Merchant Navy Radio Officers

Eric Bissmire, Radio Officer, 1942 - 1965

 Eric's love of the sea began with a trip down the Thames on a paddle steamer to Southend on Sea in 1926, the year before his family emigrated to New Zealand aboard the SS Hororata. There, from the north shore of Auckland, he watched the comings and goings of the harbour ferry and saw ships of many nationalities.

     His WW II experience at sea started November 1939 when he boarded the liner Orcades at Tilbury as a passenger bound for Australia. The first magnetic mines had just been dropped in the estuary of the River Thames and many ships were sunk. Now eligible for war service, he qualified as a Radio Officer First Class and in January 1942 joined the Cunard Port Line's vessel SS Port Auckland in New Zealand. Loaded with food and bound for Britain, they sailed independently through the Panama Canal to Halifax where they joined a convoy to Britain. Other ships Eric served on include the SS Port Darwin,  MV Paua, MV Rangitata, MV Manunda, MV Tanea, and SS Maurea.

     On January 13, 1943, the SS Port Darwin departed New York in convoy HX223, and encountered a full force hurricane on January 23. A plain language SOS was received when Eric was on radio watch from a Norwegian tanker in an adjacent column that was breaking up in the storm. The Port Darwin was also badly damaged. They had passed unseen through the U-boat wolf pack. The convoy had split into two, and eleven ships were missing. Later, he learned that the Kollbjørg broke her back, and was torpedoed two days later by U607.

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 Eric's web site contains much interesting information about the Merchant Navy and the war at sea, as well as his own sea-going career. His particular interest is what happened to the other ships in Convoy HX223.

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