All Aboard

An unravelling of his grand-uncle’s final voyage is not the only reason for Misquita’s delight. His quest, in fact, has revealed untold stories of other Goan seamen—many of them butlers and cooks—who perished along with the SS Britannia.

There were at least, says Melvyn, 49 Goan seamen (whose names have been recorded), besides other Indian passengers, who perished with the Britannia. He estimates that there were at least 75 Indians on that ill-fated voyage. This, he adds, is a significant number for any one given ship which sank during WW-II.

Misquita’s story began four months ago, when he started work on building a Misquita family tree. Two family members intrigued him the most. One was seven-year-old Luiza Misquita, who was adopted by the family but died accidentally by drowning in a well. The second was his grand-uncle.

“The only information we had was my grand-uncle was on the SS Britannia when it sank in 1941. Though he managed to get into a lifeboat, he did not reach the shore alive,” says Melvyn. As the exact date of his death was not available, the church in his village Aldona recorded Constantino’s death as sometime in March-April 1941.

Armed with the information given to him ten years ago, Melvyn started scouring the Internet for details of this little known ship. Finally, on March 25, 2003, by coincidence, the same day the Britannia sank in 1941, he hit bull’s eye when he stumbled upon Australian web-pages that gave details of the little-known ship, the descendants of Goan survivors and of those who perished.

Melvyn also learnt of an Australian survivor who went on to become a vice-admiral. Sir Ian McIntosh, 84, now resides in Britain and knew the Goans on board. Melvyn’s journey had come full circle.

Britannia, the third ship with this name on Anchor Line, was built by Alex, Stephen & Sons at Linthouse. Since 1926, she had been plying from Glasgow to Bombay via the Suez Canal. Her time at sea ended on March 25, 1941, some 600 miles from Dakar (today’s Senegal), when she encountered the German commerce raider HK Thor. Built in 1938, the Thor, a 9,200-tonne ship, was deceptive in appearance, looking almost like a normal merchant ship.

Equipped with torpedoes and other weaponry, it had been at sea for 322 days during the year, and in that time had sunk 11 merchant ships and one armed merchant cruiser—a total of 96,602 tonnes.

Out of the Britannia’s 281 passengers and 203 crew, 127 passengers and 122 crew were lost. After being torpedoed, the survivors decided to work on the prevailing winds and currents to reach Brazil, some 1,600 miles to the west. They thought this to be an achievable goal. However, their lifeboats had holes in their planks, most of the survivors were ailing and food was in short supply.

Rations comprised one egg-cupful of water, one biscuit and a few drops of condensed milk each day.

While rainfall helped the survivors gather water, their numbers fell drastically. Melvyn’s grand-uncle was among those who died hours before they reached the shores of Sao Luis in Brazil. The rag-tag group touched land after nearly four weeks, but many were covered with salt-water sores, aggravated by the crowded conditions and the constant rolling of the lifeboat.

Sir Ian, who spoke to Melvyn’s sister in London, recalled that the lifeboat was just 28×10 ft in size, with two sails and a rudder. The vessel, which had a capacity to carry 56, actually had as many as 81 packed on board. He mainly recalls a Goan sailor, Louis Albino de Souza of Aldona, as being very helpful.

“The fact that he knows Portuguese meant he was able to make himself understood to the native fishermen who treated us well. They accommodated us in their grass huts and gave us wholesome food, including mangoes and fish. Such a feast was just too rich for people who had been starving for four weeks and had turned to skin and bones,” said Sir Ian, a 21-year old sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy at the time.

Melvyn’s research has now sparked off queries globally from relatives and friends who had members of their family serving on the Britannia. “None of these people were previously aware of the events shortly before and after the sinking of the Britannia,” he says. Melvyn is looking forward to helping them as much as he can, to aid others derive the same satisfaction he got, to put an end to uncertainties, and to trace missing links in proud family trees.

Melvyn Misquita can be reached at 0832 2236646 or melvyn@misquita.net. For more information on the SS Britannia, log on to http://www.geocities.com/misquitas/ship1.html