Bedfordshire was built as a commercial fishing trawler by Smith's Dock Company of South Bank, North Yorkshire, England. Launched at Teesside on 17 July 1935, she was completed in August 1935 and turned over to her owners, Bedfordshire Fishing Company of Grimsby, managed by H. Markham Cook Ltd. She carried the fishing number GY196. Bedfordshire was 162.3 feet (49.5 m) long, with a 26.7-foot (8.1 m) beam.[1]
The Admiralty acquired Bedfordshire for anti-submarine duty in August 1939.[2] Converted for service as a naval trawler, she was armed with a 4-inch gun, machine guns, and depth charges.
Service in British waters
Following completion of her conversion in December 1940, HMT Bedfordshire undertook anti-submarine patrols and escort duty off the southwest coast of England and in the Bristol Channel. She served in this capacity throughout 1941 and early 1942.[3]
Situation in American waters deteriorates
After Germany declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, German U-boats quickly became a deadly threat on the East Coast. The United States Navy was ill-prepared to defend against submarine warfare, and U-boats found it easy to pick off commercial shipping vessels, which travelled unescorted. The onslaught began with Operation Drumbeat when 35 Allied ships were sunk by U-boats off the American coast in January 1942.[4]
In March 1942, the Royal Navy sent 24 converted trawlers, including Bedfordshire, to assist the United States Navy with anti-submarine patrols along the East Coast.[5]Bedfordshire, commanded by Lieutenant Russell Bransby Davis, RNR, was assigned to the Fifth Naval District, headquartered at Naval Station Norfolk. She operated out of Morehead City, North Carolina, primarily in sectors two and three, where she patrolled the waters surrounding the Outer Banks[6] while U-boats continued to terrorize local shipping.[5]
Service on the American coast
On 16 April 1942, Bedfordshire along with HMT Lady Elsa, HMS Tourmaline, and USS Roper conducted patrols in sector two.[6]Bedfordshire and Tourmaline assisted USS Stringham in the search for survivors of a sunken tanker in sector two on 17 April.[6]
On 18 April, Bedfordshire searched for survivors of U-85,[7] the first U-boat sunk by the US Navy off the East Coast.[8] For the next several days Bedfordshire stood guard duty over a concerted attempt to salvage U-85. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful and the attempt was abandoned on 22 April.[6][9] The remains of U-85 lie at a depth of less than 100 feet (30 m) in the waters off Bodie Island Lighthouse; its Enigma machine was recovered in 2001.[10]
On 1 May, a plane reported having spotted a lifeboat some 255 nautical miles (472 km) east of Cape Lookout, and Bedfordshire was sent on a search and rescue mission. She was back on patrol in sector three from 7–9 May, after which she returned to Morehead City.[11]
At noon on 10 May Bedfordshire and HMT St Zeno departed Morehead City to escort a convoy to Hatteras, arriving safely near midnight.[12]
Sinking
On 10 May 1942, Bedfordshire and HMT St Loman were dispatched from Morehead City to search for a U-boat believed to be in the vicinity of Ocracoke Island. The ships were spotted by U-558, commanded by KapitänleutnantGünther Krech. Later in the evening Krech, believing his sub had been detected, fired on St Loman, which spotted the torpedoes and evaded them. The search continued throughout the night. At 05:40 on 11 May 1942, U-558 fired a torpedo at Bedfordshire, missed, and fired a second, which scored a direct hit and sank her immediately. All 37 men aboard were killed.[13][14] A 38th crewman, a young stoker named Sam Nutt, had been detained at Morehead City by local police and narrowly missed boarding the ship for her last patrol.[15]
Commemorative plaque at British Cemetery, Ocracoke Island
On 14 May, the bodies of two seamen were discovered by a Coast Guardsman on the shores of Ocracoke Island. Their British uniforms offered the first indication that Bedfordshire may have met her end, and the U-boat menace was presumed to be responsible.[16] Her fate was confirmed the following year after U-558 was sunk, resulting in the capture of Kapitänleutnant Krech and his ship's diaries.[15]
Burials
The bodies found on 14 May were identified as belonging to Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Cunningham and Ordinary Telegraphist Stanley Craig of the Bedfordshire. They were buried in a small plot next to a cemetery in Ocracoke Village. The Royal Navy flag draped over Cunningham's coffin was one of several that he himself had given to a local man less than a month earlier for the funeral ceremonies of British seamen.[16][17] Shortly thereafter, two additional bodies from the ship washed ashore on Ocracoke. Unidentified, they were also buried in what became known as the Ocracoke Island British Cemetery.[18]
On nearby Hatteras Island, the body of a fifth British seaman, unidentifiable but presumed to be from Bedfordshire, washed ashore on 21 May. The month prior, the body of another British sailor from the sunken merchant ship San Delfino had been buried on Hatteras; the Bedfordshire sailor's body was interred in an adjacent plot, resulting in a second British Cemetery, formally known as Cape Hatteras Coast Guard Burial Ground.[19]
In late May or early June, a sixth body, belonging to Seaman Alfred Dryden, washed ashore at Swan Quarter, North Carolina. It was buried in Oak Grove Baptist Cemetery at Creeds, Virginia, with three of the dead from HMT Kingston Ceylonite, sunk by a mine on 15 June 1942, whose bodies washed ashore nearby.[3][20]
Commemoration
The British Cemeteries on Ocracoke and Hatteras were leased in 1976 in perpetuity to the British government for as long as the interred bodies remain there.[18] Formal custody is handled by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which provides the protocol headstones. Regular maintenance is handled by the US Coast Guard and local residents as a gesture of gratitude and respect to the fallen men and an act of comity to the British government. A Royal Navy flag flies over the cemeteries, and a ceremony is held there each year on 11 May to honour the men of the Bedfordshire.[21] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission also provided headstones for the four British servicemen interred in Creeds, Virginia, including Alfred Dryden of the Bedfordshire.[20]
The crewmen whose bodies were not recovered are honoured by name on the Royal Naval Patrol Service Memorial at Lowestoft.[22]
