Survival at Sea

An Atholl Survivor

1941 photo of John Cullen

John Cullen was a member of the crew of the Duchess of Atholl when it was torpedoed and sunk. The following letter from him was provided by his son, James Cullen.

To James Cullen:
Short summary of my war years as requested

Joined the Merchant Navy 20/11/1940.
First ship named Nea Hellas joined her 10/12/1940..
Sailed from Glasgow on 23/12/1940 troops onboard bound for Middle East.
Ship return Glasgow 14/06/1941 was sent to Liverpool to join The Duchess of Atholl.
Troops were embark again for the Middle East sailed 31/07/1941 returned to Liverpool 28/06/1942 troops again embarked.
On the way back from the Middle East we had stopped at Durban South Africa to load a cargo of oranges to take back to Britain when at 6 am on the 10^th October off the coast of Africa we were torpedoed by a German submarine three torpedoes.
First torpedo hit the engine room leaving us powerless; the second torpedo was fired approximately 20 minutes later and a hugh hole was blowing in the forward hold; after approximately 20 minutes the submarine reappeared and fired its third torpedo at the ship.
By this time the Captain had given orders to take to the lifeboat and abandon the ship.
The ship by this time was beginning to list when we lowered the life boat and when rowing away from The Duchess of Atholl it was a sad sight to see the stern rising up and the ship slowly going beneath the waves.

We were 2 days in the life boats before we were picked up by an American Cruiser and taken to Freetown Africa and and other week before we were repatriated to Glasgow.
We landed at Greenock at midnight we were put on a train for Glasgow and landed at Central Station at 1.30 am to make our own way home with no money and all the clothes I had was an Army great coat. Had to walk all the way from Central Station to Whitevale Street.

Given that my father is 84 years of age I will not correct his spelling. The rescue ship was HMS Corinthian a former Ellerman Lines Ocean boarding vessel. I bet it looked GOOD.

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