Previous name: West Lynn HMS Willamette Valley
Subsequent name:
Official Number: 167640
Class: Special Service Freighter – Q ship
Pennant No: X39
Signal Letters: GBND / GCFD
Laid down:
Builder: Napier & Miller Ltd, Old Kilpatrick, Glasgow
Launched: 1928
Into Service: 17 September 1939
Out of service: 29 June 1940
Fate: Sunk
Items of historic interest involving this ship: –
Background Data: In 1939 Winston Churchill gave authority for a number of merchantmen to be requisitioned for service as Q-ships, although for security purposes they were referred to as Special service Freighters. A fleet of 9 small mainly coal-burning vessels were acquired , 6 for deep-sea work and 3 for coastal work. All were commissioned as HM ships under their original names but were given RFA cover names and on entering harbour and while in harbour they wore the Blue Ensign, behaved as RFA’s and adopted the RFA commercial practices. None of them was really suitable for their intended roles and met with a complete lack of success. Their Q-ship service officially ended on 2 March 1941
14 August 1928 launched by Napier & Miller Ltd., Old Kilpatrick as Yard Nr: 268 named WEST LYNN for Reardon Smith Line Ltd (Sir William Reardon Smith & Sons, Managers) Cardiff
15 August 1928 the Scotsman newspaper reported the launching of the previous day –
1928 completed and transferred to the subsidiary Oakwin Steamship Co Ltd
18 November 1928 arrived at Tacoma for Vancouver
25 November 1928 sailed from Seattle
28 November 1928 sailed Portland, Oregon for San Francisco
30 November 1928 arrived at San Francisco
19 December 1928 arrived at Panama
11 January 1929 passed Gravesend
8 February 1929 sailed Glasgow for Vancouver
27 February 1929 arrived at Colon, Republic of Panama
16 March 1929 arrived at Vancouver
19 March 1929 arrived at Tacoma
2 April 1929 sailed Los Angeles
3 May 1929 passed Dover and later the same day passed Gravesend
17 May 1929 sailed Manchester for Vancouver
4 October 1929 sailed from Portland, Oregon
17 November 1929 passed Gravesend
25 November 1929 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard sailing west
26 November 1929 passed Point Lynas
29 November 1929 berthed at Manchester
18 January 1930 sailed Port Arthur for the Panama Canal
13 March 1930 arrived at Tsingtao from Fulsan
17 March 1930 arrived at Shaghai, China
23 March 1930 sailed Shanghai, China
26 April 1930 sailed San Francisco
9 May 1930 arrived at Panama
21 July 1930 sailed Panama for Kobe, Japan
1 October 1930 sailed Sydney, NSW for Dakar
14 November 1930 sailed Dakar
16 December 1930 sailed Cardiff for Vancouver
1931 renamed WILLAMETTE VALLEY by her owners
10 April 1931 sailed Cardiff for Singapore
28 April 1931 passed Perrim
15 May 1931 sailed Singapore
27 June 1931 signalled her owners ‘Proceeding Colombo making water. Port pumps are preventing water from gaining. Later her owners reported the situation had improved and the ship was making for Suez
20 August 1931 sailed from Ceuta
22 November 1931 arrived at Aberdeen, Washington
7 December 1931 sailed Los Angeles
19 December 1931 arrived Panama City
21 December 1931 transitted the Panama Canal
9 January 1932 arrived London from Tacoma
17 January 1932 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard sailing west
24 January 1932 at Cardiff
10 April 1932 arrived at Kobe, Japan
12 May 1932 berthed at Geraldton, Western Australia from Japan to load a cargo of wheat
15 May 1932 a ships football team played a Geraldton, Western Australia side at football. The game resulted in a 2 – 2 draw. Profits from the match were donated to the ‘Visiting Nurse Scheme’
21 May 1932 having completed loading her cargo she sailed Geraldton to Fremantle arriving 24 May 1932
27 May 1932 sailed Fremantle, Western Australia for Las Palmas
19 June 1932 passed Table Bay, South Africa
6 July 1932 arrived at Las Palmas
9 August 1932 sailed from Barry, Wales
30 September 1932 passed Gibraltar
12 January 1933 arrived at Limerick, Eire
26 January 1933 arrived Las Palmas
8 March 1933 sailed from Sydney, NSW for Shanghai
3 April 1933 sailed from Shanghai for Vladivostock
25 May 1933 arrived at Panama from Vladivostock
29 June 1933 discharging 8,350 tons of Australian wheat at Hull
23 August 1933 sailed Mobile
3 September 1933 transitted the Panama Canal
4 November 1933 at Vancouver
4 December 1933 at Balboa, Panama
5 December 1933 in collision with German tanker mv Wilhelm A Riedemann at Balboa, Panama damage caused – stem twisted, slight leaking in the fore peak cauking river seams, fitting cement box
m.v. Wilhelm A Riedemann
26 December 1933 arrived at London from Vancouver
5 January 1934 arrived at Liverpool
19 January 1934 sailed from Liverpool
13 March 1934 sailed from Istanbull for Baltimore
21 July 1934 700 miles SW of Valentia
18 August 1934 passed Gibraltar
4 September 1934 at Poti
13 October 1934 at Poti, Russia 1st Engineer Arthur Ivor Lewis discharged dead – pneumonia
15 October 1934 sailed Istanbul
23 October 1934 passed Gibraltar sailing west bound for Baltimore
6 November 1934 grounded at Cape Henry near Norfolk Virginia subsequently refloated
7 November 1934 the Lancashire Evening Post reported –
9 November 1934 arrived at Baltimore
21 November 1934 at Mobile
26 November 1934 arrived at Houston
10 January 1935 at Kobe, Japan
18 January 1935 berthed at Osaka, Japan
23 February 1935 sailed from San Pedro for Queenstown
14 May 1935 passed through the Panama Canal for Seikoshin
1 August 1935 sailed San Franciso
3 August 1935 sailed Los Angles
4 September 1935 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard sailing east
5 September 1935 berthed at West India Dock, London
12 September 1935 at West India Dock, London Apprentice Richard Chillingworth G Taylor discharged dead – accident
30 November 1935 sail San Pedro
10 December 1935 at Portland, Oregon
17 December 1935 sailed San Francisco
19 January 1936 radioed she was 280m WSW of Lands End
2 February 1936 at Liverpool
13 February 1936 sailed from Barry Dock, Cardiff
27 February 1936 arrived at Port Said from Barry
14 May 1936 at Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
21 May 1936 at Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
31 May 1936 at Ilaio
22 July 1936 at Balboa, Republic of Panama
31 July 1936 berthed at Philadelphia
22 August 1936 at Balboa, Republic of Panama transitted the Panama Canal and cleared at Cristobal the same day
1 September 1936 sailed Boston for Yokohama, Japan
20 October 1936 at Cristobal, Republic of Panama transitted the Panama Canal and cleared at Balboa the same day
1 January 1937 sailed Los Angeles for Queenstown, Eire
13 January 1937 arrived at Balboa
5 February 1937 at Rotterdam
2 March 1937 at Poti, Russia Ordinary Seaman George Ottosen discharged dead – accident
18 March 1937 sailed Algiers for Baltimore
17 May 1937 sailed Panama for Yokohama, Japan
22 June 1937 at Yokohama, Japan
29 September 1937 in collision with unknown vessel in dense fog while on passage from Rouen to Bristol
3 January 1938 arrived at Tokuyama, Japan from Dante
11 January 1938 sailed from Rashin
23 February 1938 at Suez
2 April 1938 at Jarrow on Tyne loading bunkers
7 September 1938 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard sailing west bound
5 October 1938 arrived at Los Angeles, CA from Falmouth
12 October 1938 arrived at Vancouver, Canada from Los Angeles, CA
26 October 1938 sailed Crofton, British Columbia for Melbourne
27 November 1938 arrived at Sydney, NSW from Vancouver, Canada, New Westminster and Crofton
7 December 1938 sailed from Sydney, NSW for Vancouver, Canada
5 January 1939 sailed from Sydney, NSW
24 February 1939 arrived at Sydney, NSW, Australia
10 March 1939 cleared to sail Sydney, NSW, Australia for Makatea
11 March 1939 sailed Sydney, NSW Australia
29 July 1938 sailed Port Said when on passage from Haiphong to Dunkirk
13 August 1939 arrived at Glasgow from New Orleans
17 September 1939 requisitioned by the Admiralty for conversion into a Special Service Freighter at Chatham Dockyard
26 September 1939 commissioned as HMS WILLAMETTE VALLEY
29 November 1939 Chief Steward William Willard discharged dead – illness
January 1940 conversion completed. Cover name RFA EDGEHILL. Complement 89 under command of Commander. Robert .E.D. Ryder Royal Navy. Armed with 9 x single 4-inch guns, 1 x 12 pdr gun, 4 x Lewis machine guns, 4 x single 21-inch torpedo tubes, 100 x depth charges and was fitted with Asdic
Commander Robert E D Ryder Royal Navy
29 June 1940 torpedoed by German submarine U51 in the North Atlantic at 49°27N, 15°25W and sunk – 67 (60 RN, RNR or RNVR and 7 Merchant Navy) of the crew were killed – all remembered with pride on the Chatham and Liverpool Naval memorials. There were 24 survivors.. It required 3 torpedoes to sink her.
The following members of the crew received the following awards: –
Posthumous Mention in Despatches
Lieutenant Edward Francis Michael Seymour Royal Navy
Mr Peter Richard Starkey, Assistant Radio Officer
Termporary Surgeon Lieutenant Hamish Alexander Wallace MRCS, LRCP, RNVR
Petty Officer Walter Alfred Keyse X6077 RNSBR
Mention in Despatches
MIdshipman Michael G A Whittle RNR
Stoker Petty Officer Eric N Lockwood KX/76797
Mr Thomas W Pearson, Chief Radio Officer
Notes:
- This ship was a Q ship – a commissioned Naval vessel which would assume its RFA name on entering harbour to hide its genuine identity. She never served as an RFA.
- Commander Robert E D Ryder Royal Navy was awarded the Victoria Cross. During 27-28 March 1942 he led the naval force in Operation Chariot, with the aim of wrecking the gates at the entrance to the huge dry dock at St Nazaire, the only one in western France capable of accommodating the German battleship Tirpitz. The force, commanded by Ryder in MGB 314, comprised sixteen motor launches, a motor torpedo boat, and the destroyer HMS Campbeltown which, loaded with explosives on a time fuse, was to ram the dock gates. It also included 257 commandos, who were to demolish dockside installations. Just before 1.30am on 28 March, Ryder’s force reached its objective, where the Campbeltown succeeded in ramming the dock gates. Ryder remained on the spot to conduct operations, going ashore at one stage to look around. Returning to MGB 314 – by then under intense close-range fire – he organised the evacuation of men from the Campbeltown and the rescue of as many commandos as possible. After being in action for well over an hour, MGB 314, still under fire and full of dead and wounded, at last withdrew and eventually reached England. The Victoria Cross awarded to Ryder was one of five won during the raid.
