Photo: Derek Haynes
R.T. Trett
Able Seaman
M.V. Empire Drum
6th August 1944 Age 44
Worthy of everlasting love
Derek Haynes has provided the following:-
Robert was born on the 1st of August 1900 in Bishop Auckland in the County of Durham the second eldest child of John Thomas and Hannah Trett (nee Thirlwell); his parents were married in the December Q 1899 in Weardale. The other children from the marriage were: John - March Q 1898 in Castle Ward in Northumberland; Annie - June Q 1902 Gateshead; Alice - September Q 1904 Gateshead; Eleanor May - June Q 1907 Gateshead; Edith Christina - December Q 1908 Gateshead.
In 1901 we find Robert aged 5 months with his elder brother John and their parents residing in 4 rooms at 8 Percy Street, Newburn Hall, Northumberland. His father John is employed as a coal miner working underground.
By the time of the 1911 census the family had moved to South Shields in the County of Durham, they were residing at 37 Redshead Avenue, Westoe in 7 rooms, father John is still employed as a miner and Robert and his elder brother John were both at school, the remaining children at home with their mother Hannah. It would only be a few months after the census was taken that tragedy struck the Trett household, a day at the beach with his two sons John and Robert ended in disaster when John (Senior) got into difficulties whilst swimming and drowned. The following report appeared in the Sunderland Echo 12/08/1911:
Sons Witness Their Father Sink
A bathing fatality occurred yesterday (Friday 11th August 1911) at South Shields. A miner named John Thomas Trett, aged 45, who resided in Mowbray Road, went to the beach in the company of his two young boys John and Robert Thirlwell Trett for the purpose of bathing. He entered the sea at a spot on the South Sands opposite to Mowbray Road and swam out some distance. He was striking out in the distance of the Trow Rocks when he apparently got into difficulties and after a short struggle he sank, the two boys being unable to do anything to help him. His struggles were witnessed by R. W. Corden of Coleridge Avenue, South Shields, who promptly stripped and went into the sea, but Trett had disappeared before he could reach him. The sea was rather choppy and Corden encountered a strong current during his attempts at rescue. Some hours later the body was recovered and taken to the Territorial Camp at Frenchman’s Bay.
Because of the circumstances concerning John’s death an inquest was held, the following is the report which appeared in the Shields Gazette on the 14th August, a report can also be found in the Sunderland Echo.
Drowned In Sons’ Sight
The sad circumstances of a miner named John Thomas Trett, aged 49, of 202 Mowbray Road, South Shields were the subject of an enquiry held by Deputy Coroner Shepherd at the Harton Workhouse on Saturday night (12th August). On Friday morning (11th August) it was shown in evidence, Trett went to the South Sands with his two boys, it having been their practice to go bathing about three times a week. The elder son John, aged 13, stated that they entered the water at a point about midway between the pier and the Trow Rocks, and deceased, leaving witness and his brother (Robert) in shallow water struck out for his usual swim straight from the shore. He was a strong swimmer, and it was his custom to swim a considerable distance out and come straight back. After they had been in the water two or three minutes witness and his brother suddenly missed their father. He was nowhere to be seen, and they acquainted a man named Curder (sic), who was on the beach of the fact. No trace could be found of the deceased man, and the two lads eventually made their way home.
The body was recovered shortly before noon the same day by George Wood, a Moulder of 55 Shortridge Street in the vicinity of Frenchman’s Bay. It was lying in about a foot of water face downwards. Mr. Wood dispatched a boy to the Territorial’s camp nearby for assistance, and Colonel Gibbon and a party of men with a stretcher came and removed the body to the camp, where artificial respiration was applied, but without effect. The body was afterwards removed to the mortuary at South Shields. It was stated at the time deceased went to bathe the tide was ebbing, and with the turn of the tide the body had been carried around the point to Frenchman’s Bay, a distance of a mile or so.
The foreman of the jury said that bathing in the vicinity of Trow Rocks was dangerous, as there was a strong current.
The Coroner said that probably the deceased had got into the current and been carried away. Mr. Wood, however, said that from the position of the hands when he found the body he thought the deceased must have been seized with cramp.
The Coroner said that was an equally feasible explanation.
The jury found that Trett accidentally drowned while bathing.
With the tragic death of her husband Hannah was left to bring up five young children, the youngest 3 years and the eldest 13 years, she did not remarry.
Only six days after his 18th birthday on the 7th August 1918 Robert enlisted into the Royal Navy and given the number SS 9408. He is described as 5ft. 8ins. tall, a chest measurement of 36 inches, with brown hair, fresh complexion and a large scar inside his left thumb.
Have found only one sheet of Robert’s time in the Navy, this gives the bases and vessels where he served as well as the dates: Victory 1 – 7th August 1918 to 1st December 1918 (Victory 1 was a depot ship based at Portsmouth); Agincourt – 2nd December 1918 to 30th January 1919 (Agincourt was a WW1 dreadnought, she served with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, the time Thomas served on her would have been taken up with patrols and exercises); Victory 1 – 31st January 1919 to 30th May 1919; Pegasus – 31st May 1919 to 22nd October 1919 (Pegasus was at one time a short sea passenger vessel but was then converted to a sea plane carrier. In early 1919 she was sent to Archangel, Russia to support operations against the Bolsheviks. On the 27th September 1919 Pegasus left Archangel to proceed to Lerwick, Scotland); Victory 1 – 23rd October 1919 to 12th December 1919; Columbine – 13th December 1919 to 11th May 1920 (Columbine was a depot ship based at Port Edgar, Queensferry in the Firth of Forth serving destroyers).
Thomas had signed up for at least five years but on the 11th May 1920 he was given a full free discharge on compassionate grounds. Have been unable to find out on what the compassionate grounds were.
It is not known where Thomas went after leaving the Navy; perhaps back to the family home. But in August 1938 he is residing at 78 Sycamore Gardens, Cleadon, this is the address he gives when he marries Barbara Brown on the 2nd August 1938 at Holy Trinity Church, Southwick. Barbara was residing at 29 Faber Road, Southwick. The marriage certificate also shows Thomas was employed as a Seaman.
When the 1939 Register was taken Barbara was still residing at Faber Road along with her parents William and Barbara Brown, Thomas does not appear on the register, employed as a Seaman it would be most likely he was at sea when the registration took place. Have found no records of the time Robert spent in the Merchant Navy, but there is information of the circumstances which lead to his death.
Robert served as an Able Seaman on the Motor Vessel (MV) Empire Drum, she had a crew of 41 and was armed with a 4. 7 inch gun and six machine guns. Though we cannot say for certain but it is possible that Robert was on board the Empire Drum when she left his home port of Sunderland on the 13th March 1942 heading for the River Tyne. Before the fatal day when the Empire Drum sank she took part in a number of voyages:
15th March 1942 she joined Convoy FN 655 arrived Methil, Fife 16th March; 18th March departed from Methil as a member of Convoy EN 60 arrived Oban, Argyllshire 20th March; Because of defects returned to Methil, once defects rectified joined Convoy EN 61 arrived back in Oban by 22nd March; After sailing from Oban she sailed to Loch Ewe and from there to Liverpool to join Convoy ON 79. The convoy left Liverpool on the 23rd March their final destination the United States of America. After first calling at Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 7th April the convoy reached New York; While docked in New York the Empire Drum was loaded with 6000 tons of military stores including 1270 tons of explosives, she departed New York on the 23rd April bound for Alexandria, Egypt via Cape Town, South Africa. On the 24th April when 280 nautical miles south east of New York and steaming at 11. 5 knots she was spotted by the German submarine U – 136 Captained by Heinrich Zimmerman. At 23. 48 hours two torpedoes were fired at the Empire Drum, she was hit on the port side in No. 1 hold by one of the torpedoes the explosion blew off the hatch covers, with the hold flooding she began to settle by the bow. Due to the cargo she was carrying, the master John Robert Miles gave out the orders to abandon ship. Including the master all 41 crew made it safely into the four lifeboats. At 00. 08 on the 25th the ship sank perpendicular to the bow after being struck again on the port bow amidships. The explosion from this final coup de grace shattered the final lifeboat to leave the ship throwing the occupants into the sea. Suffering only minor injuries all were safely rescued by the other lifeboats, the U – 136 surfaced and questioned the survivors in one of the lifeboats and then left the area.
With the weather fine, the sea conditions slight and with a good breeze the boats headed west. On the 26th April the Swedish merchant ship Venezia sighted the lifeboat containing the master and thirteen crew, all were taken on board safely and landed at New York on the 27th. Two days later the second lifeboat was sighted by aircraft and the survivors, the Chief Officer and thirteen men were picked up by the American destroyer USS Roper. The third lifeboat had meanwhile travelled 265 miles before she was sighted and the survivors, which included the Second Officer and twelve men, were also picked up by the USS Roper, All the survivors picked up by the destroyer were landed at Norfolk, Virginia on the 1st of May 1942.
Fortunately there were no deaths at the time of the sinking of the Empire Drum and all 41 crew made it safely home. Sadly on the 6th August 1944 at the family home in Faber Street, Robert succumbed to the injuries he received as a result of the attack.
The following announcement appeared in the Sunderland Echo
At 29 Faber Road, on August 6, aged 43 years, Robert Thirlwell, the dearly loved husband of Barbara Trett (nee Brown). Internment at Southwick Cemetery on Wednesday, cortege leaving residence at 1. 45 for service in Southwick Parish Church. All friends kindly invited. Deeply mourned.
The newspaper also reported that the circumstances of Robert’s death would be examined by the Coroner. Sunderland Echo 08/08/1944:
Seaman Who Had Been Torpedoed
Understood to have received a head injury when his ship was torpedoed in April 1942, and to have been drifting in an open boat for some days before being picked up, Robert Thirlwell Trett (43), an Able Seaman in the Merchant Navy of 29 Faber Road, Southwick died on Sunday. His death has been reported to the Sunderland Coroner. Trett has been under medical supervision since he suffered his head injury and has been in several hospitals. Unfortunately, no inquest report can be found
On the 9th August 1944 Robert was laid to rest in Section AA Grave no. 84 of Southwick Cemetery. A CWGC headstone marks his final resting place.
In November 1989 Barbara, aged 84 years died in Sunderland District General Hospital, she was laid to rest on the 17th November in the same plot as Robert.
Empire Drum was built in Sunderland at the shipyard of Wm. Doxford & Son Ltd.; she was launched on the 19th September 1941 and completed by March 1942.
Robert Thirlwell Trett is listed in S140.159
