The British Cemetery on Ocracoke Island

For many years I have vacationed at the National Seashore park on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. These thin barrier islands of sand are over the horizon from the mainland. The northward-bound Gulf Stream and the southward-bound Labrador Current meet off the ocean coast. The resulting clash makes for turbulent water, reputedly the best surfing on the East coast of the US.

 

The next island south from my usual abode is Ocracoke, reached by ferry. Here is where Blackbeard met his demise at the hands of Royal Navy Lt. Maynard in 1718. It also has a British Cemetery that dates back to 1942.

 

In 1942 the US Navy was unprepared for the coming U-boat onslaught, code-named Operation Drumbeat. US Admiral King was focused on the Japanese erupting across the Pacific. Ships were being sunk within sight of the East coast shore. The Royal Navy decided to send some aid. One was the armed Trawler HMT Bedfordshire. Originally a civilian trawler, it had been armed with a 4-inch gun, machine guns, depth charges and crewed with British and Canadian sailors. Operating out of Morehead City, North Carolina, it patrolled the Outer Banks. 

Bedfordshire model at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum,

Hatteras Village, Hatteras Island, NC

On May 11, 1942, it was torpedoed by U-558. A large explosion broke the trawler in two. It sank rapidly with all hands, save some who had missed sailing, having been detained by Morehead City police after a bar crawl.

Plaque accompanying model  

Days later two bodies drifted ashore in Ocracoke. They were identified as Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Cunningham and Ordinary Telegraphist Stanley Craig of the Bedfordshire. Another two unidentified crewmen also washed ashore later. Locals donated ground for burial and the 4 were interred there. The US Coast Guard maintains the cemetery, raising and lowering a Union Jack daily. 

Plaque at the British cemetery on Ocracoke Island
 

In time another unidentified crewman drifted ashore on the next island north, Hatteras. Along with another victim of a British merchant sunk by U-boat, he was buried in another British cemetery on that island, also maintained by the US Coast Guard. I visited that graveyard years ago. It is in Buxton Woods and sports an impressive escort of mosquitoes. I have not returned. I assume the daily flag ritual requires a lot of bug repellant.

 

On July 20, 1943 the U-558 was attacked by bombers in the Bay of Biscay. The first US bomber was shot down, a second was damaged and driven off after crippling the U-boat. A British bomber arrived and attacked while the crew was attempting to scuttle, finishing the job, and most of the crew. The badly wounded captain survived, along with 4 others. His logbook revealed the fate of the Bedfordshire.

Since my father and maternal grandfather both sailed on Liberty ships during the war, my hat's off to any and all who served on escort vessels during the Battle of the Atlantic. 

There is a poignant monument to merchant marine sailors of WWII along the Hudson River, near the Battery. I must get over there some morning, before it becomes backlit.