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WELCOME TO MY WEB SITE

It is dedicated to:

Joseph Steele and the crew of the Empire Mica


SS Empire Mica


The "Battle of the Atlantic", has been described as the world's longest battle, spanning the entire Second World War. During these years of the war, Merchant ships ran a daily struggle for survival, against Hitler's submarines.

The Merchant navy was vital for Britain's war effort, and was, and still is, "The Forgotten Fourth Force". The ships carried all types of cargo, from food and raw materials, to troops and equipment. Hitler knew that the best way of winning the war, was to have Britain starve, and her war machine grind to a halt from the lack of supplies. The best way of achieving his aim, was to sink as many merchant ships as possible. Any battle on land, or in the air, was only as good as the supplies that the respected forces had, and the bulk of these supplies, came via the Merchant Navy.

Between June 1940 and the end of the year, U-boats, supplemented by mines, aircraft and surface ships, succeeded in sinking three million tons of Allied shipping. During the course of the war 4,786 merchant ships were lost and over 30,000 British Merchant Marines were killed.

This web page is dedicated to just one of those ships and to her crew.

Joseph Steele was my grandfather, he, along with 32 others died on the 29th June 1942, when their ship, the Empire Mica was hit and sunk, by two torpedoes from the German submarine, U67.


So come with me and I will try to tell you, of the SS Empire Mica's last journey.

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