‘An orange glow lit up the horizon: an oil tanker had been torpedoed’ – Dick Durham

Dick Durham looks into the life of his grandfather who came close to death on many occasions during a life spend on tall ships

Inside an old jewellery box sits a yellowing fang set in a gold mount. It is the triangular molar wrenched from a shark jaw trolled for somewhere in the South Atlantic at the turn of the 19th century.

Those fishing for the predator included my grandfather, Richard Stephens Durham, then a teenage apprentice aboard the three-masted barque, Pass of Killiecrankie. Sharks’ teeth were highly prized by tallship sailors as a lucky talisman to bestow safe passage on the wearer, or to ward off the razor-jawed creatures should a matelot suffer the misfortune of becoming a man overboard.

I had long ago heard how Grandpa survived stowing sail aloft on that same ship while a fellow apprentice lost his footing on the yard arm and fell to his death in the sea below. But until recently I had little idea of the charmed life Grandpa had spent at sea until his retirement as master in the Port Line back in 1948.

While researching what had happened to his old ships – Pass of Brander was the second sailing ship he served in loading guano from Valparaiso in Chile for the farmers’ fields of Europe – I discovered how close he came to slumber in Davy Jones’ locker rather than the Sussex old folks’ home where he took his last breath.

His first ship out of sail was the SS Oswestry Grange, a slab-sided steamer in which, as fourth mate, he visited all the great meat ports of Australia, to load outback beef. He had left the ship by 1917 when she came into the periscope sights of German Commander Hans Rose of U-53 and was torpedoed off Northern Ireland while on passage from Manchester to Sydney, laden with general cargo.

I have a watercolour of Grandpa’s second steamship, the SS Marere. Set in a lacquered frame with a varnished bamboo surround, she was a handsome ship: white upper works over goose grey topsides, held free from the waves by a red waterline.

Article continues below…

The whole topped off with her dead-centre, straight yellow and black funnel belching thick black smoke, as she sets off for another 4,000 tons of beef. Grandpa was made up to second mate aboard her but was discharged before she was sunk by the most successful U-Boat commander of all time, Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, 236 miles east of Gibraltar.

Aboard the SS Makarini, Grandpa was made up to first mate and made five voyages to the antipodes before leaving the ship to become lieutenant in the Royal Volunteer Reserve. While in command of HM trawler Princess Mary off Malta, he was part of the rescue of 1,200 men from the torpedoed ships Huntsend and Ivernia, for which he was awarded the DSO. That same year, 1917, his old freighter, SS Makarini, was sunk by a mine off Dunkirk with the loss of two lives.

After the First World War he resumed trading to Australia and New Zealand meat factories, including a visit in his first command, Port Macquarie.

Grandpa had moved to his next ship by the time Port Macquarie was sunk in October 1940 by a U-Boat torpedo in the Atlantic with the loss of eight of her 38-strong crew.

During a passage to Galveston, Texas, as master of the Port Chalmers, Grandpa made the decision to disobey the US Coastguard’s wartime advice to remain in convoy while steaming down the eastern seaboard. Instead, he steamed further inshore and among shallower waters, which he was not daunted by having taught my father how to sail in the Thames Estuary.

At sunset on the first day of the convoy he had broken free of, a huge orange glow lit up the horizon: an oil tanker in the convoy had been torpedoed, a fate avoided by Grandpa’s course through waters too shallow for a U-Boat. He received the OBE.

Over his long life at sea, Grandpa carried that shark’s tooth in his pocket. It kept his son, Richard Stephens Durham II, my father, safe during his long yachting career and, I like to think, is now doing the same for me.

Enjoyed reading this?

A subscription to Yachting Monthly magazine costs around 40% less than the cover price, so you can save money compared to buying single issues.

Print and digital editions are available through Magazines Direct – where you can also find the latest deals.

YM is packed with information to help you get the most from your time on the water.

• • • Take your seamanship to the next level with tips, advice and skills from our experts
    • Impartial in-depth reviews of the latest yachts and equipment
    • Cruising guides to help you reach those dream destinations

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post ‘An orange glow lit up the horizon: an oil tanker had been torpedoed’ – Dick Durham appeared first on Yachting Monthly.