Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Second World War on The Wartime Memories Project Website

1208 Able.Sea Leonard Tobin Royal Navy HMS Vindictive My father, Len Tobin, was part of the Royal Navy crew that sailed the Duchessa from Freetown to Greenock in July 1942. Previously he had served on HMS Vindictive, a repair ship based at Freetown and volunteered to go to Lagos and prepare the ship for the voyage home. They left Freetown as part of a convoy and on the first day out, she broke down. The rest of the convoy carried on leaving the Duchessa alone in waters known to be patrolled by U-boats. Eventually she was repaired and the journey resumed without incident, except the Bay of Biscay was particularly rough and food started to run out and corn beef sandwiches became their mainstay, until docking at Greenock. During unloading the Duchessa caught fire and sank at her moorings. She was eventually re-floated and with modifications became the Empire Yukon, and did sterling service on convoy duty. Then post-war she was re-named Petconnie. Is there anyone out there who can add to the story of the Duchessa? If so, please get in touch. Please type your message:      We recommend you copy the text about this item and keep a copy on your own computer before pressing submit. Your Name:             Email Address:       @ **Please type the first part our your email in the first box (eg. john.smith) the @ sign is added automaticallly, please type the second part in the second box (eg. gmail.com). Do not enter your full email in each box or add an @ sign or random spaces.** Please type in the code shown here:    If you are unable to read the code please click here. If you have received an error message for incorrect code, please click to refresh the code before resending. This should overcome the error message.