The Irish Oak

The second American ship chartered from the United States Maritime Commission, the West Neris, was delivered to Irish Shipping Limited at the same time as the West Hematite but her eventual arrival in Ireland was delayed due to various unfortunate circumstances. The ship sailed from New Orleans on 30th September, 1941, for St. John, New Brunswick where she loaded grain for Dublin and sailed on 1st November. However, her engines failed and she had to divert to St. John's, Newfoundland for major repairs. The port of St. John's was very congested at that particular time with no immediate prospect of having the work done for several months. In these circumstances, the Board of Irish Shipping wanted to have the vessel towed to Dublin to have the repairs carried out. The United States Maritime Commission as owners and underwriters of the ship opposed this proposal and it was ultimately agreed to have the vessel towed to Boston where she arrived on 2nd May, 1942.

The repairs were put in hand by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and completed to allow the West Neris to sail on 16th June but she was forced to return for still further repairs and did not finally clear the port of Boston until 20th June, 1942. She arrived at Dublin on 6th July, more than nine months after she had been delivered to the company in New Orleans.

Renamed Irish Oak, (Pictured left), she sailed from Dublin on 16th July for Glasgow where she drydocked for four days before sailing for Halifax on 24th July and loaded grain for Cork. She sailed on the return voyage on 1st August and arrived in Cork on 27th August. On her third voyage for the company, the Irish Oak arrived in Dublin from Halifax on 18th October, 1942. On the following day, as her Master, Capt. Matthew Moran of Wexford, was returning to the ship after completing some business ashore, he tripped on the gangway and fell on to the quay wall sustaining very serious head and rib injuries. He was taken to hospital immediately and remained in a critical condition for four days before he finally succumbed to his injuries. Capt. Moran was a cousin of Capt. John O'Neill of Irish Shipping and Capt. Matthew O'Neill who was to die so tragically in the sinking of the Irish Pine less than a month later.

The Irish Oak made two further voyages to Halifax and a voyage to Tampa, Florida before the end of 1942 under the command of Capt. Eric Jones, a Welshman then living in Dublin and who had taken over as Master of the vessel following the tragic death of Capt. Moran. On the vessel's second visit to Tampa in March, 1943 she loaded 6,526 tons of phosphate rock for discharge at Dublin under charter to W. & H. M. Goulding Ltd.. Having completed loading, the vessel had to have minor engine repairs and major boiler tube repairs before sailing on her final ill-fated voyage to Dublin on 25th April, 1943.

The sinking of the Irish Oak

On 20th May, 1943, Irish Shipping Limited issued a statement as follows:- "According to the report made by the Master of the S.S. Irish Oak, his vessel was torpedoed without warning in the position latitude 47.51N longitude 25.53W, at 8.40 a.m. on the morning of 15th May. The first torpedo fired struck the vessel forward on the port side. After the crew had taken to the boats a second torpedo struck the vessel which finally sank at 10.00 a.m. The weather was fine and visibility clear at the time of the attack but the submarine responsible was not seen by any member of the crew of the Irish Oak and could not be definitely identified. The crew of the Irish Oak were picked up by the Irish Plane at 6.00 p.m. on 15th instant and were landed at Cobh on Wednesday".

The crew of the Irish Oak arrived in Dublin on 21st May, 1943 and were entertained to lunch by the Lord Mayor of Dublin at the Mansion House on 24th May. The crew of the Irish Oak were:-

Master: Capt. Eric S. Jones, 59 South Circular Road, Dublin (native of Liverpool);
Chief Officer: J. P. Kelly, 40 Belmont Avenue, Donnybrook, Dublin;
Second Officer: T. Donohue, 6 South Terrace, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford;
Third Officer: Thomas Dunne, 15 Tuskar More Terrace, Rosslare, Co. Wexford;
Chief Engineer: Eric Evans, 96 Merton Drive, Ranelagh, Dublin (native of Cardiff);
Second Engineer: L. Worsley, 2 Barrack Hill, Limerick (native of South Shields);
Third Engineer: J. Pollock, 60 Waukmill Avenue, Barhead, Glasgow;
Fourth Engineer: A. J. O'Mahony, 2 Railway St., Passage West, Co. Cork;
Carpenter: Thomas Kearney, 135 Church Road, East Wall, Dublin.
A.Bs.:-
J. Sweeney, Fethard, Co. Wexford;
T. Byrne, 34 Margaret Place, Bath Avenue, Dublin;
J. Downes, Fethard, Co. Wexford;
C. Greene, 3 St. Helen's Villas, Booterstown, Dublin;
P. Kelly, Strand St., Clogherhead, Co. Louth;
Nicholas Rickard, 47 St. Peter's Terrace, Howth, Co. Dublin.
Ordinary Seamen:-
Thomas Deevy, 44 Pembroke Cottages, Ringsend, Dublin;
J. Behan, 28 O'Curry Place, Limerick.
Sailors:-
James Cullen, 52 Ocham St., Dublin;
John Deevy, 44 Pembroke Cottages, Ringsend, Dublin.

Donkeyman: William Barry, 11 Lealand Place, North Wall, Dublin.

Greasers:-
Peter Askins, 17 Russell Avenue, East Wall, Dublin;
William Mates, 18 Ben Madigan Road, Crumlin, Dublin (native of Wicklow);
J. Jenkins, 3 Barrett St., Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
Firemen:-
J. Kenny, 23A Pearse House, Pearse St., Dublin;
J. Kelly, 4 Margaret Place, Cork;
J. Cunningham, 81 West Road, East Wall, Dublin.

Chief Steward: George Kerr, 11 Eden Quay, Dublin (native of Scotland);
Assistant Steward: B. Seymour, 33 Richmond Road, Drumcondra, Dublin;
Ship's Cook: P. Farrelly, Ballinmore, Co. Leitrim;
Assistant Cook: James O'Hara, 244 Merrion Road, Dublin;
Mess Room Boy: John Clarke, 19 Pigeon Road, Dublin.

First Radio Officer: J. J. Bourke, 29 Cross St., New Ross, Co. Wexford;
Second Radio Officer: E. F. Whyte, 113 Sunday's Well, Cork.

John Clarke was only seventeen years old and the youngest crewmember at the time of the sinking. He continued his seafaring career until the early 1950's when he came ashore to take up employment with the Guinness Brewery in Dublin.

Subsequent to the sinking of the two American ships, the Irish Government made efforts to secure other merchant ships from the United States. In response to these approaches, the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Mr. David Gray, sent a letter to the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs complaining that Irish merchant ships were easy targets for Axis naval attacks because they sailed out of convoy, under the Irish flag bearing distinctive neutral markings and fully lighted at night. He also referred to the fact that the Irish Government had made no formal protest to the German authorities following the sinking of the Irish Oak. " The loss of the West Hematite (Irish Pine) and the West Neris (Irish Oak) has harmed not only Ireland but the United States and the whole United Nations war effort" wrote Mr. Gray.

Replying to this complaint, Mr. Robert Brennan, Irish Representative in Washington, pointed out that there was no information as to how the Irish Pine was lost and, although the Irish Oak was torpedoed, members of the crew had not been able to identify the nationality of the submarine which fired the torpedo. Consequently, it was not possible to make a justifiable protest to Germany over these sinkings.