistance did not arrive in time to help the Falkland Islanders during the first week, it relieved the situation enormously. The modern X-ray apparatus was particularly valuable.

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Navy-c5.html

So this is evidence that one of the ships, Lafonia, was in Buenos Aires shortly after the battle and returned to the Falklands soon after. No mention of any other cargo it may have been carrying though.

[phylo_roadking]

Orwell - the problem is the Lafonia wasn't AT Buenos Aries - according to Nurse Sadleir's account it was down the River Plate at Montevideo! They transshipped there from whatever vessel brought them down the Plate.

Also - it's clear from her account that the Lafonia left Montevideo on the night of the 17th within hours of the scuttling of the Graf Spee....while the Exeter itself took, what, about three days?...starting on the 13th!

So, listing heavily to starboard and still burning forward, our battered ship turned towards the Falkland Islands twelve hundred miles away. We made good speed - about 18 knots. The weather was kind although it worsened towards the end of our journey. Three times during that long trip we stopped to commit our dead to the deep

So, "through official channels we were able to order steel plate"....I certainly doubt all that could be organised in time for the Lafonia's departure on the night of the 17th of December; Exeter could only have been at Port Stanley 12-24 hours at the very most by the time the Lafonia left for the Falklands.

Coming from the other direction - there also seems to have been quite a lot done on board the Exeter BEFORE the plate arrived from the mainland...

There were three major shell repairs - starboard side aft abreast the refrigerating machinery compartment, the big hole just abaft the stem abreast the paint shop and the hole in the port side punched by the shell which caused so much trouble in the CPO Flat and nearly put Exeter out of the fight.

The ship’s side abreast the refrigerating machinery compartment was riddled with splinter holes from a very close near miss, some very near the water line. I covered nearly one hundred holes with patches of quarter inch thick mild steel. By the time that that job was completed our plating for the forward hole had arrived from Buenos Aires.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your work.

I will just outline the situation as I understood it by deductive reasoning before asking my question:

-----------------------

The Falkland Island Company had three vessels potentially available of bringing in steel plate for Exeter - Lafonia, Fitzroy and Roydur.

The larger Lafonia was used to connect the islands with Montevideo, where it linked with Royal Mail lines ships to the UK. It followed Graf Spee into Montevideo and out again, but the timings seem too tight for her to have acquired steel plate for Exeter on this visit.

Lafonia certainly took the Anglo-Argentine nurses back to Montevideo after Exeter left for the UK in late January 1940, but to have brought in the steel plate she would have had to have made an intermediate voyage in later December 1939 or early January 1940, but I can find no evidence of this.

The smaller Fitzroy was for use within the Falkland Islands and was probably not best suited to go to either South America or South Georgia.

There was a third vessel, the ex-whaler Roydur. I do not know what her purpose was, but she was originally designed for the open South Atlantic and may have been able to reach either, but I wonder whether she had the necessary cargo space.

If a Falkland Islands vessel was used to import steel plate, it would probably have to be either Lafonia on a later voyage, or possibly Roydur.

As far as I can tell, for political reasons Falkland Islands Company vessels did not call at Buenos Aires, just Montevideo, so I doubt the Argentine was the direct source of steel plate. Later in the war, Argentina, which had to import iron and steel, announced that it would only repair Allied ships providing the materials used were replaced.

It seems perhaps more plausible to me that, as one internet source claims, the necessary plate was brought in from the British possession of South Georgia, where there were repair facilities designed to service the dozens of whaler catchers and factory ships that frequented the deep South Atlantic during the southern summer (which this was). If so, it could have been any one of dozens of vessels that made the trip.

-----------------------

As things stand, I am still besieged by conflicting information. Any other ideas, or a definitive answer, would therefore be gratefully received.

Cheers,

Sid.

[phylo_roadking]

The smaller Fitzroy was for use within the Falkland Islands and was probably not best suited to go to either South America or South Georgia.

Sid, the Fitzroy remained in service for some time, and at the time of the Falkland Islands Survey of 1950 it was sailing a regular run Stanley - Punto Arenas - Punto Arturo - Tierra Del Fuego - Stanley. So it was capable of the South Atlantic. It did however handle like a plastic duck in the bath...and always did.

As for the wartime years, well it was on the Fitzroy that the aforementioned Tom Hopwood reached the Falklands from Montevideo in 1944! According to the first paragraph of chapter three, it was plying the run every ten days or so; according to the same chapter, it was five days each way in the Fitzroy. I assume, looking at the history of the Lafonia, the Fitzroy MAY have been pressed into this service once the Lafonia was impressed and headed for the UK.

Hopwood's account seems to indicate that it did that trip to the mainland a couple of times....THEN took a break to service the Islands; he and his family had to wait for it to return from Montevideo again before it could carry them on to West Falkland; it also seems to have sailed wool-collecting runs in and around East and West Falkland. He DOES however say on page 47 that apart from HMS Scoresby, the Fitzroy was the ONLY ship available for inter-island passage - from that I would venture that the Roydur only serviced the whaling stations; later in his sojourn on the islands, he had to be taken to a patient by inter-island "cutter" as the Fitzroy wasn't available....and his description would indicate that THIS was the Ilen!

Hopwood was the Islands' doctor for three years - and there's no mention at all of the Roydur in all his travels around the island group.

[phylo_roadking]

I've also turned up something else that takes Roydur out of the running, and why she isn't mentioned in Hopwood's account...during the war, she wasn't at the FIC's disposal any more! From naval-history.net, as of July 1941 -

Minesweeping drifter (tender to HAWKINS) - ROYDUR (Ty/Lt F F Jakeman RNVR) at Port Stanley.

...she had been impressed too! Elsewhere, in June 1940, she's listed as -

Whaler (tender to cruiser HAWKINS) - ROYDUR (no CO listed) at Port Stanley.

Ah, here we go - http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/12553.html

Whaler of Falkland Islands Co. Ltd., Port Stanley, taken over by the Admiralty in September 1939.
Displacement: 174 tons.

Returned to owner in November 1944.

So she's not available to the FIC as of December 1939, and certainly wouldn't be travelling back and forth to the mainland.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

Yes, the Fitzroy was switched to external services when Lafonia was withdrawn to the UK. (Lafonia's later tavels can be found on Arnold Hague's port index site, but not her activities in 39-40.

The Scoresby was in the UK during the southern summer of 1939-40 and so not available.

It doesn't matter to me whether the Roydur was in FIC or RN service provided it can be established whether she brought in the steel plates.

The Roydur is described as converted for minesweeping and, being old, may have been Port Stanley's guard ship.

Cheers,

Sid.

[phylo_roadking]

It doesn't matter to me whether the Roydur was in FIC or RN service provided it can be established whether she brought in the steel plates.

True - but look back at Atwill's account -

Luckily, the small cargo and passenger vessel owned by the Falkland Island Trading Company was at Buenos Aires

...whichever of the three it was - it was doing non-guardship things

Kew would be your next stop; surely the Exeter's "request via official channels" would be preserved somewhere, or referred to - and there'd be an exchange of correspondence on the subject with whoever in BA, and perhaps with the FIC? It's the sort of triangle - Falklands/Admiralty/Buenos Aries - that would generate paperwork. It can't ALL have been turned into hamster bedding...

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

Lafonia was in Montevideo, not Buenos Aires.

She had left Port Stanley for Montevideo under escort by Exeter. Exeter had been called away to join Ajax and Achilles against Graf Spee en route.

After the battle, the slower Lafonia had followed the damaged Graf Spee into Montevideo and (according to the nurse's account in the above link) she left shortly after her, passing the burning wreck.

While in Montevideo the Lafonia received the hospital equipment and nursing staff from Buenos Aires, but did not apparently go there herself. (The nurse's account says they "transhipped" to Lafonia in Montevideo, so another vessel must have brought them from BA).

The most realistic choices for the import of the steel plate to repair Exeter seem to be (1) Lafonia on this or a later occasion, or (2) some vessel from South Georgia, where there were considerable repair facilities.

One report by a Royal Marine on Exeter definitely states South Georgia and is the most definitive I have. However, to confirm this, or any other possibility, I would need more details of the vessel concerned.

Which brings me back to where I started........

You may be right. I may have to follow this up during my next trip to the NA. They kept all the logs of warships down to cruiser size. (Below that one takes pot luck).

Anyway, thanks to you and Orwell for your help.

Cheers,

Sid.