Hey, I *Know* That Name

So I'm reading J. Golden Kimball by Claude Richards and learned an interesting interaction he had with James Kearl, one of my mother's relatives.

A few caveats:

There may be other James Kearls, but in looking at the timeline and genealogy, I can confirm James Kearl lived in the area Kimball lived in. They're also contemporaries, so the chances of this being my relative are good.

The event itself is not that exciting; I just thought it was fun than an ancestor's name popped out of the  book at me.

The story:

About 1887 my brother Elias and I loaded a sleigh with provisions and started for Evanston, Wyoming, enroute to Salt Lake City, where Elias was to attend the Utah Legislature as a representative from Rich County. We took our mother along. Elias was on crutches, as he had a severe cut on the foot. We had four fine horses. It was snowing, but we were accustomed to snow storms. We left our home in Meadowville and, after we passed through Lake Town, we wended our way to the canyon. A severe blizzard, with a terrifying wind, set in. We plowed our way through banks of snow. We reached the top of the mountain; night set in and we discovered we were traveling in a circle as the horses could not face the storm. We found a cabin, owned by our friend James Kearl, and entered. Tearing up the floor, we built a fire and camped for the night.

I can't imagine James Kearl was all that happy to know a cabin he owned lost a floor to some wanderers, but I'm certain he wouldn't have mind as it likely saved their lives. They did eventually reach Salt Lake, after other adventures involving other ranchers and other cabins.

Poelau Roebiah FOUND

Got to thinking about Dad this weekend, in particular the story he told of he and his brother Sjaak getting really excited when the merchant vessel their Dad was a sailor on was due back to port.

The story goes like this:

Their mother knew the ship, the Poelau Roebiah was due in port soon, but didn't know when. They didn't have a phone on their farm, so they had to walk to the post office to use the phone there. The phone was in a little booth.

She took her two boys with her to use the phone. Every time she mentioned the name of the ship, the boys would shout "Poelau Roebiah! Poelau Roebiah!" as loud as they could, often interrupting the phone call and making their mom a little cranky.

She finally got the information they needed and went home, not mindiing whether the boys followed since they were full of energy and she was a little weary of it.

A while later, the postmistress came to her house.

"Oh Frau Davidson, you have to come back to the post office and get your boys!" she said. They'd locked themselves in the phone booth and were shouting Poelau Roebiah! to anyone who'd listen.

"They have to get out of the booth because if the phone rings I'm responsible to answer it, and they've locked the booth so I can't get in!" the postmistress said.

So their tired mother went back to the post office, extracted her boys, and brought them home.

We assume they had a happy reunion when their father and the Poelau Roebia returned.

Today after church I got curious to see if I could find any information on the ship. I'd tried in the past, but as the story was told to us verbally, we had no idea how to spell the name of the ship. So I tried a few different searches today and came up with the name.

And some pictures!

There's a lot more out there I'm just digging into.

I did find that the ship was torpedoed by a German Uboat on July 6, 1942, in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Kingston, Jamaica.

The information here is from the site linked just below the picture:

In 1942, the “Poelau Roebiah” was part of Convoy HX-187 departing Halifax on April 26th 1942 and arriving Liverpool on May 8th 1942, though the ship may not have travelled with the convoy all the way.

The “Poelau Roebiah” sailed from the United Kingdom on June 1st 1942 as part of convoy WS-19P. Freetown was reached June 15th 1942 and departed on June 19th 1942. Cape Town was reached on July 1st 1942 and Durban on July 4th 1942. The convoy was split with the “Poelau Roebiah” being part of Convoy WS-19P (and later WS-19PA) which contained the slower vessels. Suez was reached on July 23rd 1942.

On June 7th 1943, “U 759” set sail from Lorient for patrol in the Atlantic. Almost a month later on July 5th, the U-boat found Convoy GTMO-134 and sank one ship. Two days later “U 759” found Convoy TAG-70 which included the “Poelau Roebiah” with a cargo of 8,100 tons of manganese ore and 100 tons of copper concentrate from Bombay to Cristobal, Guantanamo Bay and Baltimore. Also on board were 31 passengers, 24 armed guards and 68 crew members. The ship was torpedoed and sunk south of Jamaica at position 17°56′ N and 75°57′ W. Two crew were killed, everyone else successfully took to the lifeboats, who were later picked up by a US Coast Guard cutter and several escort vessels.

A week after the “Poelau Roebiah” was sunk, “U 759” was lost on July 15th 1943.

Interesting stuff, and a little more of the ol' family history.