97
An outstanding Second War B.E.M. group of six awarded to Able Seaman Carl Rydberg, Merchant...
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Description
An outstanding Second War B.E.M. group of six awarded to Able Seaman Carl Rydberg, Merchant Navy, who, aged 69, was manning the helm the S.S. Empire Tower when she was torpedoed off Lisbon in March 1943 and sank within a minute – the third occasion on which he had been compelled to abandon ship
British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Carl Rydberg); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted court-style as worn, nearly extremely fine (6) £400-£500
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Importation Duty
This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
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B.E.M. London Gazette 14 September 1943:
‘The ship, sailing in convoy, was torpedoed and sank immediately. There was no time to launch boats and the loss of life was heavy. The survivors managed to reach rafts and were picked up shortly afterwards. Able Seaman Rydberg displayed courage of a high order. When the ship was hit, he was at the wheel and the rush of water took him overboard. Seeing a raft among the wreckage, he managed to reach it and clamber aboard. He was joined by others, and until they were picked up, he set an example by his courage and bearing. Able Seaman Rydberg is 69 years old and has served at sea throughout the war, this being the third time he has been torpedoed.’
Carl Rydberg was born in Kalmar, Sweden on 13 May 1874, and served in the Merchant Navy in the Great War, being issued with the Mercantile Marine War Medal and British War Medal in April 1920; these awards may well have been lost aboard one of the ships he had to abandon in the Second World War.
In respect of those services, his first known appointment was in the S.S. Queensbury, from January to June 1941, in which latter month, on the 6th, she was sunk by enemy aircraft off Montrose, Scotland; her captain, nine crew and a D.E.M.S. gunner were killed.
Having then served in the Empire Flame at the end of the same year, Rydberg joined the Empire Lotus in February 1942 and was likewise employed at the time of her loss in convoy SC. 79 on 12 April. She developed serious flooding and had to be abandoned, the crew being picked up by the Minas and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Returning to the U.K. in the Ocean Voyager, in which ship he served until August 1942, Rydberg’s next appointment was in the Empire Tower. Early in 1943, under Captain D. J. Williams, O.B.E., she joined convoy XK.2 from Gibraltar to the U.K. On 5 March, the U-130 attacked the convoy, sinking four ships, including the Empire Tower, which went down in less than a minute with a loss of 38 crew out of a total crew of 41. Rydberg takes up the story in his survivor’s debrief:
‘I was at the wheel at the time and first heard an explosion like a shot, about two seconds before we were hit. The Chief Officer, who was on the bridge, also heard this, and he was turning to the starboard side and had just got into the wheelhouse when were hit on the starboard side in No. 2 Hold, or so far as I could gather as the ship was covered with spray and lurched over to port.
It was a very heavy explosion, and I ran out of the wheelhouse and when I looked out all the fore part was then under water. I then got on to the lower bridge and was immediately washed over the side and was dragged under with the ship. When I came to the surface I climbed onto a raft where I was joined later by V. Clayden, Fireman. We remained on the raft until picked up by Loch Oskaig. The other survivor Rourkes was picked up two and a half hours after the ship sank.
The ship sank very rapidly, going down bow first. The engines were still running as she went under, and as the bridge was going under, a deep explosion was heard from which, we presumed, was the boilers bursting.’
Rydberg and the other two survivors were landed by the armed trawler Loch Oskaig at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and this appears to have been his final wartime appointment. He died in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, in September 1951, aged 78.
Sold with copied research and a small pencil and watercolour strip depicting ships in convoy, with the title ‘Courage has no age requirement.’
British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Carl Rydberg); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted court-style as worn, nearly extremely fine (6) £400-£500
---
Importation Duty
This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
---
---
B.E.M. London Gazette 14 September 1943:
‘The ship, sailing in convoy, was torpedoed and sank immediately. There was no time to launch boats and the loss of life was heavy. The survivors managed to reach rafts and were picked up shortly afterwards. Able Seaman Rydberg displayed courage of a high order. When the ship was hit, he was at the wheel and the rush of water took him overboard. Seeing a raft among the wreckage, he managed to reach it and clamber aboard. He was joined by others, and until they were picked up, he set an example by his courage and bearing. Able Seaman Rydberg is 69 years old and has served at sea throughout the war, this being the third time he has been torpedoed.’
Carl Rydberg was born in Kalmar, Sweden on 13 May 1874, and served in the Merchant Navy in the Great War, being issued with the Mercantile Marine War Medal and British War Medal in April 1920; these awards may well have been lost aboard one of the ships he had to abandon in the Second World War.
In respect of those services, his first known appointment was in the S.S. Queensbury, from January to June 1941, in which latter month, on the 6th, she was sunk by enemy aircraft off Montrose, Scotland; her captain, nine crew and a D.E.M.S. gunner were killed.
Having then served in the Empire Flame at the end of the same year, Rydberg joined the Empire Lotus in February 1942 and was likewise employed at the time of her loss in convoy SC. 79 on 12 April. She developed serious flooding and had to be abandoned, the crew being picked up by the Minas and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Returning to the U.K. in the Ocean Voyager, in which ship he served until August 1942, Rydberg’s next appointment was in the Empire Tower. Early in 1943, under Captain D. J. Williams, O.B.E., she joined convoy XK.2 from Gibraltar to the U.K. On 5 March, the U-130 attacked the convoy, sinking four ships, including the Empire Tower, which went down in less than a minute with a loss of 38 crew out of a total crew of 41. Rydberg takes up the story in his survivor’s debrief:
‘I was at the wheel at the time and first heard an explosion like a shot, about two seconds before we were hit. The Chief Officer, who was on the bridge, also heard this, and he was turning to the starboard side and had just got into the wheelhouse when were hit on the starboard side in No. 2 Hold, or so far as I could gather as the ship was covered with spray and lurched over to port.
It was a very heavy explosion, and I ran out of the wheelhouse and when I looked out all the fore part was then under water. I then got on to the lower bridge and was immediately washed over the side and was dragged under with the ship. When I came to the surface I climbed onto a raft where I was joined later by V. Clayden, Fireman. We remained on the raft until picked up by Loch Oskaig. The other survivor Rourkes was picked up two and a half hours after the ship sank.
The ship sank very rapidly, going down bow first. The engines were still running as she went under, and as the bridge was going under, a deep explosion was heard from which, we presumed, was the boilers bursting.’
Rydberg and the other two survivors were landed by the armed trawler Loch Oskaig at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and this appears to have been his final wartime appointment. He died in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, in September 1951, aged 78.
Sold with copied research and a small pencil and watercolour strip depicting ships in convoy, with the title ‘Courage has no age requirement.’
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An outstanding Second War B.E.M. group of six awarded to Able Seaman Carl Rydberg, Merchant Navy, who, aged 69, was manning the helm the S.S. Empire Tower when she was torpedoed off Lisbon in March 1943 and sank within a minute – the third occasion on which he had been compelled to abandon ship
British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Carl Rydberg); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted court-style as worn, nearly extremely fine (6) £400-£500
---
Importation Duty
This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
---
---
B.E.M. London Gazette 14 September 1943:
‘The ship, sailing in convoy, was torpedoed and sank immediately. There was no time to launch boats and the loss of life was heavy. The survivors managed to reach rafts and were picked up shortly afterwards. Able Seaman Rydberg displayed courage of a high order. When the ship was hit, he was at the wheel and the rush of water took him overboard. Seeing a raft among the wreckage, he managed to reach it and clamber aboard. He was joined by others, and until they were picked up, he set an example by his courage and bearing. Able Seaman Rydberg is 69 years old and has served at sea throughout the war, this being the third time he has been torpedoed.’
Carl Rydberg was born in Kalmar, Sweden on 13 May 1874, and served in the Merchant Navy in the Great War, being issued with the Mercantile Marine War Medal and British War Medal in April 1920; these awards may well have been lost aboard one of the ships he had to abandon in the Second World War.
In respect of those services, his first known appointment was in the S.S. Queensbury, from January to June 1941, in which latter month, on the 6th, she was sunk by enemy aircraft off Montrose, Scotland; her captain, nine crew and a D.E.M.S. gunner were killed.
Having then served in the Empire Flame at the end of the same year, Rydberg joined the Empire Lotus in February 1942 and was likewise employed at the time of her loss in convoy SC. 79 on 12 April. She developed serious flooding and had to be abandoned, the crew being picked up by the Minas and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Returning to the U.K. in the Ocean Voyager, in which ship he served until August 1942, Rydberg’s next appointment was in the Empire Tower. Early in 1943, under Captain D. J. Williams, O.B.E., she joined convoy XK.2 from Gibraltar to the U.K. On 5 March, the U-130 attacked the convoy, sinking four ships, including the Empire Tower, which went down in less than a minute with a loss of 38 crew out of a total crew of 41. Rydberg takes up the story in his survivor’s debrief:
‘I was at the wheel at the time and first heard an explosion like a shot, about two seconds before we were hit. The Chief Officer, who was on the bridge, also heard this, and he was turning to the starboard side and had just got into the wheelhouse when were hit on the starboard side in No. 2 Hold, or so far as I could gather as the ship was covered with spray and lurched over to port.
It was a very heavy explosion, and I ran out of the wheelhouse and when I looked out all the fore part was then under water. I then got on to the lower bridge and was immediately washed over the side and was dragged under with the ship. When I came to the surface I climbed onto a raft where I was joined later by V. Clayden, Fireman. We remained on the raft until picked up by Loch Oskaig. The other survivor Rourkes was picked up two and a half hours after the ship sank.
The ship sank very rapidly, going down bow first. The engines were still running as she went under, and as the bridge was going under, a deep explosion was heard from which, we presumed, was the boilers bursting.’
Rydberg and the other two survivors were landed by the armed trawler Loch Oskaig at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and this appears to have been his final wartime appointment. He died in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, in September 1951, aged 78.
Sold with copied research and a small pencil and watercolour strip depicting ships in convoy, with the title ‘Courage has no age requirement.’
British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Carl Rydberg); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted court-style as worn, nearly extremely fine (6) £400-£500
---
Importation Duty
This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
---
---
B.E.M. London Gazette 14 September 1943:
‘The ship, sailing in convoy, was torpedoed and sank immediately. There was no time to launch boats and the loss of life was heavy. The survivors managed to reach rafts and were picked up shortly afterwards. Able Seaman Rydberg displayed courage of a high order. When the ship was hit, he was at the wheel and the rush of water took him overboard. Seeing a raft among the wreckage, he managed to reach it and clamber aboard. He was joined by others, and until they were picked up, he set an example by his courage and bearing. Able Seaman Rydberg is 69 years old and has served at sea throughout the war, this being the third time he has been torpedoed.’
Carl Rydberg was born in Kalmar, Sweden on 13 May 1874, and served in the Merchant Navy in the Great War, being issued with the Mercantile Marine War Medal and British War Medal in April 1920; these awards may well have been lost aboard one of the ships he had to abandon in the Second World War.
In respect of those services, his first known appointment was in the S.S. Queensbury, from January to June 1941, in which latter month, on the 6th, she was sunk by enemy aircraft off Montrose, Scotland; her captain, nine crew and a D.E.M.S. gunner were killed.
Having then served in the Empire Flame at the end of the same year, Rydberg joined the Empire Lotus in February 1942 and was likewise employed at the time of her loss in convoy SC. 79 on 12 April. She developed serious flooding and had to be abandoned, the crew being picked up by the Minas and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Returning to the U.K. in the Ocean Voyager, in which ship he served until August 1942, Rydberg’s next appointment was in the Empire Tower. Early in 1943, under Captain D. J. Williams, O.B.E., she joined convoy XK.2 from Gibraltar to the U.K. On 5 March, the U-130 attacked the convoy, sinking four ships, including the Empire Tower, which went down in less than a minute with a loss of 38 crew out of a total crew of 41. Rydberg takes up the story in his survivor’s debrief:
‘I was at the wheel at the time and first heard an explosion like a shot, about two seconds before we were hit. The Chief Officer, who was on the bridge, also heard this, and he was turning to the starboard side and had just got into the wheelhouse when were hit on the starboard side in No. 2 Hold, or so far as I could gather as the ship was covered with spray and lurched over to port.
It was a very heavy explosion, and I ran out of the wheelhouse and when I looked out all the fore part was then under water. I then got on to the lower bridge and was immediately washed over the side and was dragged under with the ship. When I came to the surface I climbed onto a raft where I was joined later by V. Clayden, Fireman. We remained on the raft until picked up by Loch Oskaig. The other survivor Rourkes was picked up two and a half hours after the ship sank.
The ship sank very rapidly, going down bow first. The engines were still running as she went under, and as the bridge was going under, a deep explosion was heard from which, we presumed, was the boilers bursting.’
Rydberg and the other two survivors were landed by the armed trawler Loch Oskaig at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and this appears to have been his final wartime appointment. He died in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, in September 1951, aged 78.
Sold with copied research and a small pencil and watercolour strip depicting ships in convoy, with the title ‘Courage has no age requirement.’
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