Courage of a Captain
The captain was one of Goole’s leading seafarers, and when enemy E-boats attacked his ship his bravery won numerous tributes. He was in his sixties at the time and could not swim, but he remained on his sinking ship until the very last moment. Then, when he finally plunged into the sea, his life was saved by the man his daughter subsequently married.
In October, 1942, Captain Waldemar Jackson Stevens - then 62 - was in command of the 1,337-ton ss lghtham. Owned by the Hull Gates Shipping Company, the Ightham was in a northbound convoy of cargo ships running the gauntlet in an area off The Wash which had become known in those wartime days as ‘E-boat Alley.’ When the convoy was first attacked and suffered casualties, the lghtham came through unscathed. The following morning steward Arthur Yeoman, one of four Goole men aboard, spoke to a young shipmate seeing action for the first time. “I suppose we’ll be next,” he said in a moment he would never forget. “I hadn’t got the words out of my mouth before we were hit,” he would recall afterwards. “I was blown on to the galley roof and finished up with three or four on top of me. The explosion caused so much damage that we were ordered into the boats."
Captain Stevens ensured his crew got away in two lifeboats, but remained alone on board, reluctant to leave a vessel he hoped might still be saved. “We pulled away towards a destroyer, but we didn’t know we’d left the captain behind.” Arthur Yeoman explained. “On both boats the men thought he was on the other one. When the mate saw the captain was still on the ship, he tried to swim back to him, but the tide was too strong. When we got back to the destroyer the wounded men were taken on board. Then some of the crew went back to the ship as there was a chance she could be towed to port. They kept the Ightham afloat for some time and she was towed by a rescue tug for about eight miles. Then she sank very suddenly.”
In the final moments afloat, Captain Stevens leapt into the sea, together with the three crew members who had rejoined the ship. One of that trio was chief officer Hubert Sutcliffe and he kept Captain Stevens Afloat, holding on to wreckage, until they were picked up by a boat put out from the tug.
Now the story is taken up by Captain Stevens’ daughter, Mrs Mary Sutcliffe. From her home in Plymouth, speaking a few months after her 90th birthday, she recalled: “My late husband was the one who saved my father’s life. At the time he was my fiancé. In 1942 my family were living in Western Road, Goole, and the shipping agent, Mr Butler, came round on his bicycle to tell my mother that the Ightham had gone down. He said the men picked up had been taken to Grimsby. He did not know who had survived but told us some survivors were expected to reach Goole that night on the train from Grimsby. So we all walked to the station, and when the train finally arrived out got my father and future husband both wearing only underpants, vest and socks. After landing at Grimsby they had been taken to a hostel to get dry cloths, but realised that if they waited to be kitted out they would miss the Goole train and they did not know when there would be another. So they caught the train in the cloths they had on when they came ashore. When they reached Goole I can’t remember how we got them home from the station to Western Road.”
When Captain Stevens reached home, the stain of the ordeal finally took effect. “My father cried like a baby then,” Mrs Sutcliffe remembered. “He said, she’s gone, she’s gone – the old girls gone. He was devoted to his ship and so distressed that he had lost her”
Yet Captain Stevens soon turned his attention to what he saw as another obligation. Mrs Sutcliffe again: “when the crew were in the water with my father one of the men said, ‘look – bloody money and they saw a lot of money floating in the sea. In those days captains were supplied with a large sum of ready cash in case their ship ran into an emergency. It was the captain’s job to look after that and this was floating in the sea. The men picked up all the money they could find and gave it to my father and he brought it home with him on the train from Grimsby. My mother then spent the next few days drying out the money with the gas cooker on low level. When it was all dry my father and my fiancé took every single note and handed it back at the shipping office. And ‘Oh, thank you’, was all they said.
So ended just one incident in the long and eventful seafaring career of Waldemar Jackson Stevens. Born in Burlington Crescent, Goole in 1880, he was one of a family of 11 children. Serving in the Merchant Navy at the start of World War 1, as a member of the Royal Naval reserve he was called up for duty in minesweepers. Then after further years in the Merchant Navy, he was based in Egypt for a time as Chief Superintendent for ports and lighthouses in the Eastern Mediterranean, returning merchant shipping in 1937.
Mrs Sutcliffe was born in Jackson Street, Goole. She and Hubert Sutcliffe married in 1944. He went to sea for 36 years in all and also reached the rank of Merchant Navy captain before his death in 1968 at the age of 52. The couple left Goole for Plymouth in November 1950 as Mrs Sutcliffe recalled “on our sons fifth birthday”. Prior to the birth of her son, Mrs Sutcliffe taught in Nottingley for a time and the at Old Goole Council School, “and I did my fire – watching there during the war”
When Captain Stevens died in 1966 11 months before his wife, many former crew members attended his funeral. For his efforts to save the s s Ightham, he was commended for good service and awarded a Brave Conduct medal. When he came home after the sinking with the other Goole men on board, Alfred Taylor and John Warren, crewman Arthur Yeoman said, “Captain Stevens was a wonderful man to do what he did. He couldn’t have done more to try to save his ship. He didn’t leave her until he jumped overboard at the very last minute.
In October, 1942, Captain Waldemar Jackson Stevens - then 62 - was in command of the 1,337-ton ss lghtham. Owned by the Hull Gates Shipping Company, the Ightham was in a northbound convoy of cargo ships running the gauntlet in an area off The Wash which had become known in those wartime days as ‘E-boat Alley.’ When the convoy was first attacked and suffered casualties, the lghtham came through unscathed. The following morning steward Arthur Yeoman, one of four Goole men aboard, spoke to a young shipmate seeing action for the first time. “I suppose we’ll be next,” he said in a moment he would never forget. “I hadn’t got the words out of my mouth before we were hit,” he would recall afterwards. “I was blown on to the galley roof and finished up with three or four on top of me. The explosion caused so much damage that we were ordered into the boats."
Captain Stevens ensured his crew got away in two lifeboats, but remained alone on board, reluctant to leave a vessel he hoped might still be saved. “We pulled away towards a destroyer, but we didn’t know we’d left the captain behind.” Arthur Yeoman explained. “On both boats the men thought he was on the other one. When the mate saw the captain was still on the ship, he tried to swim back to him, but the tide was too strong. When we got back to the destroyer the wounded men were taken on board. Then some of the crew went back to the ship as there was a chance she could be towed to port. They kept the Ightham afloat for some time and she was towed by a rescue tug for about eight miles. Then she sank very suddenly.”
In the final moments afloat, Captain Stevens leapt into the sea, together with the three crew members who had rejoined the ship. One of that trio was chief officer Hubert Sutcliffe and he kept Captain Stevens Afloat, holding on to wreckage, until they were picked up by a boat put out from the tug.
Now the story is taken up by Captain Stevens’ daughter, Mrs Mary Sutcliffe. From her home in Plymouth, speaking a few months after her 90th birthday, she recalled: “My late husband was the one who saved my father’s life. At the time he was my fiancé. In 1942 my family were living in Western Road, Goole, and the shipping agent, Mr Butler, came round on his bicycle to tell my mother that the Ightham had gone down. He said the men picked up had been taken to Grimsby. He did not know who had survived but told us some survivors were expected to reach Goole that night on the train from Grimsby. So we all walked to the station, and when the train finally arrived out got my father and future husband both wearing only underpants, vest and socks. After landing at Grimsby they had been taken to a hostel to get dry cloths, but realised that if they waited to be kitted out they would miss the Goole train and they did not know when there would be another. So they caught the train in the cloths they had on when they came ashore. When they reached Goole I can’t remember how we got them home from the station to Western Road.”
When Captain Stevens reached home, the stain of the ordeal finally took effect. “My father cried like a baby then,” Mrs Sutcliffe remembered. “He said, she’s gone, she’s gone – the old girls gone. He was devoted to his ship and so distressed that he had lost her”
Yet Captain Stevens soon turned his attention to what he saw as another obligation. Mrs Sutcliffe again: “when the crew were in the water with my father one of the men said, ‘look – bloody money and they saw a lot of money floating in the sea. In those days captains were supplied with a large sum of ready cash in case their ship ran into an emergency. It was the captain’s job to look after that and this was floating in the sea. The men picked up all the money they could find and gave it to my father and he brought it home with him on the train from Grimsby. My mother then spent the next few days drying out the money with the gas cooker on low level. When it was all dry my father and my fiancé took every single note and handed it back at the shipping office. And ‘Oh, thank you’, was all they said.
So ended just one incident in the long and eventful seafaring career of Waldemar Jackson Stevens. Born in Burlington Crescent, Goole in 1880, he was one of a family of 11 children. Serving in the Merchant Navy at the start of World War 1, as a member of the Royal Naval reserve he was called up for duty in minesweepers. Then after further years in the Merchant Navy, he was based in Egypt for a time as Chief Superintendent for ports and lighthouses in the Eastern Mediterranean, returning merchant shipping in 1937.
Mrs Sutcliffe was born in Jackson Street, Goole. She and Hubert Sutcliffe married in 1944. He went to sea for 36 years in all and also reached the rank of Merchant Navy captain before his death in 1968 at the age of 52. The couple left Goole for Plymouth in November 1950 as Mrs Sutcliffe recalled “on our sons fifth birthday”. Prior to the birth of her son, Mrs Sutcliffe taught in Nottingley for a time and the at Old Goole Council School, “and I did my fire – watching there during the war”
When Captain Stevens died in 1966 11 months before his wife, many former crew members attended his funeral. For his efforts to save the s s Ightham, he was commended for good service and awarded a Brave Conduct medal. When he came home after the sinking with the other Goole men on board, Alfred Taylor and John Warren, crewman Arthur Yeoman said, “Captain Stevens was a wonderful man to do what he did. He couldn’t have done more to try to save his ship. He didn’t leave her until he jumped overboard at the very last minute.