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Pq 17

846 views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Missy88 
#1 ·
So I've been trying to put together the story of my great uncle James mcdowall in ww2. I found a gap of nearly 12 months which I hadn't been able to get a single lead on. My sister put me in touch with his eldest son and he gave me a very important clue in that he done only one convoy to Murmansk and out of that convoy his ship was one of the very few to make it to port I would be pq17. This. being the case I have been able to narrow down the list of ships he could have been on, as he was employed by the American line as he had emigrated to the states and settled.

The ships I have narrowed it down to are
Benjamin Harrison
Ironclad
Samuel Chase
Silver Sword
Winston Salem

I know that he was never torpedoed as he was a chief engineer and would never have made it out of the engine room as he was carrying munitions and if they had been hit them the bottom of the ship would have dropped straight out according to stories passed down and also that he went grey within a month doing convoy which I would have presumed would have been in relation to the one Murmansk convoy he ran.

Is there any way of checking what ship he was on during this time. According to his eldest son he was part of the American Merchant Navy and wore their uniform and their income was American and not British as was previously thought. As he died in 1947 at the age of 39year's he wouldn't have been able to pass on his history of service as he was probably traumatised still by his experience as a lot of the merchant seaman probably would have been.

This gap in 1942 is the last piece of the puzzle I am after to be able to fully put together his story in ww2 for future generations of the family to remember him by

Melissa
 
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