I have a selection of envelopes sent between my mother and father in law during WW2. The letters from Dad have comments such as “passed by examiner” They mention Base 1236 and 1221, a third is identified as "Woodbrook", which I understand was a base in Port of Spain Trinidad. and finally one is marked naval censor. The envelopes are dated 1943 and are post marked variously Trinidad, Surinam and British Guiana. We think Dad arrived in Trinidad after having survived being torpedoed at least once, although we do not know the name of the ship he arrived on nor any of those whose torpedoing he survived (he claimed to have survived 3 times). Does anyone know if enlistment papers from Woodbrook survive of if there are lists surviving of peoplewho arrived in circumstances like Dad?
Working the other way Uboat.net has lists of vessels torpedoed by uboats with maps of where and when. You might be able to figure out which ships were likely ones and look for info that way.
Thanks LWD, We have tried that way and have a list of ships to research their crews. However, if Dad was crew on one ship that was torpedoed some distance from Trinidad and picked upby another ship he would not necessarily appear on the records of the second ship. the seaarch becomes ripples on a pond especially as we have about a 3 month window for when he arrived in Trinidad.
If a ship picked up survivors then I would expect somewhere there's a report with their names on it. Of course that doesn't help you find it and as you say a three month window is pretty wide. I did read an account once of someone that was on several ships that got torpedoed all without touching land. Probably considered a bit of a "Jonah" if the full story was out. Their are some merchant marine sites that list crew. If he was American or British you may have good chance looking him up there or perhaps getting some help there. For the UK these may be of some use if you haven't looked already: Research guide C1: The Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Crew lists, agreements and official logs http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...-ships-1861/&usg=AOvVaw1wHkDJNCkDe8Y9JR-2inbs For the US: Logbooks of US Merchant Vessels Merchant Marine Records and Contact Information General: WW II & Maritime Links - Warsailors.com Crew listings - Ships hit by U-boats during WWII - uboat.net Note the last is a list of crews on merchant ships hit by Uboats during the war. If you find his name it will list at least the first ship as well.
Thanks again LWD, I did not realise it was possible to access US merchant vessel log books. That could be very interesting and extremely helpful. More avenues to research