A relative of my wife, Frank Delaney, died in December 1940 following the sinking of the SS Oakcrest off the Scottish Coast. We believe Frank was part of the lifeboat crew who survived the initial sinking but died later close to or on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. The UK Merchant Seamen Death records refers to cause of death as coding 664. Does anyone know what this represents?
What document states the 664 code? I have the Deaths at Sea Register and against his name and some of the others in the cause of death column it simply states: "Reported since died on 1st to 2nd December 1940". Regards Hugh
I think this is the man you a talking about. DELANEY, FRANK JAMES Rank:Sailor Date of Death:Between 01/12/1940 and 02/12/1940 Age:19 Regiment/Service: Merchant Navy S.S. Oakcrest (London) Grave Reference: Cemetery: CUIDHIR (OR BARRA PARISH) CHURCHYARD, ISLE OF BARRA Additional Information: Son of Thomas and May Delaney, of Liverpool. This might give a clue to what 664 means, a heart wrenching story. BBC - WW2 People's War - S.S. Oakcrest
Birth: 1921 Death: Dec., 1940 The SS Oakcrest was a 5,047-ton, London-registered ship owned by the Crest Shipping Line. In the summer of 1940 it was hired by the British Ministry of War Transport and was pressed into long trans-ocean service. On her final journey, SS Oakcrest as a part of a 7 ship convoy OB-244 travelling from Liverpool to New York and was torpedoed a few hundred miles off the coast of Scotland at position 53° north 17° west on 22 or 23 November 1940. The torpedo was fired by German submarine U-123 It is said that SS Oakcrest sank in seven minutes. About 24 of her 44 man crew made it to a lifeboat and drifted Northeast for between eight and eleven days. A number of the men died at sea. During a storm, they reached the the Isle of Barra in the Scottish Outer Hebrides on the tiny shingle beach of Bagh Heige on the night of 1 or 2 December 1940. Two of the nine survivors managed to get inland and find help. John James Kelsey who died on either the 1st or 2nd December 1940 is buried in the Church of Scotland Graveyard at Cuier; Isle of Barra, under a slim granite headstone engraved with the Merchant Navy (MN) crest. Beside John James are 3 other crew members of SS Oakcrest; Frank James Delaney, Sailor, aged 19 from Liverpool, Charles Thomas Hobbs, Cook, aged 29 from Kirkdale, Liverpool, Richard Storey, Fireman and Trimmer, aged 18 from Newport, Monmouthshire. Frank James Delaney (1921 - 1940) - Find A Grave Memorial
Eh, I meant on the island, so I requested one on find a grave, on request I was told a photographer was within 50 miles, so with luck should be able to get one on there. Then guess what I found this on CWGC. Cemetery Details click on pic 2.
