St Clement

Report of the attack by Captain W.G. Stout of the St. Clement

We were bound from Kirkwall to Aberdeen carrying 20 tons of General cargo and some livestock. We were armed with 2 Lewis Guns and 1 Holman Projector. All confidential books were in a weighted bag in the Captain’s room and went down with the ship. The number of crew, including myself and 1 Naval Gunner, was 11. One member of the crew is missing.                       

We left Kirkwall on the 5TH April. We should have joined up with a convoy but due to the bad weather prevailing at the time we were unable to find it, and so went in close company with three trawlers. We proceeded with the wind at a speed of 10 knots until 2030 at which time I saw flashes of gunfire in the distance and heard several explosions, so I ordered all hands to stand by the machine-guns and Holman projector which was right astern. At 2050, when in position 12’ S.W.by S from Buchanness, I heard a plane flying from the sea towards the land to the North of the vessel on our port quarter. The sea was choppy with a N.E. wind Force 6; we were experiencing snow showers but visibility was very good. The plane was sighted almost immediately and appeared to be of the 2-engine type. He came down to a height of 100 ft. and as soon as he was within range we opened fire with the machine-guns and bomb projector. Simultaneously there were two explosions in quick succession close to the port side of the vessel, the plane flying right over our bridge and machine-gunning at the same time. The blast from the explosions caused the vessel to list to port; the gun platform and the guns collapsed and also part of the bridge and steam began pouring from the engine room.

We got away one pan from each of the machine-guns and the men operating the guns are confident that they hit the plane. In any case, after this one attack, the plane flew straight ahead and disappeared.

There was no one below at the time, all hands being on deck. The starboard boat had been lowered to the water edge and some of the crew were already in her. There were 4 men at the port boat which had not yet been lowered. Two men were in this boat and another two at the falls, one being the Chief Engineer. These two came over to the starboard boat, one slipped down the falls but the other, the Chief Engineer, went back. He would not jump into the boat because he said it was too far. That apparently was the last that was seen of him.

Being under the impression that everyone was clear of the vessel, and as she had taken a very heavy list to port, I cut the painter of the starboard boat and allowed it to slip astern. We then pulled towards the port boat when we found that the Chief Engineer was not on board, and by that time the vessel had come up on an even keel and sank within 10 minutes of having been hit.                 

After having been in the boats for about 40 minutes we were picked up by the trawler BOMBAY at 2130.