Shipmates and Survivors Reunited for Book Launch
“A HARD FOUGHT SHIP: THE STORY OF HMS VENOMOUS”
On Wednesday 14th April, the National Museum of the Royal Navy will welcome the author of the thoroughly revised - A Hard Fought Ship: The Story of HMS Venomous, as he gives a thrilling account of the service of this typical V & W Class destroyer from launch in 1919 to scrapping in 1948. He will also be joined by some of the crew members, their families and a survivor from HMS Hecla who was rescued by Venomous.
On the night of 11 November 1942 George Male, a sick berth attendant on HMS Hecla, on passage to the invasion beaches off Algeria, was woken from sleep by a violent explosion as a torpedo struck the starboard hull. Four more quickly followed and as Hecla keeled over and began to sink he joined hundreds of his shipmates swimming for their lives or hanging onto overloaded Carley floats. HMS Marne, one of two escorting destroyers, rescued fifty men but then had its stern blown off.
HMS Venomous, an elderly V & W Class destroyer built in 1919, was now their sole hope of rescue but during the course of a very long night it had to frequently break off from rescuing survivors to fight the U-boat lurking nearby hoping for another kill.
Now, nearly seventy years after the sinking of the Hecla, George Male will meet some of the crew members of HMS Venomous who rescued him and 500 other survivors, at the book launch for “A Hard Fought Ship: the story of HMS Venomous”.
The sinking of the Hecla is just one chapter in the story of HMS Venomous told in A Hard Fought Ship. Sydney Compston, a gunner on Venomous when it rescued hundreds of exhausted troops from Dunkirk, Stephen Barney, a Midshipman when it escorted the invasion force to Scilly in 1943, and Thomas “Yorkie” Russell, a stoker on Venomous when it was sent to Kristiansand in Norway in May 1945 to accept the surrender of German naval forces, will also be at the book launch.
The authors of A Hard Fought Ship are Robert J Moore, a former CO of TS Venomous, the Sea Cadet Corp Unit which keeps the name of Venomous alive long after it was scrapped, and his good friend, Captain John Rodgaard USN who took over when Bob Moore died two years ago. In his lecture at the book launch Captain Rodgaard will tell the story of the ship and show some of the 170 wartime photographs in the book. The families of many of those who served on Venomous will be there to meet the men who served alongside their fathers and grandfathers.
The free lecture is being held in the Princess Royal Gallery of the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard at the invitation of its Chief Operating Officer, Graham Dobbin, on Wednesday 14 April at 12pm.
Visitors wishing to attend can book by phoning 02392 727582, or e-mailing education.bookings@royalnavalmuseum.org.
Notes for Editors
1. Full details of the book:
A hard fought ship: the story of HMS Venomous; by Robert J Moore and John A Rodgaard. Holywell House Publishing, 14 April 2010. £18.99.
ISBN 978-0-9559382-0-7. 384 pages with 170 photographs, maps, tables and index.
