Letters

Jessie Clark, aboard Athenia, and the "curse" of the Clarks

dear Mac,

Thought you might be interested in the family story I call the curse of the Clarks. While surfing  the internet about the Athenia sinking I found my grandmother listed (Jessie Clark). she was married to Capt John S Clark. He was born in Australia and left there early as a boy on a sailing ship. This according to my father.

Later in the course of his job he was torpedoed in WW1 two times both ships sunk. Later in WW2 I have better confirmation of his being on the John B Witherspoon in convoy PQ17. Sunk, but allowed to escape after a chase of some 24 hours to the lifeboats.

Later in WW2 my uncle, an AB on a tanker in the Pacific, was also torpedoed barely surviving that and then sailing a lifeboat for three weeks to some inhabited island.

A couple of years ago my aunt died and my cousin took her remains back to the old country (Scotland) for burial. In the family plot he found several stones of our ancestors stating they were lost at sea etc. Now to me I have been a merchant mariner for 37 years, in 1978 I was aboard the SS Yellowstone bound for Tunis with wheat as a cargo when we were struck by an Algerian ship in a fog in the Straits of Gibraltar,Yellowstone later sank as a result so I to have a sunken ship under my belt, hence the curse of the Clarks.
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You have a great web site keep up the good work.
 
John S Clark.


John,

Another piece to add to our Athenia Pages, thank you.

That is some story of a family and their relationship with the oceans of the world, and by the sound of it, lucky escapes.

Also our thanks for your kind words about AHOY, I do the writing and research, and my friend Terry Kearns in Atlanta Georgia, as my Web Master puts it all together for anyone who chances upon the site and logs on.

Great to hear from you.

Regards, 
Mac.


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