# Signing on and San Florentino



## daisy1942 (Apr 24, 2010)

Can someone please tell me what information/do***entation would have needed to be produced for someone to sign up with MN during the war years. Would this information differ from country to country? Dad signed up to British MN in Montreal in 1944 but previously appeared to be in US CoastGuard services.

Also seeking any information about SS San Florentino and her sinking


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## seaman38 (Mar 16, 2016)

During the war officials were not too worried about paperwork as evidenced by the large number of 14 year old members serving and some lost. Every ship needed a certain number of bodies before it could sail. Your father with previous sea experience would have been snapped up.

Before the war my own father was in the MN and signed on for the Army in 1939. In 1941 he (like many other ex MN) was asked to rejoin the MN as so many MN personnel had been lost in the first two years and the Service was very short of experienced seamen.


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## daisy1942 (Apr 24, 2010)

seaman38 said:


> During the war officials were not too worried about paperwork as evidenced by the large number of 14 year old members serving and some lost. Every ship needed a certain number of bodies before it could sail. Your father with previous sea experience would have been snapped up.
> 
> Before the war my own father was in the MN and signed on for the Army in 1939. In 1941 he (like many other ex MN) was asked to rejoin the MN as so many MN personnel had been lost in the first two years and the Service was very short of experienced seamen.


Thanks, that helps!

Dad was a bit of a gadabout. He appears to have started the was in the RA (having been an apprentice bricklayer) then at Singapore appeared to be Royal Navy. By 1943 he was US Coastguard and from May 1944 onwards Merchant Navy - no wonder I am confused!(==D)


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

daisy1942 said:


> Also seeking any information about SS San Florentino and her sinking


I cannot provide any information about her at all but the name did not die with the ship when she sank.

In 1964 I sailed on her successor, the "_San Florentino_", Official Number 185863 callsign GPZW, an 18,000 dwt tanker built by Cammell Laird & Co; Ltd., Birkenhead and handed over to the owners, Eagle Tanker Co. Ltd., London in April 1953. In 1959, along with the rest of the Eagle Oil fleet, she was handed over to Shell Tankers. In 1965 Shell renamed her “Hemidonax” and in July 1970 she was sold & delivered to UK ship-breakers T.W. Ward, Briton Ferry.


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## Dartskipper (Jan 16, 2015)

Information about San Florentino here.

https://www.helderline.com/tanker/san-florentino-1

She was in the Eagle Oil fleet. My Dad mentioned her once or twice, as he also served with Eagle Oil and may have known some of her crew.

Roy.


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## daisy1942 (Apr 24, 2010)

Ron Stringer said:


> I cannot provide any information about her at all but the name did not die with the ship when she sank.
> 
> In 1964 I sailed on her successor, the "_San Florentino_ .....


How odd that you should have sailed on her successor! One of the many new family members I have just recently discovered died when San Florentino was sunk in 1941. Thomas Burt who was a fireman on board aged just 18


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## OzBoz (Dec 9, 2008)

daisy1942 said:


> How odd that you should have sailed on her successor! One of the many new family members I have just recently discovered died when San Florentino was sunk in 1941. Thomas Burt who was a fireman on board aged just 18


He's mentioned here at https://www.wrecksite.eu/peopleView.aspx?AldfrErBL46xMPLUSuXn48ruA== along with all his shipmates who died after the Florentino was sunk by U94.

More information on the previous page.
https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?15167

Your family member is also mentioned in the "People on Board" scroll down box on that page.

If you scroll right down, you will come to a map of the North Atlantic with red spots each representing a sinking. It certainly puts the numbers into perspective.


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