Part of the Acorn Archive

Hearts of Oak

 

 

HM Trawler ROYALO

 

HM Trawler ROYALO

ON 138977;  Grimsby Port Registration GY941

Steel; ketch rig

Built by Cook Welton & Gemmell, Beverley; Yard Nr 334

For Sleight, Grimsby

Launched 6 December 1915, Completed August 1916

248 grt; 108 nrt; 80hp Engines

120.5 ft x 22ft x 12.2 ft

1916 August Requisitioned and converted to Minesweeper

1919 Returned to Owners.

1933 Passed to Sleight & Humphrey, Grimsby

1939 November Requisitioned and converted to an APV

1940 Converted to a Minesweeper

Armament 1 x 6pdr AA

Admiralty Nr 2955

WWII Pennant : FY825

 

1^st September 1940

The ROYALO, under Commanding Officer, Skipper William Durrant Warford RNR,

was sweeping Mount’s Bay of mines, laid before by a German aircraft. Around midday, came the sound of the explosion. My brother-in-law remembers, as a child, hearing the sound of a loud explosion, he ran out of the house, and down the road, to see nothing but a pall of smoke; no sight of a vessel. She had been blown up by a magnetic mine, a column of water lifted her out of the water. And she was gone.

The lifeboat was launched, and small boats came to the rescue of the survivors.

She had sunk in position 50.06N : 05.30W, about 1 mile off Penzance.

 

The 6 Crew who were lost.

 

DUKES, HENRY THOMAS - Age: 45

Engineman ; LT/KX 102476 : Royal Naval Patrol Service

Husband of Ellaline Isabell Dukes, of Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

 

GREENFIELD, WILLIAM HENRY

Stoker; LT/KX 107503 : Royal Naval Patrol Service

 

Raymond ORMEROD - Age: 20

Telegraphist ; C/WRX 974 : Royal Naval Volunteer (Wireless) Reserve

Son of Reginald and Octavia Ormerod, of Wroxham, Norfolk.

 

Robert John TILLEY - Age: 27

Seaman ; LT/JX 179855 : Royal Naval Patrol Service

Son of Mary Ann Lawrence Tilley. of Whitstable, Kent.

 

Thomas Gardner TAYLOR  D S M - Age: 21

Ordinary Signalman; C/JX 176015 : Royal Navy

Son of Thomas Gardner Taylor and Hannah Ann Taylor,

High Heaton, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

 

Irvine Willox  WATT - Age: 33

Lieutenant : Royal Naval Reserve

Son of G. Fieldes Watt and Jean Fieldes Watt, of Kensington, London.

 

 

 

Raymond Forward