By Jack Regan... Newspaper Article 1955.
A brilliant chapter of British Naval History during the Second
World War - the story of the last hours the the armed merchant cruiser Jervis
Bay - was recalled here Wednesday by a British seafarer who was a prisoner
aboard the German battleship which sank the gallant vessel.
David A. Braid, 54 year old chief officer of the freighter New York City, now loading in Halifax, was numbered among a British crew which was forced to play a role in the Sinking of the Jervis Bay.
The Jervis Bay was sailing in a convoy of 38 ships bound for Britain when the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer opened fired on the group. In a daring move, the 14,000 ton Jervis Bay steamed toward the heavily armed battleship and engaged it in an action which permitted 29 ships to escape.
Braid, who was aboard the pocket battleship, recalled that the Germans hitched their prisoners to gun turrets and had them pull the turrents around on tackles during the action with the Jervis Bay.
The electrical equipment which operated the turrets had been knocked out of commission earlier that day when the Admiral Scheer shelled and sunk the merchant ship Mopan on which Braid had been second officer.
The 72 crewman on the Mopan were taken prisoner by the Germans.
"It was that same night that the Admiral Scheer attacked the Jervis Bay convoy", Braid recalled.
That day, November 5, 1941, was the start of a 4 year period of imprisonment for Braid and the other officers and crew of the Mopan.
He recalled that after the convoy attack, the Admiral Scheer steamed at full speed (23 knots) for southern waters. The pocket battleship, a sister ship of the Admiral Graf Spee which was scuttled by the Germans outside of Montevideo harbour, ran down to Southern Georgia.
Later the Admiral Scheer transferred its British prisoners to the German raider Nordmark in the South Atlantic.
Chief Officer Braid recalled he and his shipmates spent 5 dreary months cooped up in the hold of the Nordmark.
During the interval France had capitulated and the Nordmark's prisoners were transferred to an oil tanker and taken to Bordeaux. "It took the tanker 5 weeks to make Bordeaux", Braid said.
From Bordeaux the prisoners were taken to a nearby transit camp where the men went hungry most of the time due to short food supplies. Eventually, the Mopan's crew was herded into cattle trucks and transferred to a concentration camp outside of Hamburg.
In this camp, called "Moriag", situated 10 miles outside of Hamburg, Braid and his companions languished until May 1945, when the camp was released by the 7th Armoured Division.
Conditions in the camp during the first two years of his stay were poor, the British officer reported. Food was in short supply and several members of his crew died of malnutrition.
Braid recalled that a Dartmoth, NS sea captain was held captive in the same camp. The Dartmouth man was Captain T.V. Ferns, who died a year ago.
During the more than four years of confinement Chief Officer Braid dropped from a chunky 150 pounds down to a frail 98 pounds. He now weighs 168 and would just as soon forget his dismal years as a prisoner. "I'd never go through anything like that again - I'd go over the side first."
The ill-fated Mopan, a United Fruit Company ship, was the first merchant ship of the Second World War to be attacked by the Germans. That was another day David Braid remembers well.
Braid recalls the ship was just off the English Channel when it was attacked by a sub which peppered the merchant ship with between 60 to 70 shells. The action occurred during the first few days of the war.
On this occasion the Mopan, although potted with holes, made port safely without any loss of life.
After his release from the German camp in 1945, Braid was flown back to his home in Bristol where he met his 4 ½ year old son for the first time.
The boy, David Jr., is now 15.
Chief Officer Braid, a veteran of some 30 years sea experience, joined the Bristol City Line seven years ago, and is now a frequent caller at Halifax.
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