PWSTS Forum for Old Boys, Family and Friends

Please find below some more snippets of information received since my last circular went out on 21st February.
 
The next Council Meeting is on Saturday 5th April at Birmingham , if you have anything you wish to raise then please contact me or another Council Member as early as practical. If any member wishes to attend as an observer there is not a problem, but we would like to know in advance so that this can be accommodated.
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CAMPAIGN SETS SAIL TO SAVE UNIQUE PIECE OF
BRITISH NAVAL HERITAGE
A unique piece of Britain s maritime history, SS Robin could be sailing into stormy waters unless it raises £3m in just six months.  If funding is not secured Robin is facing an uncertain future, which could see the historic Victorian steamship making its final voyage to the breakers yard.
One of Londons best kept secrets, SS Robin is only one of three ships in London on the Core Collection of the National Historic Ships register (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building) alongside Cutty Sark and HMS Belfast.  Built in Bow Creek at the height of the Industrial Revolution in 1890, Robin is currently still afloat and moored under the towers of Canary Wharf in West India Quay.
A reminder of Britain s proud maritime history, Robin is the oldest remaining complete steamship in the world, still boasting its original engine, lifeboats and winches.
As part of the campaign to save the steamship, the SS Robin Trust will be organising a publicity campaign, a series of fund raising events as well as appealing to celebrities to support the campaign to keep the Robin afloat.   
In the latest chapter of its long history, Robin is now a gallery and arts centre, as well as acting as a cutting edge learning facility for schoolchildren in East London.  Pupils can attend workshops to learn about film, photography, animation and bluescreen CGI techniques. The vessel is also available for private hire and guided heritage tours can be arranged for groups by appointment.  All details, including how to donate money to the campaign can be found at www.ssrobin.org
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War at Sea: Drug Smuggling using Submarines
The Pentagon Channel reported the capture of one of a kind drug smuggling submarine, including four tons of cocaine.
 
Called Big Foot the submarine is powered by a six cylinder engine and can transport up to 15 tons of drugs for 2,000 nautical miles. While the drugs were deposit in the front of the sub, the rear included the engine and tight living quarters of the 2-3 crewmen.
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Postage Increase
On Monday, 7 April, Second class stamps go up by 3p and First class stamps by 2p.
 
For heavy users, I suggest you invest in more before 7 April with stamps marked "2nd" (not 24p) and "1st" (not 34p).  The Second class stamp represents a 12.5 % saving - better than the stock market!

Help Wanted
From: Arnold Melhuish
To: mna.national@virgin.net
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 6:35 PM
Subject: convoy JW51B Dec 1942 - Jan 1943
 
Dear National Secretary
I am researching the war service of my cousin Commodore Robin Melhuish who was Commodore of convoy JW51B in Dec 1942 Jan 1943 to Russia . Of particular interest is the report of the Commodore's Yeoman, Len Matthews, who is mentioned several times in Richard Woodman's book 'Arctic Convoys'.
I can find no record of the report in the National Archives or Imperial War Museum . I have talked to Richard Woodman who unfortunately has lost touch with Matthews and kept no record after his book was published.
I am wondering if there is any way of enquiring of your members if they have any knowledge of Len Matthews or anything about the Convoy. The Commodore's ship was SS Empire Archer.
A remote chance but grateful for any help.
Many thanks
Arnold Melhuish
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For information, especially for Radio Officers.
 National Register of RF Workers
The above named Register was established by the HSE in response to a key recommendation made in the Stewart Report published by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones in 2000. The Register aims to hold details on those individuals that work in the UK in close proximity to transmitting antennas on telecommunication, broadcasting masts and similar structures. This will enable us to undertake long-term, follow-up studies investigating possible health effects. To join the Register, each individual needs to complete a consent form and brief job history questionnaire. Please find more details on the background, aims and objectives of the Register contained in the attached booklet.
A member of your association contacted me after seeing a press release on the Register on the Communication Workers Union website. He was keen to inform me that many members of the Merchant Navy were also exposed to radiofrequency radiation either from working in the radio room or from maintaining and installing antennas on masts etc. We are a non-profit venture sponsored by industry and are attempting to strengthen the weight of the study by recruiting as many relevant individuals as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to receiving your response in due course.
Kind regards, Ian Litchfield Ph.D, Research Fellow, Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT ;  Tel: 0121-414-6006;  Fax: 0121-414-6217
If anyone wants more information on this I have a zip.file download (19 pages) which I can forward on request to R546060@aol.com
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Ron Carter
Found in the LONDON GAZETTE 22/01/2008
CARTER, Ronald, Unemployed, residing at 37 Kingsley Avenue , Torpoint, Cornwall , PL11 2HF. CourtPLYMOUTH COUNTY COURT. Date of Filing Petition17 January 2008. No. of Matter31 of 2008. Date of Bankruptcy Order17 January 2008. Whether
Debtors or Creditors PetitionDebtors. Official Receiver1st Floor, Cobourg House, Mayflower Street , Plymouth , PL1 1DJ . (434324)
 
New film explores fate of Nazi Germany 's "Titanic"
A new television film about the sinking of a Nazi ship carrying thousands of German refugees at the end of World War Two has lifted the lid on one of Germany 's most painful memories. The film tells the story of the former Nazi cruise ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea on Jan. 30, 1945. As many as 9,300 people died -- believed to be biggest loss of life on a single ship.
 
Yet the tale of the Gustloff, which has frequently been referred to as Germany's Titanic, remains relatively unknown outside the country due to the reluctance of postwar generations to examine publicly Germans' suffering during the war. "It's been very hard to talk about this because it raises the difficult question of German victimhood in a war the Nazis began," said British historian Roger Moorhouse. "This enforced silence for years will have been painful to many people." "But it's really a testament to how the treatment of German history is returning to normal that the story is now being told as a big budget film on prime-time German television."
 
The multi-million euro production "Die Gustloff" was to be aired on ZDF state television. The imposing 209 metrelong Gustloff, named after the assassinated head of the Swiss Nazi party, was launched in 1937 and conceived as a cruise liner for the Nazis' leisure organisation Kraft durch Freude, or "strength through joy". Once war broke out, it was used by the German military. Hundreds of soldiers were on the ship when it set off on its final voyage from Gotenhafen (now Gdynia in Poland ) for Kiel . However, the vast majority of its passengers were refugees, many of them women and children fleeing from the advancing Red Army.
 
The ship was designed to carry about 1,500 passengers, but historians now estimate over 10,000 people were on board when it sank on the 12th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's seizure of power. Directed by Joseph Vilsmaier, who made the anti-war film " Stalingrad ", the three-hour movie is the first to dramatise the Gustloff's fate since German reunification in 1990. In 1959, a black-and-white West German film about the sinking was shot. Until Germany 's Nobel laureate Guenter Grass addressed it in his 2002 novel "Im Krebsgang" (Crabwalk) the history of the Gustloff whose death toll compares with around 1,500 for the Titanic -- was relatively obscure even inside Germany .
The film, which Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of Germany 's Central Council of Jews saw in advance, purports to detail incidents from the sinking like a woman who gave birth on a rescue boat as death surrounded her in the icy waters. "The screams were terrible," Ursula Kossmann, a 77-year-old who managed to clamber on board a rescue boat with her mother, told daily Die Welt. "Some officers shot their families." Survivor Guenther von Maydell, who was 13 at the time, told the same paper he wasn't afraid when the ship began to go down. "I was just focused on escaping," he said. "I only realised later how lucky I'd been. I must have had a guardian angel."
 
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Earthwatch Lecture - Dolphins across the Med
Thursday 27 March 2008, 7.00pm - 8.30pm, at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR, Joan Gonzalvo Villegas & Ricardo Sagarminaga van Buiten
Two talks by leading scientists, who, with Earthwatch volunteers, are monitoring the status and health of dolphin populations in Greek and Spanish waters, and implementing plans to secure their future.  Doors open at 6.00pm (cash bar); lectures followed by a second cash bar, 8.30-9.30pm. Entrance free to Earthwatch supporters; otherwise a small donation will be requested on the door. For tickets and more information, please contact our Events Department on (01865) 318856; events@earthwatch.org.uk ; www.earthwatch.org/europe/events08/dolphins.html
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Daniel Adamson
A PROJECT to restore a 105-year-old Merseyside steam tugboat saved from the scrap yard has been given another funding boost. The Daniel Adamson is being brought back to its former glory by a team of dedicated volunteers who have clocked up more than 30,000 hours work on the vessel.
 
Now the project has landed a pounds 10,000 grant from Halton borough council. This brings to almost pounds 25,000 the total funding awarded by the council since the project to restore the vessel began in 2004.
Built in Birkenhead, the Daniel Adamson is the only surviving steam powered tug tender in the UK .
 
The tug was based on the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn's Old Quay Yard and is still remembered with much affection by the people of Halton. Halton's Mayor and Mayoress, Cllr Mike Hodgkinson and his wife Kathy, presented the cheque during a visit to the tug at her berth in Liverpool 's Sandon Dock. Source: Liverpool Echo
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RIVERDANCE is sinking and so today were hopes of saving her. The stricken ferry has taken a terrible beating from massive waves whipped up by this week's 85mph hurricane-force winds.
 
She is now listing at 100 degrees and sinking into the soft sand on the beach at Anchorsholme. Maritime
experts have now abandoned their attempts to right the vessel and are frantically drawing-up alternative plans to get her off the beach. A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "The Riverdance was hit by 78-knot winds, and as a consequence sustained heavy damage resulting in a 100 degree list.
 
"She is partly sinking into the soft and shifting sand. "Plans to reduce the list using internal buoyancy and tidal effects have now been abandoned. "Salvors are assessing the situation and are in discussion with the owners and insurers."

With that I will close for this month. I hope you are all keeping as well as can be expected and maybe looking forward to seeing some of the family & friends over Easter.
Till the next circular, take care. Best regards,
 Malcolm Mathison.