HMS Sumar

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History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Sumar
NamesakeSusan Marshall (wife of David Charles Whitney)
BuilderTebo Yacht Basin, subsidiary of Todd Shipyards Corporation, Brooklyn New York City, New York, USA
Launched1926
ChristenedSumar
Completed1926
CommissionedJuly 1942
Decommissioned1946
HomeportRoyal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda
IdentificationFY1003
FateReturned to civil use
General characteristics
TypeArmed yacht
Displacement319 tons
Length48.768 m (160 ft 0 in)
Beam7.9428 m (26 ft 1 in)
PropulsionTwo 420 
kW) Cooper-Bessemer diesel engines
Speed13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
ArmamentDepth charge throwers

HMS Sumar (FY1003) was a

Second World War converted to an armed yacht and equipped for anti-submarine warfare, replacing HMS Castle Harbour (which had been re-assigned to the Mediterranean in 1942) as the Royal Naval Examination Service vessel at Bermuda. She was based at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda
until the end of the war.

Pre-war civil use

The Sumar was completed in 1926 by the Tebo Yacht Basin subsidiary of Todd Shipyards Corporation of New York for real estate developer David Charles Whitney of

Grosse Point, Detroit, Michigan, United States (the son of lumber baron David Whitney Jr.), who named the motor yacht for his wife Susan Marshall Whitney.[1][2][3][4]

Royal Naval use in Second World War

Sumar was obtained by the British Admiralty, armed and commissioned as HMS Sumar in July 1942. Her first commanding officer, Temporary Lieutenant-Commander C. A. King, DSC, Royal Navy Reserve, was appointed on 12 July 1941. Armed for anti-submarine warfare, she was assigned to the Royal Naval Examination Service on the America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda. HMS Castle Harbour, a Bermudian tender which had been similarly commissioned, and which had been used by the Royal Naval Examination Service at Bermuda since the start of the war, was transferred to the Mediterranean, but sunk on transit on 16 October 1942 by the German submarine U-160.[5][6] Although the Examination Service was responsible for anti-submarine duties inside Bermuda's barrier reef, the ocean outside the reef was normally patrolled by HMS Evadne. Evadne was also responsible for escorting merchant vessels to Bermuda where they formed into convoys to cross the Atlantic (convoys formed at Bermuda were coded BHX and merged at sea with convoys from Halifax, Nova Scotia, coded HX, as the relatively smaller circumference of a larger circle meant it took fewer escorts to defend one large convoy than two smaller).

On 2 June, 1942, Sumar (by then under the command of Lieutenant Gordon Emerson Kernohan, Royal Canadian Naval Voluntary Reserve) departed Bermuda with the

life rafts with wounded and clung to the sides in the heavy seas. Twenty-two men would be rescued by two planes of VP-74 which made daring landings in the heavy seas. USS Hamilton, led to the scene by one of the same planes, rescued 40 others. What appeared to be the abandonment of Gannet by Sumar was to result in a rift between Royal Naval and US Naval personnel in Bermuda.[11] On 4 July 1942, command of Sumar passed to Lieutenant Algernon Hugh Peniston, Royal Navy Reserve (one of many Bermudian officers and ratings serving in the Royal Navy).[12][13]

Sumar was moved to the West Indies by the Royal Navy when no longer required at Bermuda, but with the end of the Second World War, she was returned to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda, decommissioned and disposed of by sale in 1946. The dockyard rebuilt her for passenger service (reportedly to operate between

Marseille in France), and her new Greek owners (whose agent in Bermuda was William E. Meyer and Company Ltd; the ship having been placed on the civil register in Panama)[14] renamed her Horizonte Azul. She departed Bermuda on the 3 August, 1946, with a delivery crew composed of a mix of British (Bermudian) and Polish nationals under Greek Captain Stratis Goulandria taking her to Gibraltar, where she arrived twenty-one days later.[15]

[16] From Gibraltar, she continued on to Alexandria.

References

  1. ^ "David Charles Whitney". Find A Grave. Find a Grave, 1300 West Traverse Parkway, Lehi, UT 84043, USA. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  2. ^ Zimmeth, Khristi (29 August 2014). "Photos may show 'Detroit's Downton Abbey'". eu.detroitnews.com. The Detroit News. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  3. ^ Doelle, Katie (4 November 2014). "Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – David C. Whitney house, aka Ridgemont". katiedoelle.com. Katie Doelle. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  4. ^ "The David C. Whitney Yacht Sumar". Grosse Pointe Historical Society. Retrieved 24 May 2021. The David C. Whitney Yacht Sumar, named after Susan Marshall Whitney
  5. ^ Stranack, Lieutenant Commander Ian (1977). The Andrew And The Onions: The Story Of The Royal Navy In Bermuda, 1795–1975 (first edition). The City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda): Island Press Ltd.
  6. ISBN 9780921560036.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link
    )
  7. ISBN 9781927750322
    .
  8. ISBN 9780969833246
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-921560-11-1
    .
  10. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Allied Warships: USS Gannet (AVP 8); Minesweeper of the Lapwing class". Uboat.net. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  11. ^ Wiberg, Eric (30 November 2014). "USS Gannet sunk by U-653/Feiler N of Bermuda, escort HMS Sumar abandoned her, 62 men rescued by 2 planes and USS Hamilton, taken Bermuda". ericwiberg.com. Eric Wiberg. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  12. His Majesty's Stationery Office
    . 1945. p. 3011.
  13. ISBN 0921992238
    .
  14. ^ "Meyer Group of Companies". Meyer Group. Meyer Group of Companies. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  15. ^ "SEVEN BERMUDIANS ON CRUISE TO EGYPT IN FORMER SUMAR". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 6 August 1946.
  16. ^ "2 MUDIANS IN FORMER SUMAR COMING HOME". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 19 November 1946.
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