Merchant Navy Radio Officers

Spencer Cooke, Radio Officer, 1942-

Clifford Spence Morgan Cooke, known as Spen, was from Hampton, near Evesham, Worcestershire. He wanted to get into the war, but he was in a "reserved" occupation, working at Worcester Sheet Metal. He was twenty-one when he was finally allowed to take the Radio Telegraphy course, and got his certificate in April 1942.

He signed on his first ship as Third Radio Officer in July, 1942. The Cliona, an oil tanker owned by the Royal Dutch Shell Company, travelled in ballast in a convoy to Halifax, NS. From there they sailed to Trinidad and Curacao in the West Indies to take on fuel oil, then proceeded to Gibraltar where the acted as a fuel depot, before returning to Scotland.

Spen's next trip on the Cliona was not so unevenful. This time the convoy of nine tankers, TM1, were attacked by fourteen U-boats. This convoy suffered the highest percentage loss of any Atlantic convoy. Only two of the tankers eventually reached Gibraltar, the Cliona and the Norwegian vessel Vanja. The Cliona was then sent to Baltimore, usa for repairs. From there they went to Montreal, Canada, and took on a full load of fuel oil to Falmouth (UK). He signed off this ship in May 1943.

To read Anthony Sweeting's article about his brother-in-law Spen Cooke and Convoy TM1
see http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/tm1.html
or http://www.aandc.org/research/convoy_tm1.html

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