MV San Demetrio
5 NOVEMBER 1940
MV SAN DEMETRIO
The Eagle Oil and Shipping Company operated in England from 1912-59 moving petroleum products between Mexico, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. Each of their tankers was given the Spanish name of a Christian saint. MV San Demetrio was an 8070-ton tanker launched in 1938. In October 1940 she shipped a cargo of 11,200 tons of aviation gasoline in Aruba and headed to Halifax, where she was to join 38 other freighters in British-bound Convoy HX-84, shepherded by HMS JERVIS BAY, an armed merchant cruiser. By the eighth day at sea the convoy was halfway to Avondale, England.
The sky this day was overcast with only a ribbon of light on the horizon as the afternoon watch finished. Lookouts spotted the masthead of a ship to port just as the sound of gunfire boomed across the moderate swell. The German pocket battleship ADMIRAL VON SCHEER climbed over the horizon firing her 11″ guns. JERVIS BAY turned to, making a suicidal charge. She was burning from stem to stern before her seven 6″ guns were within range. The gallant former liner sacrificed herself with the loss of Acting CAPT Edward S.F. Fegen and 189 crewmen, but she bought time for the convoy to scatter. Fegen would later receive the Victoria Cross.
Scheer now turned her guns on the convoy. SS Beaverford, Fresno City, Trewellard, Maiden, and Kenbane Head all went down–Beaverford after engaging the attacker herself to buy more time. San Demetrio was hit three times and caught fire. A gasoline tanker ablaze is a potential disaster, and most are abandoned. Such was the case when Captain George Waite, O.B.E., signaled “finished with engines” from the bridge telegraph–the signal to San Demetrio’s enginemen to abandon ship. Sixteen crewmen led by 2nd Officer Arthur C. Hawkins clamored into the starboard lifeboat and lowered to the roiling, gasoline-coated sea below. The skipper and 22 others slipped away in another boat, but the two boats quickly lost contact. Capt. Waite’s fears proved true, San Demetrio’s amidships tanks exploded like a giant Roman candle.
The starboard lifeboat drifted through the next day, sighting, but failing to attract, a passing ship. On the second day another ship was seen on the horizon, emitting a column of black smoke. It turned out to be San Demetrio, who burned but had not sunk. Taking their chances, the men reboarded and revived the engines and fire mains. Slowly they stemmed the fires. Down by the bows, Hawkins set a course for Ireland, navigating by dead reckoning and the occasional glimpse of the sun. Miraculously, on 16 November San Demetrio dropped anchor off Glasgow, her original destination. Her tattered Red Ensign still waved, set a half mast for engineman John Boyle who had finally succumbed to his injuries near Ireland.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 11 NOV 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Brock, Paul. “Am Engaging Enemy…Believed to be Admiral Scheer.” Sea Classics, Vol 55 (4), April 2022, pp. 8-16.
Jesse, F. Tennyson. The Saga of San Demetrio. London, England: H.M. Stationery Office, 1943, (reprint by Pratt Press, 2007).
Warsailors.com website. “Convoy HX-84-Page 2: Report of an Interview with Mr. Charles Pollard, Chief Engineer, and Mr. Arthur C. Hawkins, 2nd Officer of M.V. San Demetrio.” dtd. 20 November 1940, AT: http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/hx84page2.html, retrieved 25 July 2024.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Three San Demetrio crewmen were killed in the initial attack and four more died of injuries after abandoning ship. The men in Captain Waite’s lifeboat were rescued by a passing freighter and taken to Newfoundland. Because San Demetrio had been abandoned at sea, the 15 crewmen who brought her safely to port were entitled to salvage compensation to the tune of £2000 for some. Arthur Hawkins received the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for his heroism in recovering and salving the tanker.
San Demetrio was repaired and returned to service. She was torpedoed by U-404 and sank off Virginia on 17 March 1942.
Captain Waite had received his O.B.E. after the Eagle Company tanker San Alberto was torpedoed and broke in half in December 1939. Days later, he and several crewmen reboarded the still-floating after section of the tanker, revived her boilers, but were unable to make headway, backwards, toward England.
In 1943 the story of San Demetrio was made into a movie, “San Demetrio London,” starring Walter Fitzgerald and Arthur Young.
An armed merchant cruiser was a former civilian freighter or ocean liner acquired by the Navy, armed usually with 8-inch guns or smaller, and detailed to escort duties. Such would have been no match for a German pocket battleship.
