Four: Able Seaman R. N. Cain, Royal Navy, killed when H.M.S. Curacao collided with the R.M.S. Queen Mary whilst escorting her to the Clyde, 2 October 1942

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, with named Admiralty enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mrs. E. M. Byrne, 90 Beacon Road, Luton, Chatham, Kent’; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 3rd issue (J.78777 R. N. Cain. A.B. H.M.S. Cairo.) light contact marks to last, otherwise nearly extremely fine (4) £200-£240

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The James Fox Collection of Naval Awards.

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Reginald Norman Cain was born in 1902 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in 1917. He served during the Great War in home waters in the battleships H.M.S. Impregnable and Royal Oak, and received a War gratuity. Advanced to Able Seaman, he was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct medal in June 1936, and served in this rate during the Second World War in H.M.S. Curacoa.

In September 1942 Curacoa was deployed with the Western Approaches Command at Belfast, to escort convoys in the N.W. Approaches and the Irish Sea. On 2 October 1942 the escort group was tasked to escort R.M.S. Queen Mary on the final stage of a trans-Atlantic passage. The famous Cunard liner, built on the Clyde in the 1930s, displaced 81,125 tons and was the greatest and most luxurious of the pre-war liners. On her maiden voyage she won the ‘Blue Riband’ for the fastest Atlantic crossing. On the outbreak of war she had become a troopship, carrying an entire division (15,000 men) at a time and often steamed without an escort, relying on her great speed for protection.

On 27 September 1942 Queen Mary left New York bound for the Clyde, carrying about 15,000 U.S. servicemen. By the morning of 2 October she was some 40 miles north of Tory Island, off the northern coast of Ireland. Just after 7 a.m. the bridge watch sighted Curacao, which signalled that she would take up station five miles ahead, while six destroyers assumed flanking positions a few miles on either side of the liner. For the next five hours the convoy moved steadily towards Scotland, all hands scanning the clear skies for German aircraft. A stiff wind from the north-east was making life difficult for the destroyers racing about in search of U-Boats, but the Queen Mary steamed on majestically, untroubled by the choppy seas.

Though the Cunarder was steering a zig-zag course her great speed allowed her gradually to overtake the slower cruiser, and by two o’clock in the afternoon Curacao was only a few hundred yards off the liner’s bow. The Queen Mary’s officer of the watch was increasingly concerned about the Curacao’s proximity and ordered the helmsman to turn slightly away. However, at the same time the cruiser turned even closer to the liner. Queen Mary’s helmsman made a last-ditch attempt to avoid disaster and turned hard-a-port, and for a moment it looked as if the manoeuvre might work. However, the liner’s massive stem struck the Curacao eleven feet forward of her stern at an acute angle, spun the warship round and sliced through her.

Staff Captain Grattidge, resting in his cabin, felt a jolt that at first he thought was the near miss of a bomb. But when he reached the bridge he saw, ‘150 feet from the bridge on the port side, almost smothered in awesome clouds of black smoke ... the forepart of a vessel going down. Running to starboard I could see the after end of the same vessel, trembling to settle beneath the waves.’

Both sections of the Curacao were on fire and began to sink. The escorting destroyers raced to the scene but were only able to rescue 101 survivors. Queen Mary herself was under strict orders not to stop for any reason and steamed on. However, her bows had been stoved in below the water line and she had to reduce speed to 10 knots. She arrived safely at Gourock on the morning of 3 October.

News of this disaster was blacked out and the loss of Curacao was not publicly announced until 1945, when a formal court of enquiry was convened to examine the cause of the accident. After almost four years of protracted litigation which went to the House of Lords it was held that Curacao was two thirds responsible for the collision and Queen Mary, one third.

In total 338 Officers and crew lost their lives when the Curacoa was sunk, including Cain. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Medals issued to the recipient’s widow, Eleanor Mary Cain, who had subsequently remarried.