Fyfe Family

The best way to start family history research is to ask the elders of the family what they know.  When I asked my father-in-law recently what he knows about his family background,  he remembered that his father's two brothers (my husband's great-uncles), Peter and Alex Fyfe, were both engineers, that one died at sea during one of the World Wars, and that the other travelled to China by ship and also visited Canada.   I'm currently looking for any information which will help flesh out these family memories.

My husband's grandfather, Charles Taylor Fyfe, was born to Alexander McIvor Fyfe and Agnes (Ewing) Fyfe on August 3, 1888 in Dunbarton, Scotland. Younger brother Peter Ewing Fyfe was born March 1, 1891 in Greenock, Scotland, and Alexander Taylor Fyfe was born May 16, 1893 at the same place.  Alexander Jr's birth record, interestingly, says that his father Alexander Sr. was a marine engineer. A sister, Margaret Stewart Fyfe, was born October 20, 1900.

The uncle who died at sea was Peter Ewing Fyfe.  He died on or around February 17, 1941, when the S.S. Gairsoppa, the ship he was serving on as Chief Engineer, was attacked and sunk.  He was 49 years old. Here's what I could uncover about his experience.

S.S. Gairsoppa, British Steam Merchant, completed in 1919, sunk February 17, 1941, with 1 survivor of 83 crew and 2 gunners.

The S.S. Gairsoppa was a steel-hulled British cargo steamship owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company of London.  During the national emergency that was WWII the ships owned by this company became a temporary part of the British Naval fleet.  In December 1940 the Gairsoppa was in India loading up with pig iron, tea, and silver to deliver home to Britain.  She then sailed for Freetown, Sierra Leone, where she met up with a convoy of ships which were to travel together to Liverpool (convoy SL-64).  They left on January 31, making slow progress as many of the ships were in poor repair.  As they went along they were fighting high wind and waves, and the Gairsoppa broke away from the protective convoy on February 14 as she was burdened by her heavy cargo, running out of coal, and could not keep up.  She was now heading for Galway, Ireland,  but before she could arrive, she was intercepted by a German U-boat captained by Captain Ernst Mengersen, a decorated German naval officer who would sink twelve ships over the course of the war.  At around 10:30 p.m. the Germans fired a torpedo which hit its mark.  The Gairsoppa was unable to send a distress call as the wireless antenna had been destroyed by the falling foremast.

Ernst Mengersen, who captained the U-boat which sank the Gairsoppa.

Three lifeboats were apparently launched from the Gairsoppa while Germans from the U. Boat were firing machine-guns at the fleeing sailors.  Two of the boats were never seen again.  The men in the third boat were in for quite an ordeal.  This is what the website BI Ship has to say:

"According to Valiant Voyaging, two and perhaps three boats were got away in heavy swell and under machine gun fire from the submarine. One boat, in command of the Second Officer Richard Hamilton Ayres, set out with 31 men, eight of them European and 23 Indian. Only Ayres had any skill with boats. It was a dark night and heavy seas were running so they lay-to a sea anchor until dawn when another, waterlogged, boat was found with two Indian seamen on board, who were taken on.

They set sail and steered east under a reefed sail. Much of the fresh water had been lost during launching and there was only enough for two dippers per person a day. After the second day it was found impossible to swallow the boat's biscuits due to dryness of mouth and throat. The Indian seamen occupied the for'ard and midships parts where the canvas boat cover provided some protection from spray. They were issued with blankets, the Europeans giving up theirs help the Indian men withstand the cold. 

Deaths occurred from frostbite from the fourth day on, and there were other deaths from men drinking seawater. By the eighth day the water was all used and the hands and feet of the remaining seven men were badly frostbitten.

Thirteen days after abandoning ship, the Lizard was sighted but by then only three European and four Indian seamen were alive. Seriously weakened, the men endeavoured to bring the boat to the shore but the wind was blowing directly on shore and was too strong. The boat broached and capsized throwing all the men into the sea, drowning the four Indian seamen. The boat was righted and three Europeans got back on board, only for the boat to capsize again. One of the men swam for the rocks but was washed off and another was unable to maintain a grip on the upturned boat. 

One survivor - Richard Ayres - was rescued unconscious from the surf by lifeboatmen who had been summoned by children who chanced up the scene as the men were desperately trying to make the beach. The fate of any who made it into the other lifeboats was never known." 

The full title of the Valiant Voyaging which is referred to in the first line is Valiant Voyaging:  A Short History of the British India Steam Navigation Company in the Second World War 1939-1945 by Hilary St. George Sanders (now out of print).

I have not been able to discover if Peter was one of the Europeans on the lifeboat which reached Britain, or if he was on one of the two lifeboats which immediately disappeared.  My father-in-law says that he died of exposure, which would suggest that he may have been one of the eight Europeans on the boat with Richard Ayres, but I can't confirm this.  

Several of the men who lost their lives on the S.S. Gairsoppa, including Peter Ewing Fyfe, are commemorated on the Tower Memorial  in Trinity Square Gardens, London.  Peter's name is on panel 51. The inscription on the memorial reads:

"THE TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND OF THE MERCHANT NAVY AND FISHING FLEETS WHOSE NAMES ARE HONOURED ON THE WALLS OF THIS GARDEN GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY AND HAVE NO GRAVE BUT THE SEA."

Tower Hill Memorial, part of the Commonwealth War Graves War Memorials.

Database:  1939-1947 Memorial Register:  Tower Hill Memorial Part 5.

Losses from the sinking of the Gairsoppa, according to Lloyd's of London.  Among the losses were 600,000 pounds worth of silver ingots, in the value of the day.  There were also uninsured silver coins on board.

Partly because of its treasure trove, the Gairsoppa was never completely forgotten, and in July of 2011  a company called Odyssey Marine Exploration was given permission by the British government to recover the cargo.  Within 24 days they found it, and in the past two years Odyssey Marine has painstakingly recovered over 109 tons of silver.  This is the deepest and largest precious metal underwater recovery in world history.

"This was an extremely complex recovery which was complicated by the sheer size and structure of the SS Gairsoppa as well as its depth nearly three miles below the surface of the North Atlantic," commented Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s chief executive officer. "To add to the complications, the remaining insured silver was stored in a small compartment that was very difficult to access."

Bars of silver recovered from the wreck of the S.S. Gairsoppa.

The remains of the Gairsoppa, after over 70 years undersea.

The British government will receive 20% of the value of the recovered metal, and Odyssey Marine Exploration will keep 80%.  No human remains were found.