# A very brave mariner has gone



## John Campbell (Aug 30, 2005)

Today I read this Obit in the _Telegraph _which will interest us all as we salute the passing of a very brave mariner;-

Norman Owen, who has died aged 91, helped to save the tanker Ohio as she sailed to relieve the island of Malta in 1942, and ended a short diving career when he had to save his own life by amputating his fingers. 

Owen was carpenter in the Blue Funnel Line freighter Deucalion, which was part of the Pedestal convoy that consisted of 14 merchant ships escorted by two battleships, four aircraft carriers, seven light cruisers and more than a score of destroyers and smaller warships. 

The convoy came under continuous submarine, surface and air attack by the Germans and Italians, and on August 11 Owen was horrified to see the carrier Eagle torpedoed and sink in what seemed to be a few minutes. A day later Deucalion was the first merchant ship to be hit when a bomb exploded in No 5 hold, causing severe damage and bringing the engines to a stop. 

As Owen lifted the hatch covers to investigate he was met by a strong smell of aviation fuel, and all he could hear in the unnerving silence was water sloshing in the bilges. Deucalion's master, Ramsey Brown, was determined to reach the island and, escorted by the destroyer Bramham, left the convoy to take an inshore route along the Tunisian coast at much reduced speed. But just before sunset Deucalion was bombed again, and her cargo erupted into flames, forcing Brown to issue the order to abandon ship. 

Rescued by Bramham, Owen was put to work supplying ammunition to the hoists: "It was terrifying being battened down in the magazine, where all too plainly I could hear the detonations of the near-misses and feel the shock waves" amid the acrid fumes from the guns' smoke. When the call came for men to board the abandoned Ohio and try to take her into Malta, Owen eagerly volunteered, preferring the known dangers of death by burning and sinking to the claustrophobia he suffered in Bramham. 

Ohio had already been torpedoed and was without engine power, so Owen had the job of preventing further flooding and reconnecting the tow which broke repeatedly under the weight of the tanker. In further air attacks Ohio was reduced to a sinking condition though not much more than 45 miles west of Malta. However, listing and with the deck awash amidships, she was towed into Grand Harbour on August 15 lashed between two destroyers, with two tugs in attendance to be met by cheering crowds and a band playing Rule Britannia. As the tanker discharged her cargo, she settled on the bottom. 

Dudley Mason, the master of Ohio, was awarded the George Cross, and Owen and six of his Merchant Navy companions received the Distinguished Service Medal for their outstanding work and courage. Owens's view was that he was glad to have been busy and "didn't have the time to dwell on his chances". 

Norman Warden Owen was born on May 17 1917, the sixth of 10 children of a steward on the Holyhead to Kingstown (now Dunlaoghaire) ferry service. He was educated locally and apprenticed as a shipwright in the Holyhead marine yard. Later he worked for Cammell Laird at Birkenhead on the carrier Ark Royal and the doomed submarine Thetis. But during a strike he signed on with the Houlder Line Argentina as a carpenter. From 1939 to 1941 Owen served in several ships in the Far East and on Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys, including Operation Substance, also bound for Malta. 

After the war Owen worked for Blue Funnel until, in 1951, he heard that the RNLI wanted experienced men to build a slipway and lifeboat house at Holyhead, and seized the opportunity to work from home.Owen had already tried out the diver's equipment, and when, one Monday morning, the diver failed to report for work he took over his role, without any formal training. 

In a few months he taught himself diving, learning "on the job" to surface when water leaking into the suit reached his knees, and to plunge his hands into the mud at the bottom to warm them. 

Next he was recruited as British Rail's maintenance diver at Holyhead. This involved working in fast-flowing tides for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day at dead slack water, and demolishing an old jetty. 

Owen had to use an axe underwater to cut a groove in hardwood piles so a wire could be attached to pull 18-foot-long stumps out of the seabed. The operation proceeded smoothly until one day the wire snagged and Owen went down to investigate. Holding on to the stump with one hand, he was trying to untwist the wire with the other when his right hand became trapped. 

He was unable to reach his exhaust valve to adjust the pressure in his suit or speak to the surface. With no chance of cutting the heavy wire, Owen reached for his diver's knife with his left hand and began to saw off his fingers, but as the blood billowed up past him he could not cut through the bone. In desperation Owen signalled to be pulled to the surface and two of his fingers "came away like pegs from a cribbage board". 

Calmly he collected his tools and surfaced slowly, where the men in the tender complained about his late arrival at the surface. Owen was rowed ashore and walked to the hospital 500 yards away: there he remembered being told not to drip blood on the floor. Only then did he feel the effect of delayed shock, and he began to feel excruciating pain. 

A year later he was awarded the Daily Herald's "Order of Industrial Heroism", which was known as "the Workers' VC". 

For many years afterwards, Owen worked as handyman and driver at Trearddur Bay. 

Owen had a lifelong interest in sailing, and he built his first boat, a 14-ft Kingstown wag, which he had named Sarah after his mother, while still an apprentice, and later he helped establish the Seabird class of racing boats. 

In between maintaining Rolls-Royces and Bentleys for his boss, Patrick Hall, he also repaired Seabirds and once had five of this class in various stages of restoration in his owner's garage. He also sailed Tsulamaran, which was then one of the world's largest catamarans, to the West Indies. 

Norman Owen, who died on August 16, married Gwladys Jones in 1942. He is survived by their daughter and two sons, David, who is master of the cruise liner Saga Rose, and Eddie, who is an international helmsman and the chief executive of the Royal Ocean Racing Club.


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## G0SLP (Sep 4, 2007)

Another of the men who helped to change the course of history has "Crossed the Bar"...

Operation Pedestal (aka the 'Ohio' convoy) was a major turning point of the Second World War.

Vale, sir

My condolences to his family.


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## gdynia (Nov 3, 2005)

God Speed and condolences to family


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## billyboy (Jul 6, 2005)

Condolences to his family. Long may he rest in peace.


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## ROBERT HENDERSON (Apr 11, 2008)

Mr Owen certainly had a varied career, typical of one of the Merchant Navy's greatest. My condolences to his family.
The last two poems in the Norticle poetry sums up what these brave men went through and the feelinngs at the time.

Regards Robert


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## pete (Mar 13, 2005)

Another very brave seafarer has gone to the big ship in the sky. I know he will enjoy his final voyage with the thoughts of all of us behind him. My condolences to all his family and he will *NOT* be forgotten.................pete


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## ddraigmor (Sep 13, 2006)

I hope his home town - which is my home town - remembers this local man not only for his heroism but also for the fact that he was a local lad to be proud of.

Condolences to his family.

Jonty


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## william dillon (Jun 9, 2005)

John Campbell said:


> Today I read this Obit in the _Telegraph _which will interest us all as we salute the passing of a very brave mariner;-
> 
> Norman Owen, who has died aged 91, helped to save the tanker Ohio as she sailed to relieve the island of Malta in 1942, and ended a short diving career when he had to save his own life by amputating his fingers.
> 
> ...


They certainly don't make them like this anymore.Condolences to the family, what a man !!


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