Blue Star's S.S. "Pacific Star" 1 Built: Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland ON: 132763 Dimensions: 449.1 x 58.2 x 37.1 feet Tonnage: Gross: 7951 Net: 4954 Propulsion: Two Triple Expansion Steam Engines by the shipbuilder driving twin screws. Type: Refrigerated Cargo Vessel Laid down: as War Jupiter for The British Shipping Controller Launched: 29/10/1919 (Yard No.574) as Otaki for New Zealand Shipping Co. Ltd., London Completed: 02/1920 Sold: 1934 to The Clan Line Steamers Ltd. (Cayzer, Irvine and Co. Ltd. managers), Glasgow, and renamed Clan Robertson Sold: 1938 to Stanhope S.S. Co. Ltd. (J. A. Billmeir and Co. Ltd. managers), London and renamed Stanfleet Sold: 1939 to Zubi Shipping Co. Ltd., London Purchased: 1939 for £65,000 by Blue Star Line Ltd. and renamed Pacific Star Torpedoed: 27/10/1942 by the German submarine U-509, when N.W. of the Canary Islands, in position 29.15N, 20.57W. At 17.40 on 28/10/1942, she was abandoned by her crew in position 21.29N, 19.28W, and at daylight on 30. 10.1942 she was last seen very low in the water, and is presumed to have sunk shortly afterwards. She was on a voyage from Rosario. Brazil and Freetown, Sierra Leone to Liverpool with 5,037 tons of frozen meat and general cargo. Her crew of 86 and 11 gunners was saved Pacific Star ~ Photograph © Alex Duncan Collection On October 18th , 1942, the Pacific Star, Captain G. L. Evans, sailed from Freetown in company with a large convoy of about 40 other ships and an escort of five corvettes On the afternoon of the 27th when about 170 miles to the westward of the Canary Islands, the convoy Commodore signalled to all his ships that. U-boats were known to be in the vicinity. The convoy at the time was on a broad front of 11 columns, of which the Pacific Star led the eighth. At 5.30 p.m., as a result of the submarine warning, the mean course of the convoy was altered 30 degrees to starboard. Two hours later, by which time it was dark, the convoy swung back to the original mean course. The U-boats must have been present I some numbers, for almost at once the Pacific Star was torpedoed forward on the starboard side, just about the centre of Number 1 hatch. The violent explosion blew hatches and cargo into the air, and buckled and burst open the deck plating. The ship next astern of the Pacific Star was also torpedoed and set on fire. The weather at the time was good, and for a time, Captain Evans steamed on with the convoy though gradually losing speed because of the hole in his bows, He hoped to be able to carry on but during the night the wind and sea rose until it was blowing a gale from the worst quarter, the north-west. Forced again to ease down to reduce the strain on his damaged bows and bulkheads, Captain Evans saw that the convoy was gradually drawing ahead and leaving him. Conditions were rapidly becoming worse as the wind freshened. They trimmed the tanks in an effort to keep the ship up forward; but it did little good. By 2.0 a.m. next morning, October 28th, it being bright moonlight, the convoy was completely out of sight. Soon afterwards he realised the Pacific Star was a straggler, and gave up all hope of catching up. No assistance was forthcoming. Indeed, with such a slender escort for a large convoy, it is difficult to see how help could have been given without endangering other ships. The Pacific Star was alone, and as she was gradually settling down by the head Captain Evans altered course to the eastward for Gibraltar. This brought wind and sea on the port beam. By 3.30 a.m. the weather was too bad to steer for Gibraltar. Captain Evans had no alternative but to turn and make for the Canary Islands, thus bringing the sea right astern. Even so, with a full gale and a heavy, toppling sea the Pacific Star made very heavy weather of it, one of the after lifeboats being smashed and torn away from its falls. The ship struggled gamely on, the captain and crew doing all they could to save her. But at 5.0 p.m. the bulkhead to Number 2 hold, abaft the hold that had been damaged, was heard to collapse. The ship was becoming unmanageable. The water in Number 2 hold was up to 22 feet, though three pumps were kept on it. The ship was gradually sinking by the bows. Captain Evans and his officers and men, consummate seamen though they were, could do no more. It was now, towards dusk, that it was decided to abandon ship. The commercial S.O.S. wireless signal was sent out several times the boats were lowered, and officers and crew left the ship. They had orders to remain close to the vessel through the night. Captain Evans says nothing in his report of what happened during the hours of darkness; but when the stormy dawn came grey and leaden over the sea on October 29th his own and the Second Officer’s boat were the only ones near the wreck or in sight of each other. The Captain still had hopes that his ship might be saved if any vessel had heard the S.O.S. radio signals and arrived to take the Pacific Star in tow. But no ship hove up over the wind-swept horizon as they rose on the foaming crests—nothing. It was impossible to re-board the stricken ship, which lay waterlogged and helpless. The great seas were bursting over her weather side, and pouring off her in cascades to leeward. No man could do more than those men did. They stuck by their stricken ship all day, and all through the next night, in the dwindling hope that another vessel would arrive to save a valuable cargo. “The morning of the 30th,” Captain Evans wrote, “the weather was still bad, the ship listing heavily to port, against all portside tanks being empty. She was waterlogged and had ceased to drift. With the foredeck awash we were unable to get back against the gale, and in view of the condition of the men in the boats we had to leave her and make for the land. The vessel was settling down as we left.” And there, in his terse and abrupt manner of writing, Captain Evan’s story ends. He tells us nothing of where he and his men landed, or what they must have experienced during a tempestuous and most uncomfortable voyage. All we know is that every officer and man of the Pacific Star survived to fight again, and that Captain G. L. Evans was subsequently awarded the O.B.E. for his gallant efforts to bring a valuable ship and her cargo to safety. I have discovered, however, that Captain Evans wrote a glowing tribute to his First Wireless Officer, Mr. J. D. Dempster, who was officially “commended“ for his services. Captain Evans said that Mr. Dempster “Stood by me throughout, returned to the wireless room just before we finally abandoned ship to send out the S.O.S., and was most useful to me in the boat and when we landed. He was a great help to me all the time, and was a fine fellow.” Extract from: “Blue Stare Line at War 1939-1945” by Taffrail Details from “Blue Star” by Tony Atkinson & Kevin O’Donoghue SS Otaki 3 ~ Painting by Wallace Trickett Copyright bluestarline.org ~ May 2011 .