British World War II ships leave historic impressions

The April 30, 1942, burial service held at Morehead City’s Bayview Cemetery for the British seamen who went down with the San Delfino during World War II didn’t bring closure.

 

Two more bodies washed up on the Northern Outer Banks weeks later. At least one was also a victim of the attack on the San Delfino by Germany’s U-203 off Hatteras Island east of Rodanthe that occurred on April 9, 1942. 

He was positively identified as Fourth Engineer Officer Michael Cairns, 28, of Dundee, Scotland. The other body, found off Nags Head on May 20, 1942, was classified as “unknown.”

 

Paul Branch, retired Fort Macon State Park Ranger and a military historian, suggests that the unknown seaman’s body may actually have come from the British armed trawler, the Bedfordshire, which was sunk by a torpedo blast from U-558 on May 11, 1942, off Cape Lookout. 

Graves of Cairns and the unknown seaman are located in Buxton Woods on a small plot marked by a tidy, white picket fence, nestled beneath tall pines and cedar trees. The tiny cemetery is near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse at Buxton.

 

Four more British sailors are buried in Ocracoke. Their bodies certainly came off the Bedfordshire. Citizens of Ocracoke buried the seamen near the village cemetery. The land for the British graves was donated by Alice Wahab Williams. 

Two of the deceased were identified: Sub-Lt. Thomas Cunningham, 27, of Blackpool, Lancashire, England; and 2nd Class Telegraphist Stanley Craig, 24, of London, England. The other two bodies were buried as unknown sailors.

 

The exact location of the wreck of the Bedfordshire “somewhere off Cape Lookout” remained a mystery for about 40 years. 

In the early 1980s, the wreck was discovered by a Morehead City dive charter boat. Olympus Dive Center founder Capt. George Purifoy and his dive partner Mike Sheen hit upon the Bedfordshire quite by accident.

 

A National Park Service (NPS) document from 2015 noted that Purifoy and Sheen thought “their dive boat anchor had caught on a rock. Diving in for a closer inspection, they discovered that the anchor had hooked into the armed trawler.” 

The Bedfordshire wreck lies at a depth of 105 feet about 20 miles almost due south of “the Cape Lookout hook,” just beyond the treacherous waters of Cape Lookout Shoals.

 

Scuba Diver Life magazine interviewed Will Sassorossi, a maritime archaeologist. “I cannot describe fully the feeling of reverence I had when I first saw the remains of the vessel,” he said, “knowing that all 37 crew members died on board that night.” 

“It is hard to describe this feeling, but ultimately I wanted to make sure that those who were lost here are never forgotten,” Sassorossi said. 

The Bedfordshire incident has special significance to the citizens of Morehead City, because the ship was stationed at the port here waiting for her assignment in the war effort. 

The NPS document also revealed the identity of four British sailors who were assigned to the Bedfordshire…but never boarded the vessel when it departed from Morehead City early in the morning on May 11, 1942. 

Sam Nutt, the ship’s stoker, and Richard Salmon, the lead cook, stayed too long at a local tavern and were jailed to sober up. Upon their release, with no charges, they went to the dock only to find that the Bedfordshire had already sailed without them. 

Seaman Richard Steadman hurt his knee and was transferred to another ship. John D. Fisher, the ship’s steward, also missed the departure of the Bedfordshire…but we’re not sure of the reason why.