Guestbook

My Great Uncle was Fred Powell who unfortunately died on Lifeboat number 4, days before the remaining survivors were rescued. The story is the first the family knew of his death was when they received his death certificate in the post. It is a family legend that Fred argued with those on lifeboat number one and moved to number four, does anyone have any more details about this? Obviously if he had stayed on the first boat things might have been rather different for him. This is a fabulous site and thank you for all your hard work, it was wonderful to see Fred still remembered, my Grandfather never got over his death and if he could see this now he would be very proud. I have some photographs of Uncle Fred if you would like them for your site.

Hi great site, My grandad John V Morris was all also on the boat and sadly passed away last Thursday. It was nice to see his name on here
Cora

I entered your site through RMS Rangitiki when I read your comments - what a spine chilling story of courage and endurance in terrible circumstances, we have a lot to be thankful for nowadays.

Very interesting to know more about the U68 and his Captain ,as my father died on the SS Belgian Fighter 9 october 1942.togheter with 4 other men The others were picked up by THE JONH LYKES(american)


Thank you

Congratulations on publishing such a well researched and delightfully presented website, Hugh. And thank you for the lovely and moving tribute to your father. How poignant it is that we sons rarely talked with our fathers about their seagoing experiences and, in my case, didn't start the search until 30 years after my Dad's passing.

Well done Hugh, An excellent and fitting tribute to a perfect gentleman.
I knew your Dad and Mum well when you lived at Kingairloch many years ago, and listened with great interest to his many stories of his life at sea.
Kind regards,
John

Dear Hugh,

I am John Tagg, named for my Uncle who died in boat one: one of the last to die, according to a letter to my grandmother from one of the survivors, so you may well give the later date in your in memoriam record. I have a photograph of my namesake in his merchant navy uniform and I will try to scan it and send it to you. He has one or two memorials the plaque on Towerhill; a gravestone in Tynemouth Cemetery but neither, perhaps, as moving as yours. My father, Bill, who served as a navigator/bomb-aimer in the RAF during the Second World War, would not talk about the loss of his older brother, the fourth of five siblings, so I have learnt much from your web-site. Carrying the name of a man who was already dead and lost has been a strange burden. I am grateful that you have given him back his own life, his own identity and his own fate, sad as it was.

Admin reply: John,
I have tried to contact you but without reply. I would like to hear from you.
Regards
Hugh

What a great site, I read the book about the SS City of Cairo some years ago when I started researching my family history and came across H D Broomby 3d Engineer. We could be related but as yet have not found a link, still working on it. Being a lover ships of that period, I work on the "Daniel Adason" 1903 steam tug as volunteer. If you are interested, have a look www.danieladamson.com. we have quite a few interesting old sea dogs on board, Liverpool based.

Thank again for a great site !!!

John Broomby

Hugh,

Just stumbled across your website last night and must say how impressed I was. I have a family connection with this ship, my Grandmothers brother was the 5th Engineer (David D Noble). David had served his time in the Aberdeen Shipyard before joining the Merchant Navy. I always remember his photograph and a watercolour of the City of Cairo at the top of the stairs in my Grandmothers house. This is probably caused me to want to join the Merchant Navy from an early age, I was fortunate enough to sail as a Radio Officer for some of the most enjoyable years of my life, something which I feel very lucky to have managed. When I left the sea I started as a telecomms engineer in the Oil Industry. Something which must be against the odds is that I shared a cabin offshore with the son of William Ritchie (The City of Cairo's Cadet) while I was working as the Telecomms Engineer on the BP Miller platform. We were both amazed at the coincidence of this...
Best of luck with the Website

I have enjoyed a great site. read it from start to finish without stopping.
as a matter of interest I was at sea with ellerman lines from 1962-66 mainly on the manz run. I too like your father miss the seagoing life.