HMS Sturdy

HMS Sturdy, an ‘S’ class destroyer, was launched from the shipyard of Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd in Greenock (Yard No 495) on 25th June 1919. She measured 276.0′ x 26.7′ x 10.9′ and displaced 905 tons. She was powered by 2 x Brown Curtis steam turbines driving dual shaft twin propellers delivering 27000 shaft horse power. Her armament consisted of 3 x 4″ Mrk IV guns, 1 x 12 pdr Mrk II anti-aircraft gun, 4 x Lewis guns, and 2 x 21 inch twin torpedo tubes.

She entered service just after the end of the Great War and had served well in the post war operational fleet before being mothballed. She was brought back into service in 1939 just before World War II broke out. She was then prepared for duty in Hong Kong but was diverted en route to join an anti-smuggling flotilla in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Britain declared war on Germany on September 3rd 1939 and Sturdy was plunged into the war with the rest of the British fleet. She served as a convoy escort on the dangerous North Atlantic route and survived a year of dangerous encounters with the German wolf packs.

On 27th October 1940 Sturdy departed from Londonderry for her latest convoy escort duty with Lieutenant Commander R T Cooper in charge taking a pilot as far as Dunagree Point. As the ship left the entrance to the River Foyle the pilot was dropped off and Cooper ordered a course of 061 degrees joining her allotted convoy, OL9, north of Altacarry Head at 09:45am and heading westwards into the Atlantic. The next day, after escorting the convoy safely into the open ocean, Cooper received further orders from the Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches to leave this convoy and, accompanied by HMS Shikari, to rendezvous with a new inward bound convoy, SC8, in position 55° 40’N, 16° 20’W at 08:00am on Monday 28th. The two ships, with the commander of the Shikari as lead, turned and steamed south east at dusk on the 27th setting a course of 116 degrees and speed 15 knots. During the night the wind freshened from the south east, the sea started to rise and the visibility closed in leaving the two commanders to steam with only dead reckoning to keep them on course till daybreak. As day dawned, Cooper finally got a sighting of the sun enabling him to establish his position as 55° 48’N, 15° 20’W but, as the convoy could not be seen, the two ships commenced a search pattern. By midday the convoy had still not been sighted and visibility was again closing in. Cooper got his last sun sighting and re-established his position. They spent the rest of the afternoon searching but there was still no sign of the convoy. As darkness fell the visibility was getting poor and the weather was deteriorating quickly – by 19:30pm the wind had risen to a force 7. During the night the two ships lost each other and the course of events that was to result in the wrecking of the Sturdy began.

Next morning Cooper noted that his fuel was running low – he had only 100 tons of fuel oil remaining and regulations stated that it should not fall below 80 tons – so he decided to return to Londonderry. He sent a radio message stating his intention and set a course of 100 degrees, speed 9 knots to head for the port. By now the wind, which was blowing from the SSE, had reached force 8. At noon Sturdy’s speed was down to 5 1/2 knots and Cooper estimated his position as 56° 00’N, 10° 54’W but in fact, by now, he was hopelessly lost. At 18:00, with wind abating slightly, Cooper increased speed to 9 knots and steered 115 degrees. Cooper’s own notes in his report later clearly summarise his dilemma and what then happened:

“ I had no sights since 14:40hrs 28th October. During this period I had encountered a full force Atlantic gale from SSE. Seas had at times been 30 feet high, wind up to 50 knots or more. The ship was short of fuel and therefore light. I had made considerable allowance for surface drift. I considered my position might be in error ……. and decided to set a safe course for Inishtrahull assuming a possibility that my position was in error by 20 miles. I also considered using the procedure laid down in ‘S’ order 120/40 re obtaining a D/F fix from Admiralty…. as visibility had improved and look like improving further I decided to postpone asking for D/F fix until daylight. At 0420am approximately, I sighted a white line of foam on my port bow which I thought was the backwash of a large wave. A second or two later I realised that it had the appearance of breakers and at that moment the ship hit rocks.”

Cooper immediately ordered all engines stopped. The Sturdy was obviously hard aground and took on a 10 degree list to starboard. Huge waves pounded the ship and she rolled continuously back and forward grinding her already damaged hull on the sharp rocks with each crashing wave pushing her harder and harder ashore. Their position was clearly very serious. Distress signals were sent out but their best chance was to help themselves. Cooper was already worried about his ship breaking up. Using the powerful beam of the 242 searchlight they were able to pick out the shoreline about 100 yards beyond the rocks they had grounded on. A raft, with two men aboard, was launched and they tried to get a line ashore. The raft quickly capsized but thankfully the two men reached land safely and headed off to get help. Cooper, increasingly worried about how long his ship would last, next tried to release a Carley float but it was obviously uncontrollable in the surging seas so he ordered the whaler launched. Thirteen men were put in this boat but, before it was a few yards from the ship, it capsized throwing all the men aboard into the sea to fight for their lives in a desperate swim to the shore. Meanwhile another man, Seaman E J Smith volunteered to try to get another line ashore and, after a frightening tumble through the surf , succeeded in reaching the rocks and securing a rope. He was joined by a second crew member but before they could do anything more a huge wave swept them off the rocks and into the boiling sea. Thankfully these two men also managed to get back to the shore alive.

Meanwhile help had arrived ashore. The shore party, with a local merchant ship skipper Captain Donald Sinclair in charge, sent a message to Cooper – “ On no account attempt to leave the ship. Tide is going down.” The crew then huddled in the shelter of the port side of the ship for the next two unpleasant hours but, as daylight broke and the tide receded, they were able to disembark down the line that Seaman Smith had secured earlier. It was only when they reached the shore and a muster was taken that Cooper discovered that five of his men were missing. Three bodies were quickly found with the remaining two coming ashore over the next forty eight hours. These men had died in the attempt to escape by the ship’s whaler.

Ashore the inhabitants of Tiree, many of whom had rushed to the scene to try to assist, provided clothing and warm food and drinks to the Sturdy’s crew until they were taken to Oban in HMS Rhododendron the following day. Cooper stayed behind with 18 of his crew to see if salvage of his vessel would be possible. The five casualties were buried in the little graveyard at Balemartine.

Inside official Admiralty circles some degree of controversy then ensued. The Officer in charge of Western Approaches was the first to investigate the incident. He concluded that no blame was attributable to Cooper as the weather encountered had clearly been severe and the major cause of the ship’s loss. However, this was not accepted by the Admiralty chiefs who viewed that Cooper should have been able to avoid the grounding by appropriate use of the ship’s sounding equipment and that he should indeed have used his radio to get establish his position. After a series of vitriolic letters and discussions a court martial was finally held and it concluded that Cooper was indeed responsible for the loss of his ship which could have been avoided if D/F bearings had been established and the sounding equipment properly deployed.

The wreck of the Sturdy was sold and almost completely removed during subsequent salvage operations in the 1960s and 70s. The track used by the salvage teams is still apparent running down to the shore from the village of Sandaig and some small items of scattered wreckage are visible ashore. The major item of underwater wreckage is reported to be her boiler lying in shallow water just off the shore in position 56° 28.988’N, 006° 59.055’W .