Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) - Historical stories, ruins, relics, and other interesting things
Can you torpedo our pier please?
Lieutenant-Commander (LCdr) Frederick Henry Sherwood was the first Canadian to command a Royal Navy submarine during the Second World War. He was the commanding officer of the submarine HMS Spiteful when it fired upon three oil storage tanks at Christmas Island. Five rounds were fired for two or three hits. The Japanese responded, firing back with three guns and machine guns. The Spiteful then dived and set course for Australia 1. Later that year in October, the Spiteful returned to Christmas Island on a reconnaissance mission, eventually returning to Fremantle, Western Australia.
The following year on the 16th March 1945, just prior to the Spiteful departing Fremantle to return home to England, an astonishing meeting took place. LCdr (Ret’d) Sherwood recounts it below:
We had received orders to return to England for refitting. Poor old Spiteful certainly needed it, as almost every patrol had produced more mechanical problems.
Frederick Sherwood DSC & bar RCNVR (1914 – 2013) photo early 1940 Canada’s most highly decorated submariner
… Before we set sail, Captain L.M. Shadwell sent for me. “There are two Australian gentlemen who would like to talk to you”, he said. “In Australia, people who are in the militia can carry on their business while they’re still in uniform until the militia requires them. I don’t care what they say to you, and I don’t think that you should tell me about your conversation.”
Shortly afterwards these two characters arrived aboard Spiteful, and I took them to my cabin.
“What can I do for you?” I asked.
They sparred around for a minute or two and then asked if it was true that I had been to Christmas Island.
“Yes”, I replied.
They then introduced themselves as the directors of the Christmas Island Phosphate Company. As I was going home, they surmised that with a very small deviation, I could pass by Christmas Island.
“If you could cause a little damage”, they ventured, “Shall we say a torpedo at the pier – then after the war we could claim war reparations and get a nice new pier. No one would ever know that a ship hadn’t been there.”
This didn’t go down well with me.
”Do you know how much a torpedo costs?” I asked. “And besides, I’ve got 38 people in this boat, and they’re finished with the war for the time being. I’m going to take them home safe and sound, not withstanding Christmas Island.”
The conversation ended without them making me a concrete offer, but it was an enlightening experience.
Excerpt with permission taken from “It’s not the ships … my early years” by Frederick H. Sherwood, Lt Cdr RCNVR (Ret’d), DSC & Bar with Philip Sherwood www.lifewriters.ca
One has to be curious about the names of the two Directors.
The pier on Christmas Island in 1942 during the Japanese occupation Shashin Shuho (写真周报) (Photo News Weekly) 13 May 1942 Photo taken in UK just after Sherwood got his first command April 1943 You can read more about this WW2 hero here Photo courtesy Royal Canadian Navy
1. British National Archives – Admiralty: War History Cases and Papers, Second World War / Admiral submarines: patrol reports of HMS Submarines STORM, SURF, SPITEFUL, SCORCHER AND SCYTHIAN – ADM 199/1870
Frederick Sherwood DSC & bar RCNVR (1914 – 2013)
