Winifred Victoria Cluff

Winifred Cluff drowned aboard MV Melbourne Star. It is assumed she was travelling down under to join her Australian husband. MV Melbourne Star was a British refrigerated cargo liner. She was built by Cammell Laird and Co in 1936 as one of Blue Star Line's Imperial Star-class ships, designed to ship frozen meat from Australia and New Zealand to the United Kingdom. She served in the Second World War and is distinguished for her role in Operation Pedestal to relieve the siege of Malta in August 1942. She was sunk by torpedo in 1943 with the loss of 115 lives.

Half of Melbourne Star's passengers and several of her crew were from Australia or New Zealand, including five junior Royal Australian Navy officers, an RAAF wing commander and a young Roman Catholic priest. Two of Melbourne Star's crew and two of her passengers were from the Republic of Ireland. One passenger was a young woman from Dundee, Scotland, travelling with her two sons aged eight and four.

On 24 March 1943 Melbourne Star left Liverpool for Sydney via the Panama Canal. She carried torpedoes, ammunition, other materiel, 76 crew, 11 DEMS gunners and 31 passengers. Melbourne Star started her Atlantic crossing from Liverpool with Convoy ON 175, which was bound for New York. En route she detached from the convoy to head for Panama.

About 0300 hrs on 2 April Melbourne Star was in mid-Atlantic in heavy weather about 480 miles south-east of Bermuda when the German Type IXC submarine U-129 hit her with two or three torpedoes, one of which detonated in her boiler room. Part of her cargo detonated, destroying three-quarters of the ship instantly and sinking her within two minutes. There was no chance to transmit a distress signal, and if any of her four lifeboats survived the explosion there was no chance of anyone launching them.

But the ship also carried Carley floats, which were either thrown into the sea by the explosion or floated clear as the remains of the ship sank. Eleven people from the ship managed to find and board three of the floats: seven people in one, three crewmen in another and an engine room greaser, William Best, alone in a third.

At daybreak U-129 approached the floats. The Germans asked the survivors for the name of their ship and what its destination and cargo were. From one of the floats able seaman Leonard White replied, giving the ship's true name but claiming she was bound for Panama with "general supplies".U-129 then left them to fend for themselves.

A/B White shared a float with ordinary seaman Ronald Nunn and engine room greaser William Burns. At daybreak they sighted William Best alone in his float and the two paddled toward each other. White, Nunn and Burns transferred to Best's float. They sighted the float with seven occupants but could not reach it. It was never seen again. A/B White took charge of the party of four survivors and "was responsible for the intelligent planning of the rations and the morale of his shipmates which was excellent at all times".

Their float was stocked with biscuits, chocolate, Horlicks tablets, Bovril pemmican, 22 imperial gallons (100 litres) of water and 2 imperial gallons (9 litres) of massage oil for use against exposure. There was also a sail, which they rigged as a makeshift shelter. After three days of rough weather the sea calmed and the raft drifted.

The men's health deteriorated, but the ration cans had keys to open them, and from one of these White improvised a fishing hook. He untwisted the fibres of a rope and made them into a fishing line. With this they caught about fifty fish, which they ate raw. This gave the survivors both protein and nutritious fish oil, which improved their health and did much to keep them alive.

US Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat

On 9 May a Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat of US Navy Patrol Squadron 63 (VP-63) was on anti-submarine patrol when its crew sighted the raft about 250 miles off Bermuda. The plane circled overhead, touched down on the sea nearby and launched an inflatable boat, in which aircraft navigator Lieutenant Knox came over to the Carley float. The four survivors greeted Knox by offering him a fresh fish they had just caught.

The Catalina flew the four to Bermuda where they were admitted to a US Navy mobile hospital. All had developed saltwater sores but considering they had been adrift for 38 days they were in relatively good health. A/B White had lost only 15 pounds (7 kg) in weight in 38 days adrift, and on 28 May was passed medically fit to return to duty. The Catalina's crew, lieutenants Kaufmann, Rex Knorr and Elliott, received US Navy commendations for the rescue.

In August 1944 Best, Burns, Nunn and White were all awarded the BEM for displaying "outstanding qualities of courage, fortitude and endurance which enabled them to survive" The award came too late for Ronald Nunn, who had been killed on 10 June 1944 when the coaster Dungrange, carrying ammunition and fuel oil for the invasion of Normandy, was sunk in the English Channel off the Isle of Wight.

On 1 April 1943, the day before U-129 attacked Melbourne Star, an eastbound ship purporting to be the Portuguese four-masted 7,896 GRT cargo steamer Amarante had passed the cargo ship in mid-Atlantic. The Admiralty enquiry into the loss of Melbourne Star established that no Portuguese ship answering that description had been anywhere near that part of the Atlantic that day. It was therefore suspected that this was a Kriegsmarine merchant raider disguised as a neutral Portuguese ship, and that she had passed Melbourne Star's position and course to the Command HQ of the U-boat arm. (Wikipedia)