Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

March 02, 2010 6:11 AM

Hello Mac Gregory

My name is Robert Akerstrom and I am from Sweden. Last year I found my family Brazil and had contact with them thanks for this web site: "Eugeniusz Kowalski was in the polish navy and may have been captain of Modlin". It's my cousin who asked you about our grandfather. He didn't know then that grandfather was an engineer, not captain.

I have some more details about ships he might be working at, read below.

I wonder if there is a way to find out how many ships my grandfather worked at during WW2.

From November 1939 to June 1940, the S/S Warszawa transported Polish soldiers and refugees from Greece and Jugoslavia to Marseilles and Syria. She was then interned by Vichy-French authorities at Beirut, but soon escaped to Haifa and was used to transport British troops to Greece, Crete and Tobruk.

I know that his passport was made in Cairo 25/8-1941, number 694/13/41. Can it be so that Vichy-French authorities took his passport at the time when they were interned and escaped to Haifa? There for passport was made in Cairo?

I think he can have been working on S/S Warszawa when she was torpedoed outside Africa's coast 26/12-1941.

I also know that I immigrated to Brazil after the war with a ship called Jamaique.

How can I find out more on what ships I might be working at? Is there a chance that some one has a list over the survivors from Warszawa?

Other ships he might be working at are Modlin (Hilda Horn) as you can read on the website abowe?

His name is Eugeniusz Kowalski, born 21/11 1903 in Lodz.

He also received war medals, I found this list in the National Archives UK, but they didn't have anything more on him.

I am doing this for my mother, his daughter, who will be 80 years in April this year. I have tried to send this question to several persons around the world for help but no information yet. If you don't have anything maybe you know somebody who have.

To all this searching I can tell you that I also have found two cousins (Childs to my grandfathers brother) in New York that my mother didn't know she had. They also thought that all was dead in the war.

Best regards Robert Akerstrom

Robert,

Sorry, but I cannot find any details for Eugeniusz and the ships he served in.

Do you know the Shipping Company that employed him?

Here are some details about SS Warszawa:

Ships hit by U-boats

Warszawa

Warszawa under her former name Smolensk

      Name Warszawa
      Type: Steam merchant
      Tonnage 2,487 tons
      Completed 1915 - William Duxford & Sons, Sunderland
      Owner Polsko-Brytyjskie Towarzystwo Okrêtowe SA (Polbrit), Gdynia
      Homeport Gdynia
      Date of attack 26 Dec 1941 Nationality:      Polish
      
      Fate Sunk by U-559 (Hans Heidtmann)
      Position 32.10N, 24.32E - Grid CO 6777
      - See location on a map -
      Complement 468 (23 dead and 445 survivors).
      Convoy
      Route Alexandria (22 Dec) - Tobruk
      Cargo Troops
      History completed in July 1915 as Smolensk for Russian North-West SS Co Ltd and laid up. In May 1916 delivered to T. Wilson, Sons & Co Ltd, Hull and 1917 transferred to Ellermans Wilson Line Ltd, Hull. In April 1929 sold to Polsko-Brytyjskie Towarzystwo Okrêtowe SA (Polbrit), Gdynia and renamed Warszawa.

      From November 1939 to June 1940, the Warszawa transported Polish soldiers and refugees from Greece and Jugoslavia to Marseilles and Syria. She was then interned by Vichy-French authorities at Beirut, but soon escaped to Haifa and was used to transport British troops to Greece, Crete and Tobruk..

  
      Notes on loss At 14.29 hours on 26 Dec, 1941, the Warszawa (Master T. Meissner), leading ship of a small convoy of three ships, was hit by one torpedo from U-559 near Mersa Matruh. Four crew members and 19 passengers were killed of the 47 crew members, five gunners and 416 passengers (military personnel) on board. The ship settled by the stern and was taken in tow by HMS Peony (K 40) after taking off all troops and a part of the crew. The U-boat sank the damaged ship by a coup de grâce at 19.30 hours. The remaining crew members were rescued by the corvette and landed at Tobruk the next day. The Polish sailors were brought back to Alexandria by the Belgian motor merchant Prince Baudouin.

Regards,
Mac


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