HMS Jervis Bay
| Career | Royal Navy Ensign |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | Vickers Ltd, Barrow in Furness 1922 (as SS Jervis Bay) |
| Commissioned: | October 1940 |
| Fate: | Sunk 5 November 1940 in mid-Atlantic |
| Struck: | |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 14164 gross tons |
| Length: | 549 ft |
| Beam: | 68 ft |
| Draught: | 33 ft |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 254 |
| Armament: | 7 x 6 in Mk. VII (152 mm) guns 2 x 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns |
| Aircraft: | 0 |
| Motto: | |
HMS Jervis Bay was an armed mechant cruiser, pennant F40, sunk on 5 November 1940 by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.
The ship was originally the Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line steamer Jervis Bay named after the Australian bay (the line named all of its ships after bays). She had been taken over by the Royal Navy in August 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War and hastily armed. She was initially assigned to the South Atlantic station before becoming a convoy escort in May 1940.
She was the sole escort for 37 merchant ships in convoy HX84 from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Britain, when the convoy encountered Admiral Scheer. The captain of Jervis Bay, Edward Fegen, ordered the convoy to scatter and closed with the German warship. However the 11-inch guns of the German ship easily outranged Jervis Bay and she was sunk with the loss of 190 crew and Admiral Scheer went on to sink a further 7 ships out of the convoy. The 65 survivors from Jervis Bay were picked up by the neutral Swedish ship Stureholm and Fegen was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. The citation for the Victoria Cross reads "Valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his live to save the many ships it was his duty to protect."
There is a monument to Captain Fegan and the crew of the Jervis Bay at Ross Memorial Park in Saint John, Nfld. There was also a monument which meant perhaps more to the merchant mariners that Captain Fegan protected, in London. The main room of the Merchant Navy Hotel (closed, 2002) was known as the Jervis Bay Room, and included a display detailing the action. It was the custom for everyone entering the room to salute the display.
The convoy HX-84 also had a tanker, the San Demetrio. This ship was shelled, set afire, and abandoned by her master and crew. Two days later some of the crew, now in a lifeboat, sighted the San Demetrio, still afloat and still ablaze. They reboarded her, got the engines running, and brought her in to port. This incident later formed the basis for the script of a motion picture of the same name.
External links:
- [1] Memorial at Ross Memorial Park