My Dad and HMS Northern Gem

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My Dad and H.M.S. Northern Gem

Two Unsung Heroes of WWII

By Stuart Parnell

The Two Heros

Douglas Edward Sturton Parnell

Born Oct 20 1916 as a Simmonds

Dec 12 1916 Charles Simmonds is killed at Ypres

April 1919 my grandmother remarries a Frank Parnell and my Dad “Takes his Name”

1932 Dad joins Navy at 15 ½

1937 Back in Civvy Street

Dec 1939 to Dec 1945 back in the Royal Navy with RNPS

Northern Gem - Pre War

Completed - July 1936

Gross Tonnage - 655

Net Tonnage - 254

Length - 188.1 ft

Breadth - 28.1 ft

Draught - 15.5 ft

1936

Ordered by Lever Brothers Ltd (Unilever) to absorb frozen credits in Germany.

July 1936

Completed by Deutsche Schiffs und Maschinenbau AG Seebeck

October 1937

Sold to Northern Trawlers Ltd, London (H. Markham Cook, Grimsby, manager).

August 1939

Sold to The Admiralty (£32,963) and converted for anti-submarine duties (P.No.FY.194).

1940

Northern patrol based at Kirkwall.

A Huge Ship in a Little Body

	Last RN ship to leave Narvik
	One of the escorts on disastrous convoy PQ17
	31 Dec 1942 - As part of the escort of convoy JW51B bound to Murmank, Nothern Gem was involved in the action when the convoy was attacked by the German heavy cruiser Hipper in the Barents Sea. She picked up the survivors of the sinking destroyer Achates, five officers and seventy-six ratings.
	29 Apr 1943 - HMT Northern Gem picked up 67 survivors from the American merchant McKeesport, that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-258 in the North Atlantic.
	On anti submarine duty at D Day landings.

Post War

	290 people saved during the war
	Back to trawler, out of Fleetwood in 1946
	Sold for scrap 1966 and broken in Holland

Battle of The Barents Sea

Time Line for H.M.S.Northern Gem