Wartime trawler victims – call for local memorial

Memories of the Ben Attow trawler tragedy remain vivid, Graeme Strachan discovers

It was the wartime disaster which left 26 Tayside children fatherless.

The trawler Ben Attow was sunk after a German mine exploded seven miles west of May Island off the Firth of Forth on February 27 1940.

It was the first total loss in the Dundee trawler fleet since 1916, when the Primrose was mined off Montrose and sank with all hands.

All but one of the nine crew of the Ben Attow were married.

One Broughty Ferry family alone left five sons and five daughters without a father — the family of the ship’s 47-yearold cook Luigi Schiavetta.

Luigi, and his brothers Joe and Angelo came over from Borgata in northern Italy in the early 1900s.

I will keep talking about the Ben Attow tragedy... It must never be forgotten

Luigi opened a chip shop in Dundee and then in Monifieth before moving his business to King Street in Broughty Ferry.

After the shop closed, Luigi took work as an onboard cook.

He had gone to sea for the first time a fortnight before the disaster and it was only his second trip on the trawler.

Son Peter, now 84 and a carpenter by trade who lives in Broughty Ferry, said his father was standing in for someone who fell ill when tragedy struck.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Peter said his brother Joe was aboard The Willow, which was sailing up the Forth while the Ben Attow was going out.

The Willow would go on to rescue four Nazi airmen after their Heinkel aircraft was shot down over the Firth of Forth.

Peter said: “They were the same airmen who dropped the mine that blew up the Ben Attow and killed my father.

“Joe said afterwards that if he’d known that then, he would have just dropped them back in the water.”

The trawler’s lights had been seen in the darkness by another trawler in the same fleet before a “terrific explosion” was seen, then the lights of the Ben Attow disappeared.

The Ben Attow was only identified when debris began washing up on shore two days after the explosion.

Further evidence of its sinking came with the finding of a lifebelt bearing the ship’s name, as well as deck planking and several fish boxes bearing the name of the owners.

A total of £422 — around £24,000 in today’s money — was raised to help the dependants of the deceased.

Dundee Rep also put on a performance of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida to help the families.

Peter said things were hard for the family, and their mother was left on her own to bring them up.

“People nowadays talk about poverty, but it was nothing compared to what we went through,” he said.

“The family was helped by neighbours and the church.”

He said they all slept three to a bed, while the babies slept in drawers.

Altogether, six men from Broughty Ferry were lost in the disaster.

They were Luigi Schiavetta, 47, David

Lorimer, 31, George Anderson, 50, Norman Ross, 29, John Robertson, 20, and Alexander M Gall, 26.

The other three men killed were Arthur Lawrence, 30, from Monifieth, and Robert Mayes, 42, and WJ Briggs, 48, both from Tayport.

The Ben Attow was the first vessel under skipper Mr Lorimer’s command. He had gone to sea as a cabin boy at 14 and sailed the world in Brocklebank liners and oil tankers before joining the fleet at the age of 21.

He left behind a wife and three children, one only a few months old.

Peter has called for a memorial to be created so the tragedy is never forgotten on Tayside. The names of the dead are included in the Tower Hill Memorial in London to commemorate civilian merchant sailors and fishermen who were killed as a result of enemy action and have no known grave.

There is no memorial to the victims of the disaster closer to home, and Peter believes that should change.

“I’m 84 now and I hope my life goes on for much longer.

“But while I am here I will keep talking about the Ben Attow tragedy because it must never be forgotten.

“There is a memorial at Tower Hill but it’s a shame that there has never been a plaque put in place in Dundee.

“I think the lifeboat shed would be the perfect place for something to remember the victims.

“I hope I can see it within my lifetime,” he said.

The Ben Attow grossed 156 tons and was built in Aberdeen in 1900.

During September 1934, MP Mr Dingle Foot had spent a number of days at sea aboard the ship, which had previously been regarded as one of the “lucky” ships in the Dundee fleet.

The disaster left the close community of Broughty Ferry in a state of shock, leading Rev William Campbell of St James’ Church in Broughty Ferry to offer his condolences to relatives of the crew.

The Courier did not report the loss of the Ben Attow until March 4, after the boat’s owner, Cameron & McFarlane Ltd, confirmed it had been destroyed.

It said: “The unusually cheery groups of fisherman along the foreshore at Broughty Ferry were saddened yesterday when hopes for the safety of the Dundee trawler Ben Attow were abandoned.

“The Ben Attow is feared lost of the Firth of Forth with her crew of nine, most of them from Broughty Ferry.”

Pictures: Steve Brown. Peter Schiavetta recalled how life was difficult for the family after the sinking of the Ben Attow.

Luigi Schiavetta was among the victims of the Ben Attow, lost to a German mine during the Second World War.