IN MEMORY OF THE HMT BEDFORDSHIRE AND ITS CREW DESTROYED BY TORPEDO FROM GERMAN SUBMARINE U-558 IN MAY 1942
CREWMEN OF THE ROYAL NAVAL PATROL SERVICE ON BOARD: / LT. R.B. DAVIS R.N.R. COMMANDING OFFICER / SUB LT N. CLUTTERBUCK R.N.V.R. / *SUB LT. T. CUNNINGHAM R.N.V.R. / SUB LT. B. HALL R.N.V.R.
FREDERICK W. BARNES - ENGINEMAN / STANLEY BENNETT - SEAMAN / LEONARD P. BICKFORD - SEAMAN / ERNEST G. BOWEN - SEAMAN / EDWARD S. CARRUTHERS - SEAMAN / GEORGE W. CERRINO - LDG. SEAMAN / WILLIAM F. CLEMENCE - SEAMAN / FRANCIS CRAIG - SEAMAN / *STANLEY R. CRAIG - TELEGRAPHIST / JOHN R. DICK - SEAMAN / THOMAS H. DICKS - SEAMAN
ALFRED DRYDEN - SEAMAN / ANDREW W. DUNCAN - CH ENG / GEOFFREY FEATHERSTONE - TELEGRAPHIST / GEORGE H. FISHER - STOKER / HERBERT FORD - SEAMAN / JOSEPH KELLY - SEAMAN / WILLIAM LEE - LDG SEAMAN R.N.R. / ERNEST W. LUKINS - P.O. STOKER / ALEX A. McCRINDLE - SEAMAN / ANGUS McKENZIE - STOKER / FREDERICK F. MALTBY - LDG. SEAMAN R.N.R.
ERNEST N. MORTON - SEAMAN / WILLIAM J. MYERS - STOKER / SYDNEY W. SMITTEN - SEAMAN / PERCY E. STONE -SEAMAN / JOHN SWEENEY - SEAMAN / CHARLES T. TRAVELL - SIGNALMAN / THOMAS A. WATSON - SIGNALMAN / CHARLES W. WHITE - TELEGRAPHIST / LESLIE J. WILLIAMS - STOKER / RUSSELL DAVIS - SEAMAN R.C.N. / JAMES L. McCAULEY - SEAMAN R.C.N.
*BURIED HERE AT OCRACOKE, NC, WITH TWO ADDITIONAL MEN UNIDENTIFIED, THE OTHERS WERE LOST AT SEA.
HMT BEDFORDSHIRE
AN ARCTIC TRAWLER, BUILT IN 1935 BY SMITHS DOCK CO. OF MIDDLEBROUGH, ENGLAND. IN 1939 SOLD TO THE ADMIRALTY AND CONVERTED TO AN ARMED TRAWLER. IN 1942 IT WAS ONE OF THE 24 TRAWLERS LOANED TO THE U.S. NAVY FOR COASTAL PATROL. ARMAMENT: ONE 4" GUN, ONE MACHINE GUN AND DEPTH CHARGES."
of the Allied effort during World War II. While patrolling the waters of the Outer Banks for German
Naval activity, the boat was torpedoed by a U-Boat on May 11, 1942, and all thirty-seven crewmen aboard were lost. Only four bodies were recovered. They were laid to rest on Ocracoke in a tiny plot considered the smallest Commonwealth War Graves Commission grave site in the world. Coast Guard service members buried the four recovered bodies in a plot gifted by an Ocracoke family, with the subsequent addition of a fence around the plot.
11 July 2014 | Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina