McKHAIL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-05-04 published
Somer JAMES,
Sailor and Numismatist: 1921-2005
Canadian pacifist who chose to join the merchant navy rather
than take up arms during the Second World War won an unprecedented
brace of civilian bravery medals
By Ayah McKHAIL,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, May
4, 2005, Page S7
Toronto -- He was an ordinary Canadian seaman who accomplished
an extraordinary feat. On November 5, 1943, Somer
JAMES won two
medals for bravery for singlehandedly saving his ship.
The sun was just rising over Torre Aningiatria, a port southeast
of Naples, when German bombers descended on allied shipping.
The port was of strategic importance because the Allies could
unload the massive quantities of supplies they needed to drive
the Germans out of Italy; Mr.
JAMES's ship offered choice prey.
Loaded with ammunition, The Empire Lightening was moored to a
dock piled with high-octane fuel when the bombs began to find
their targets. One struck the fuel, setting it ablaze and threatening
both the Lightening and other freighters moored fore and aft.
The ship could be saved only by a careful combination of dropping
some of its lines and doubling others, so it could be manoeuvred
away from the fire.
The captain called for volunteers. Amidst the pandemonium, only
Mr. JAMES, who was not yet 22, stepped up. He donned a heavy
jacket and lifebelt and went on deck alone. With the captain
shouting instructions down at him from the bridge, with fire
raging alongside and with high explosives beneath his feet, he
ran the length of the ship from one mooring point to another
and did his best to handle the massive hemp lines alone. The
entire operation lasted about three hours, but, in the end, he
managed to get the ship out of harm's way, its sides scorched
by fire.
Yet, he didn't stop at that. Once the Lightening was secured,
he helped move a number of barges loaded with dangerous cargo
that had also caught fire.
The action later won him both the British Empire Medal and the
Lloyd's Medal for Bravery, an unusual double honour. While 29
other Canadian merchant sailors won the British Empire Medal
for bravery during the Second World War, and some won the Lloyd's
medal, none received both awards for the same event.
A soft-spoken pacifist with sparkling blue eyes, he was an academic
at heart. Largely self-taught, he completed only Grade 11 at
Toronto's Harbord Collegiate, yet was deeply intellectual and
visited the library often. When war broke out, he had been adamantly
opposed to armed conflict and couldn't bear the thought of pulling
a trigger on anyone. Instead, in 1940, this pensive Jewish teenager
from Toronto took a train ride to Montreal to see whether he
could join the merchant navy. It would determine his fate for
the next five years. He found a Greek steamer, the first of 12
ships he would serve aboard in the Battle of the Atlantic. It
was the war's longest theatre of war and the costliest. One in
seven people died in the line of duty, their ships and their
valuable cargo sent to the bottom by German U-boats and surface
raiders and sometimes because of collision while in convoy. Of
the 12,000 Canadians who served, more than 1,600 lost their lives.
For all its dangers, the job suited Mr.
JAMES. "It saved me from
certain actions," he once said. "I didn't want to get involved
with killing people, shooting them with guns from far away, and
getting involved with anything like that."
Contrary to belief, merchant sailors didn't do it for the money.
In 1940, the year Mr.
JAMES joined, the average monthly pay rate
for a seaman in the merchant navy was $55, compared with $123
for a sailor in the Royal Canadian Navy. Until later in the war,
a merchant seaman who was forced to abandon ship even had his
pay stopped.
In August of 1945, Mr.
JAMES made one final voyage across the
Atlantic. In 1943, he had met a young English woman while waiting
for a train at Denham station in London; a romance soon developed.
They married on September 18, 1945, at Saint John's Wood synagogue
in London and decided to settle in Canada. They lived in Toronto
until August of 1946, then headed for Winnipeg to a job at the
Winnipeg Film Exchange.
Later, Mr.
JAMES became a partner in a theatre-poster business
and then opened the Regency Coin and Stamp Company, which he
operated until his retirement in 1998. Over the years, he wrote
several books on coins, stamps and tokens, a fascination that
had started during his years in the merchant navy when he always
seemed to have a pocketful of interesting foreign coins. He served
on the board of several non-profit organizations in Winnipeg
and was made a life member of the Canadian Numismatic Association.
Mr. JAMES spoke little about his war service and thought less
about his two medals until they were sought by the new Canadian
War Museum in Ottawa. They go on display when the museum opens
this weekend.
Somer JAMES was born in Toronto on December 24, 1921. He died
of Parkinson's disease on January 17, 2005. He was 83. He leaves
his wife, Jean; daughters Heather and Wendy; sons David and Keith
and sisters Beula and Esther.
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