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Come Wind Come Weather
by Daphne du Maurier

A collection of wartime stories compiled by Daphne du Maurier for the Oxford Group Moral Re-Armament Movement.

“The Admiralty Regrets”

This story tells of a mother’s anguish when she learns that one of her sons was lost at sea. Another son, by coincidence, was in the destroyer sent to search for survivors from the sunken ship.

This story was based on the true events of the first ship, the Royal Sceptre, to be sunk in WWII.
“Mrs Brown” was my grandmother (a friend of Daphne Du Maurier at the time) and “Tom” and “Reg” my father and uncle.

Peter was sunk three more times before the war ended (see below*) and John received a medal for bravery after being sunk in Anzio Bay

There were three other brothers — Harry (the oldest) in the Army, and the two youngest (Bill and Russell) in the Air Force. All five survived unscathed from the war.

*At the outbreak of War, my Uncle Peter was a 22-year old British Merchant Navy Officer serving on the SS “Royal Sceptre” which was bringing bulk wheat to the UK from Argentina. 5th September 1939 - the ship was intercepted, torpedoed and sunk by U-boat 48. During this encounter the ship’s Captain was killed and 10 crew members wounded. My father, John, was on the destroyer ECHO, which was diverted, unsuccessfully, to search for survivors. About 4 hours later, the crew were picked up by SS “Browning” and taken to Brazil. This took 22 days during which time Peter helped care for the injured, possibly saving the life of one particular sailor whose injuries were horrific. His family were then informed that Peter had survived the attack.
17th June 1941 - Peter was on the SS “Atlantic” when it was attacked and sunk by the German raider “Atlantis”. He, with the other men was in a lifeboat for 7 days trying to get to Brazil. They sailed for 600miles before being picked up by SS “Maronda”.
17th September 1941- the SS “Teddington”, which Peter had just joined, en route to the Middle East, was sunk by E-boat S.51 off the east coast of England.
15th July 1943 — Peter was serving on SS “Twickenham” which was torpedoed by U-boat 135 on its way to the Middle East. The ship was very badly damaged. Afterwards, the U-boat itself was attacked by escort ships and a Catalina and sunk. “Twickenham” was eased slowly for 16 days before arriving at Dakar FW Africa for repairs.

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