There’s a lot in the news right now about the tragic loss of a rather large ocean liner that took place about 100 years ago. Sixty-nine years ago a rather smaller ship than the Titanic went down in the Atlantic Ocean, the victim of a German U-Boat. 
What makes the latter incident much more immediate to me is that the Master of that ship was my Grandfather, Captain William Gordon Higgs. The MV Port Victor set sail on her final voyage on April 11th, 1943 and in today’s blog you’ll hear a report of that sinking in great detail.
I’ve mentioned my maternal Grandfather before now in these pages, but just recently his own type-written report of the incident turned up in a university library in Australia after an internet search. It runs to eight pages and I thought I would like to share it with a wider audience – I found it so extraordinary to read and I present it here in it’s entirety (about 25 minutes). I hope you find the time to listen through as it gives an extraordinarily vivid picture of what it must have been like to risk life and limb on the high seas during the height of World War II.
The ‘MV’ of MV Port Victor stands for ‘Motor Vessel’. She had only been completed the year before, having been built in 1942 in the Wallsend shipyards of Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson. She was 12,441 tons in weight and, as far as I can make out from internet records, of the 200+ merchant vessels sunk by the Germans in 1943 there were only four heavier. If you are interested click on the following link to find more details and the map location of the sinking at the bottom of the page: http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?37354
Some years ago I remember my mother showing me the photograph my Grandfather mentions, taken by the Liberator’s crew of their lifeboats roped together, in a frame alongside the handwritten note scribbled in pencil by the American crew of that plane and sent down with the supplies. It exists somewhere in our family’s collection of memorabilia, but quite where at this moment we are not sure – it is being looked for…
A couple of weeks after reaching dry land my Grandfather wrote to the parents of a couple of young female Dutch passengers – I present that letter below. I love his turn of phrase: ‘To the feminine virtues of beauty and grace they added intelligence and “savoir faire” to a remarkable degree in girls so young’.
I am adding this paragraph after the initial publication of this blog as my brother has succeeded in finding more material relevant to our Grandfather’s career – below is a newspaper report (from the Tasmanian Examiner, of all papers!) on the visit of King George VI and the Queen to the newly launched Port Brisbane in 1949 – Commodore WG Higgs commanding:
To say I am proud to be a part of a family that contains such a wonderful man as my Grandfather is understating it. My only regret, and I have said this before, is that he died when I was only 9 months old. Here’s a picture of my Grandfather with my Grandmother and her sister taken in 1948 - 5 years after the events mentioned here. 
It’s said my Grandmother’s hair turned white overnight on hearing that her husband’s ship had gone down.
My thanks go to Elizabeth Drew in Australia for bringing these documents to our attention, my brother who emailed them to me from the UK (and found the cutting used above in the National Library of Australia) and my cousin Graham (also in Australia) for the 1948 photo. Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing!
Take Care
Simon
Hi Simon
I cannot believe that I have not stumbled across your blog before!
I found your Grandfather’s manuscript by chance a couple of years ago when I was doing an internet search to try to claim my father’s war medals. The University very kindly allowed my daughter and I to see the manuscript and it brought us both to tears to see my father’s name mentioned twice. We have heard the stories all our lives but to actually see it in print from so long ago was very poignant! I now have a .pdf copy of the manuscript which looks almost exactly like the original!
I tried to do some extra research to see if I could try to find out what happened to Captain Higgs because I would so love for my father to be able to see the other memorabilia that your grandfather says he has from the Port Victor. As Steve (my brother) mentioned, my father will be turning 90 this year and I could only imagine what a special treat it would be if he could see this memorabilia. If you ever do find it, would there be any way that you could take photographs and send them to me so that I can show them to my Dad who still lives in the UK?
Do you have any idea how the manuscript came to be in the University of Queensland’s library in the first place as the University have no record of how it got there and apparently I was the first person to ever request to see it! It seems very providential that the account of a British Merchant Navy Vessel that shaped my father’s life was housed in a library only an hour away from where I now live!
I shall let my family in the UK know of your interest! The world gets smaller every day.
Hi Simon
Just thought you might be interested to know my Father was on board this ship when she was torpedoed. He was mentioned a couple of times in the letter your uncle wrote and you have transcribed so well! He was “steward Pinkney” He is still alive today, I have no doubt due to your Uncles good seamanship!! About to turn 90 in December!
Regards
Steve Pinkney
How wonderful to hear from you.
Your Father must have been a very young chap on board that ship (20 or so). What an extraordinary experience that must have been.
I hope the rest of his nautical career was a little less fraught.
By the way, it was my Grandfather who wrote the report (not my uncle). His daughter (my mother) is still alive and I shall let her know that Steward Pinkney is alive and (I hope) well in, judging from your email address, South Africa. Thanks for getting in touch.
– S.
Simon, I’ve just been listening to Bring Up the Bodies and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Your narration is topnotch, so I thought I’d google you. I was enchanted with this blog entry on your grandfather. Thanks for sharing it.
I have just been passed your research by a family archivist, how interestesting. I remember meeting ‘uncle Gordon’ at a family reunion at Pegs Hill Farm, Nr Coventry when I was very young. His wife was sister to Daisy ( Field ) , who was my fathers mother, My father was Harold Iles.
On opening your article the ‘photo of ‘Uncle Gordon’ jumped out of my memory, he had a distinctive & kind face.
I also recall the shipping connections, but have only just been made aware of the details by my cousin, Venna Lovegrove, ( the archivist ). Did he and his family live near Melbourne and are there any family out there??
Hi Tony! This is fascinating and just shows the power of the internet! Can you go over to the contact page and send me an email? – I tried sending you some info but the email address attached here failed.
Simon,
A man who could perform so well as your grandfather did under the circumstances with which he was faced, and then write such a moving and fascinating account of the ordeal, was clearly an extraordinary man. I can certainly understand why you are so proud to be his grandson. Thank you for sharing this – I loved listening to it.
Thanks, Dennis. My one regret is that I was only 9 months old when he died.
– S.
Congratulations on your recent Audie wins! The second they announced them I instantly scanned the list to see if you were selected. You are such a gifted actor and storyteller, it’s so neat that you’re being properly recognized for your work.
Again, congratulations! I can’t wait to hear them.
Thanks, Hope!
very cool…
Such a rich personal history! I’ll be back tonight to listen to the account and read the letter he wrote. Such nice things he said about those Dutch young women. Thanks for sharing this.