KENNETH COOKE

 

Kenneth Cooke was born in Snaith parish at Broach Farm Gowdall in 1916 and was educated at the local grammar school.  In 1942 he was serving as a ship’s carpenter, with the rank of Petty Officer on the SS Lulworth Hill. The Lulworth Hill was a handsome fairly new ship, built in 1940, registered in London and based at the port of Hull.

The ship left the Humber in late 1942, destined for the Middle East, with a cargo that included 7000 tons of 250lb bombs and 7000 tons of aircraft engines. The first stage of their voyage was northwards and around the top of Scotland to join a convoy assembling at an inlet on the west coast. On the first day, the convoy came under attack by U Boats and four of their ships were lost. Fortunately, there was a sudden deterioration in the weather and they were saved from further attacks.

After a nervous but uneventful voyage through the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal, they were able to unload their valuable cargo at Alexandria. Their next destination was Mauritius, where they loaded 10,000 tons of sugar and 400 tons of rum, bound for Liverpool.

They had a short stop at Capetown, where they had been told to join a convoy.  However, new instructions were received ordering them to sail independently.

On the evening of 18^th March 1943, The Lulworth Hill came under attack from a submarine but the torpedo missed.  Later that night, just after midnight, they were hit by two torpedoes and it took just two minutes for the ship to sink, taking everyone on board with it. Out of a merchant crew of 47 men and 13 DEMS Gunners, there were only a handful of survivors including Kenneth Cooke, who were left swimming in the water.  The submarine surfaced. It was Italian and named “Leonardo Da Vinci”. All the survivors were able to scramble aboard the deck of the vessel, where they were interrogated by a German liaison officer and one man, James Hull, was arrested and taken inside the submarine. The other survivors were left on the deck. The submarine continued on its journey and as it submerged, the survivors were washed back in to the sea.

After swimming around all night, Kenneth and another man reached a life raft and they clambered on to it. After a while, more survivors found the raft and eventually there were fourteen tired men huddled together.

Basil Scown, the First Officer, studied the position of the sinking and with his knowledge of the currents, expected it would take 30 days to drift to the coast of Liberia.  There was limited food and fresh water stored on the life raft, so a strict rationing policy was implemented.  Each man was allowed just 2floz of water, three times a day.

As they drifted along, curious sharks began to swim in circles around the raft. The largest one was given the nickname “ Scar Face.” It was estimated to be 18ft in length. The survivors also had to endure very challenging weather conditions. During daylight they were subjected to scorching sunlight and then at night the temperature plummeted to well below zero.  A piece of sail cloth was erected as a primitive awning, which provided shade for six men.  They had to shuffle round to take their turn in the shade.  As the days went by, like became more painful as they all suffered from salt-water sores, boils and sunburn.

 

On Day 15, the first survivor died.  He was the First Officer, Basil Scown. Before passing away, he had nominated Kenneth Cooke to take charge of the raft, even though he was not senior in rank. When darkness fell, Basil's body was lowered into the sea and within minutes it was devoured by sharks.  As time went by, one by one, other survivors succumbed to the terrible conditions and were lowered into the water to the sharks.

 

John Turney Arnold, an apprentice officer, was a very religious young man.  Whilst on the ship, he was often seen reading his bible and was regularly the victim of leg pulling, but he never reacted.  On the raft, many of the others turned to him for religious inspiration, joining him in prayers every evening.

On Day 25, John beckoned Kenneth over to him and told him that he had been talking to God who had assured him that some of the men on the raft would survive and that Kenneth would be one of them.

John passed away peacefully, just days after his 18^th birthday.

Despite regular warnings, some of the men took to drinking sea-water.  On Day 30, Bott, a strapping DEMS gunner, suddenly sprang up in a state of madness and grabbed hold of Weekes and Leak, the men sitting either side of him.  He then jumped overboard taking the two of them with him. Other survivors acted quickly and managed to pull Leak back on board, while others were struggling to rescue Weekes.

They were not so lucky and a shark bit off one of his legs, below the knee.  He screamed just once and then lost consciousness.  Kenneth Cooke knew he had to take charge of the situation quickly. He knew he had a difficult choice to make.  Try to save them both, or let them go. He decided against trying to save them  He knew it was too late for Weekes  and he felt that Bott posed a danger to all of them.  He shouted the order and then turned his back on them and covered his ears so he muffled the sound of Bott’s screams and the thrashing of the sharks.  This was a decision that haunted Kenneth Cooke for the rest of his life.

 

On Day 35, Platten, the Chief Steward died. Only two men were still alive Kenneth Cooke and Colin Armitage.  Despite the strict rationing of food and water, they were both very weak so much so that Kenneth was pondering with the thought that both of them should put an end to their suffering. He envisioned them lashing themselves together and jumping overboard to be swiftly dispatched by the sharks. But then he remembered little John Arnold’s prediction that he would be one of the survivors. That brought him to his senses and he decided he would stick it out, even if it meant dying on the raft.

 

On Day 45, the raft was spotted by an aeroplane and five objects were dropped into the sea nearby.  They only managed to recover two of them, which they hastily opened.  There was a balloon which was unfortunately damaged beyond repair, a wireless transmitter, aerial wire, a kite, a signal pistol plus cartridges, some medical equipment and a small rubber dingy.  All useful stuff, they thought, but the main thing they needed was food and fresh water of which there was none.

 

Two days later, the wind increased in strength and this made it possible to fly the kite, with the aerial wire.  Despite both of them being in a very weak state, between them they managed to turn the hand crank on the wireless transmitter and send out a brief SOS message.  Later that day, they were spotted  by a Catalina flying boat.  It did not land, but several packages were dropped into the sea.  Taking it in turns, using the rubber dingy, Kenneth and Colin were able to recover five packages which contained  some much needed cans of water, sweets, cigarettes and matches.  There was also a note, An apology saying that they were unable to land because of the high winds and rough sea.

 

Once the wind subsided, Kenneth fired the signal pistol into the night sky many times.  As daylight appeared on Day 50, the effort of continuous firing caused one of his salt-water boils to burst.  He cleaned up the blood and discharges and then threw the soiled dressing into the sea. This was almost a fatal mistake as it set the circling sharks into a frenzy.  A small shark bit the dressing and then in turn it was bitten by “Scar Face”. The water boiled and turned red as the sharks attacked each other. “ Scarface” then decided to launch several attacks on the life raft, ramming it from underneath and whacking it with its tail.  The raft was knocked skyways and spun on its axis.  Eventually, “Scarface” backed off to patiently wait a few yards away.

Later that day they were spotted by HMS Rapid, a Royal Navy destroyer It came close to them and then stopped to allow the life raft to drift towards the ship.  As they drifted, there was a sudden outburst of machine gun fire and they feared that the ship’s crew thought they were the enemy.  Their fears were unfounded as they realised the machine gunner was aiming at the sharks.  Old “Scarface” was riddled with hundreds of bullets and then quickly torn to pieces by the other sharks.

 

Kenneth and Colin were so weak that they had to be lifted very gently on board the destroyer,  The ship’s surgeon carefully managed their slow recovery.  They spent most of the first five days asleep in the sick bay, only waking to have their salt-water sores treated and their boils lanced.  After a week and a half, they had learned how to walk again and they were put ashore at Freetown Sierra Leone to continue their recovery in a hospital. It was during their time in that hospital that Colin had an epilectic fit.

Discharged from the hospital, they returned to England on a troop ship and it was on that journey that Colin had two more fits.  They landed at Liverpool and then took a train to Hull.  Colin had another fit on the train. Once back home, doctors came to the conclusion that just being in Kenneth Cooke’s company  was enough to trigger an epilectic episode and so it was recommended that they stay apart.

 

 

Colin Armitage married his sweetheart Kathleen Crowther in April 1944 at All Saints Church North

Ferriby. They lived in Melton and had three children.  Colin died in 1950 at the age of 28.and was buried in the graveyard at All Saints Church.  Kathleen Armitage worked tirelessly to bring up the three children on her own.  She died in 2013 at 92 years of age.  It is likely that Colin suffered from what we now know as PTSD.

 

Kenneth Cooke returned to his mother who was living in Bridlington but spent most of his period of convalescence with the Senior family in West Cowick.  Eventually, he went back to sea, just to prove a point to himself.  He married his long time sweetheart, Kathleen and they had a daughter called Mary.

He took up game keeping, working on numerous estates across the north of England.  In 1990 when he was semi-retired from game keeping, he passed away peacefully whilst sleeping in his arm chair, after lunch.  He was 74 years of age.

 

In December 1943, both  Kenneth and Colin were awarded the George Medal and the Lloyds Medal for bravery at sea.  Kenneth wrote a book about his ordeal entitled “What cares the sea ?” It was also published in the USA with the title “ A man on a raft”

 

Kenneth Cooke  featured on  an episode of BBC’s television  programme “This is Your Life” presented by Eamon Andrews on 19^th March 1962.  Surprise guests included Commander Tomkinson DSC (Captain of HMS Rapid), Dr David Chantrey (Medical Officer on HMS Rapid) and his then current employers, The Earl and Countess of Bradford.

Kenneth also gave a radio interview in 1985.

 

 

29 days after the sinking of SS Lulworth Hill, because nothing had been heard from the ship. It was assumed by UK authorities that it had been lost and that all men on board had died.  Their families were therefore informed with this sad news.

 

On the 1921 census, Kenneth is shown as being the next to the youngest of  10 children (6 boys, 4 girls)

On his birth certificate, Kenneth’s mother, Elizabeth is listed as having the maiden name SENIOR.

SS LULWORTH HILL   Sank by a U Boat 18th / 19th  March 1943

 

60 men on board

1 man was captured by the enemy, 14 men survived and made it to the life raft

 

ROLE	NAME	RANK	AGE
Seaman	Basil Eugene Scown	First Officer	33
Seaman	Unknown	Second Engineer
Seaman	Platten	Chief Steward
Seaman	John Turney Arnold	Apprentice	18
Seaman	King	Apprentice
Seaman	Kenneth Cooke	Ship’s Carpenter
Seaman	Colin Herbert Armitage	Able-Seaman	25
Seaman	Davies	Able Seaman
Seaman	Weekes	Boy, Engineers Mate
Seaman	Fowler	Boy
Seaman	Stewart	Cabin-boy
Army Gunner	Bamford	DEMS
Army Gunner	Bott	DEMS
Army Gunner	Leak	DEMS

 

  

NB   DEMS   is Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship

 

It refers to:

• The ships carrying the guns.
• The guns aboard the ship.
• The military personnel manning the guns.

 

kenneth cooke interview

This was an interview with Kenneth Cooke in 1984 on Channel 4

This Blue Plaque is proudly displayed at the harbour in BRIDLINGTON.  It was put in place in 2023, on the 80th anniversary of the sinking of    SS Lulworth Hill.