Merchant Seaman James (Jimmy) Pears, ss Tiberton, c/o Chapman & Sons, Maritime Buildings, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Photo attached – Jimmy 1937)
Jimmy was my mother’s brother, my uncle.
This letter was sent from Jimmy to his parents on 8 February 1940 while waiting for convoys at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Jimmy wrote about wasting valuable time “waiting for convoys” and he also talks of firing the guns for the first time. This letter was discovered when sorting out my family’s letters and photographs from the war years.
Jimmy signed up to join the Merchant Navy in Nov 1937 aged 17, this included sailing in convoys carrying iron ore from Narvik in Norway during 1938 and 1939. This is the last letter the family still has from Jimmy before his ship was sunk a year later, by a U-boat (U-23) on the 19 February 1940. The Tiberton broke in half and sank in 30 seconds about 33 miles east of Kirkwall, all crew were lost. Jimmy was 19.
My Mother told me that only Jimmy and one other person (mentioned as “Gordon” in other letters) from the Tiberton’s original crew volunteered to take this voyage to collect iron ore from Narvik. It seems they did this due to their respect for the ship’s Master, Hugh Mason. Information about this aspect of the war suggests this would have been a dangerous voyage due to Germany’s plans for action against Norway and the strategic importance of iron ore during 1940
A later letter from Ethel Mason, wife of the Master of the Tiberton (Hugh Mason), written on the 10th August 1940, responded to a letter from Jimmy’s mother (Margaret Pears) who was still hoping that Jimmy had survived. Ethel, in her response, speculates on what may have happened to the Tiberton and believed her husband Hugh was a POW in Germany. She says that Hugh would care for Jimmy and Gordon were they all together.
Jimmy’s parents and later my mother (Jean Angus his sister), never gave up trying to find out if he survived and exactly what happened to Jimmy, he was terribly missed.
