A Second War ‘Malta Blockade Runner’s’ D.S.M. awarded to Able Seaman S. P. Martin, Merchant Navy, who after his ship was torpedoed in November 1941, endured nine days in an open boat prior to being interned by the Vichy French

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (S. P. Martin. A.B.), extremely fine £1,400-£1,800

D.S.M. London Gazette 24 February 1942: ‘For bravery, resolution and devotion to duty.’

Seedie’s Merchant Navy List confirms: ‘S.S. Empire Pelican. For services during Operation “Astrologer” - an independent run to Malta in November 1941.’

Samuel Patrick Martin was born in Dublin in March 1920, and was one of a small group of handpicked Merchant Navy men assigned the dubious privilege of sailing a Blockade Runner to Malta in late 1941. Such had been the punishment meted out to the early convoys that it was decided to try and sneak through single, disguised and unescorted Merchantmen, a plan that quickly suffered a similar fate to previous initiatives. Indeed of the four Blockade Runners which eventually undertook this perilous and clandestine trip, just one got through. For his own part, Martin sailed in the Empire Pelican, the ex-American Steamer Stanley. Setting out from the Clyde in late October 1941, the ship was painted in peacetime colours and disguised as a Spanish (and later Italian) vessel. But such tactics failed to impress the Italian bombers that encountered her on 14 November, just 12 hours away from Malta, south-west of Galita Island. Badly damaged by a torpedo, her Captain had no alternative but to finish her off with scuttling charges. Martin, meanwhile, had managed to get a boat away with eight men, but had to endure machine-gun attacks until the Empire Pelican finally slipped beneath the waves. His efforts to get the boat back to Gibraltar ended after nine days at sea, when he and his companions were picked up by an Italian Patrol Boat, the whole being landed at Bone, in Algeria. Subsequently interned by the Vichy French in Algeria, this gallant band of Merchant Seamen was finally liberated following the Allied Landings on 8 November 1942. Martin, who attended an Investiture later that year, went back to sea in January 1943 and remained in the Merchant Navy for many years after the War.