Harold William Prew Smith

PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL Panel 49 Column 2

HMS President III SS Grayburn

At 00.30 hours on 29 June 1941, U-651 fired two G7e torpedoes at convoy HX-133 south of Iceland and sank the Grayburn, a steam merchantman. She was hit on port side amidships by a torpedo, immediately settled on an even keel and sank within 5 minutes. Because the port lifeboat had been destroyed, most survivors tried to abandon ship in the starboard lifeboat which was pulled down and turned over by the suction from the sinking ship, throwing the 30 occupants into the water and drowning all but two of them.

Five men managed to launch a small jolly boat and others rescued themselves on rafts or cling to debris. 16 survivors, two of them slightly injured, were picked upby HMS Violet (Lt F.C. Reynolds, RCNVR) and HMS Northern Wave (T/Lt W.G. Pardoe-Matthews, RNR), later transferred to the British rescue ship Zaafaran (Master Charles Kavanagh McGowan, DSC) and landed at Gourock on 2 July. Another survivor was rescued by HMS Arabis (K 73) (LtCdr J.P. Stewart, RNR) and landed at Londonderry. Grayburn’s master, 26 crew members and all eight gunners, including Able Seaman Harold Smith from Nottingham were lost. U-boat 651 was sunk by the escort vessels of the convoy later that day. (uboat.net)

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