S.S. “RAVNANGER” departed Middlesbrough at 2.15 p.m. 10/11-1940 and continued to anchorage off the Fairway buoy, at a spot decided by Naval Control, and that also the pilot directed me to upon leaving the vessel at the breakwater. We anchored abt. 4 p.m., and received an order from the guardboat to join convoy at buoy no. 20 abt. 12 p.m. As the initial order had been for 10 p.m. we had already weighed anchor and were waiting, alternating between stop and slow ahead on engine. Continued to buoy no. 20 at 11 p.m. British day light saving time, and remained in vicinity of buoy no. 20 from 11.30 to 12.15 a.m. When no convoy could be observed, vessel was turned around abt. 12.30 a.m. in order to return at half speed to anchorage. At this time, an aircraft was heard closing in from seaside and passed aft of vessel. A greenish light was seen underneath the plane that cruised at about 200-300 ft altitude. The aircraft dropped a bomb or a mine in the sea 700-900 ft from vessel, and then made a turn back to sea. A bomb or mine exploded in the front part of the vessel and she immediately started to sink. All hands were summoned and ordered to the lifeboats. The lifeboats were put out on both sides, but it was difficult to clear them from ship’s side due to the fast increasing port list. As soon as I observed that the boats were ready to go on the water, I went from boat deck to midship deck with intention to go into saloon to pick up vessel’s documents which had been prepared and put in my bag, but sea was already above the midship deck and I therefore returned to boatdeck and entered one of the lifeboats. Both lifeboats were launched, but just as the ship rapidly keeled over and started sinking very fast, port side lifeboat was hooked by the davit and was dragged under. Five men were in this boat, myself included, and we all fell in the water. We grabbed hold of two liferafts that came drifting by and dragged ourselves onto these. The liferafts drifted past the stern of the ship, and the poop was now the only visible part of the ship. We drifted over towards the motor lifeboat where the rest of the crew were, with the exception of the 3rd Engineer, Ole Karlsen, who was missing. We tried to enter the vessel to search for the missing person, but as the sea was very rough and the motorboat took on water, we had to give it up. After a while the motor stopped, and we started rowing toward shore. After several attempts, we managed to start the motor again and we continued towards examination anchorage in order to find the guardboat and notify about the accident. We could not locate the guardboat in the dark, and we started for the mouth of the Tees, and we landed at the pilot station about 4.45 a.m. We disembarked at the pilot station, and a bus took us to the Seamen’s Mission in Middlesbrough where we were given dry clothes and food. The motor lifeboat was left in the pilot station’s custody, as was some of the wet clothings of the crew.
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