Very tight for time at the moment, so am posting another of someone else's photos! This one features my Shetland grandfather, Hector Rendall, who was killed onboard the Whale Factory Ship, the Sourabaya, in 1942 (he's second from the right in this photo - a tall man for the times). They were torpedoed by a U-Boat. He was 38 years old, and left 4 young children behind. My mum was 7 at the time. My grandmother never recovered from the loss. His body was never found, and no further information could be obtained from the War Office. She lived the remainder of her life hoping he'd walk in the door one day.
I’m loving your old photos Issi! What an interesting & tragic story. Your poor grandmother never had what they call these days closure. She must have been waiting for that footstep all her life & it must have affected your mum too.
Such a terrific photo. Oh that is such a sad story...he died so young & your poor grandmother never getting over the loss & hoping he'd return ...just heartbreaking
Just look at this image! He tragically lost his life at 38, 38 what age is that! and look at the rest of them too. A different time, grafters, hard workers. I'm going to leave it there and step of the soap box.
That is so sad. When my mother died suddenly at 52, we all hoped that someday my father would find another love. But Mom was THE love of his life. There were a couple of "attempts" but no one could match her and he lost interest after a while. So I understand your grandmother's hope that maybe he survived somehow. Awesome picture.
My family have been researching our family and have found out that my great grandfather died on this ship.We knew that he had died at sea but didn’t know the details.He worked in the engine room as a donkeyman. Not sure if he is in this photo. He would have been in his early fifties. I remember my uncle telling me that his daughter,my grandmother,was in the kitchen when she was told he had died and accidentally cut her hand due to the shock.Interesting picture and will show it to my family
@amitchell Wow, Alison. How interesting! I wonder if your great grandfather could be in this photograph? I also wonder if any of my Shetland relatives would know the names of the others. What was your great grandfather's name? Cameron, Payne and Petterson are the names of the Donkeymen listed on the website uboat.net. It seems from that website that 77 were killed and 81 survived when this ship was sunk in October 1942.
My great grandfather was George Alexander Cameron and he was from Aberdeen.My uncle would have been the only one who would have known if he was in the photograph but he died last year. We are going to look into his service records to find out more about his time in the Merchant navy and might find out more about this ship.
@amitchell Alison - here's my email address if you want to contact me direct : jamibann@hotmail.com I don't know if I have any information at all that I can pass to you, but we do have something in common, for sure! I'll send that photo to one of my Shetland relatives and see if they know who else is in it. My mum had only labelled her father in the photo.
November 22nd, 2021
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