An Cosantóir

43 maritime practices, identification of ships, submarines and aircraft, meteorology and hydrography. The men of the LOPs were the eyes and ears of the State on the coastline. They were often the first on the scene of washed up corpses and mines, witnesses to aerial infringements and dog fights, attacks on shipping and they provided up to the minute reports to Army Intelligence. The men at LOP 17 served their own part in this important work, but arguably their most crucial activity occurred on Thursday 30th January 1941 when the two men on duty spotted something floating off the coast. Their keen eyes picked out the figures of men clinging to a life raft which was steadily drifting westwards and into Tramore Bay. A telephone connection allowed them to quickly alert Dunmore East and within minutes, the signal was sounded and the local lifeboat crew began to assemble. The men they had spotted were the last of the 42 crew of the SS Beemsterdijk. Although the coast watchers couldn't know it at the time, these shipwrecked mariners were entering their fourth day adrift and were close to their limit of existence. The Beemsterdijk (1922) was steel built, 6869 gross registered tons, Dutch registered vessel and 122.1m long. She had departed the Clyde in January 1941, with a mostly Dutch crew and was sailing with a new degaussing system, used to offset the threat of magnetic mines. On Sunday January 26th, the ship struck a British mine and was abandoned, all the crew getting safely away. An SOS had been sent and a reply received confirming a rescue was imminent. After an hour, a party went back aboard the ship as she was staying upright in the water. Following an examination, all the crew returned but the lifeboats were left alongside in case of emergency. They waited on deck all Sunday with eyes on the horizon for the rescue that never came. Further communications were sent and received, and later that night rockets were set off into the wintery night sky. A search had commenced but the area was in a position many miles distant. It is speculated that the degaussing system may have impeded the ship's compass and the reported location was an error. By the morning of Monday the vessel had sunk very deeply and in strengthening winds the vessel started to pitch and sway. Although the Captain decided to abandon ship again, the order came too late. Beemsterdijk sank within moments leaving her 42 man crew struggling to get away. A few lucky ones made it to the surface but it would seem only four made it to a life raft, with no cover, no food and no water. The men were; 4th Engineer Van t'Hoff, Steward Peter Schrage, Bosun's Boy Stanley Gillard and a Galley Boy named Lennerts. Alone they drifted and although they came within sight of land at times they had no way of signalling. At one point on Tuesday 28th they were washed off and had to swim back to their raft. On the Wednesday Lennerts became overcome through exposure and disappeared off the raft overnight. By the time the shipwrecked sailors were spotted by LOP 17 on Thursday 30th January the remaining three men were in a weakened state. The Dunmore Lifeboat received the shout at 10.20am and were launched and heading west in very rough conditions within ten minutes. The raft was spotted near the rocks on Newtown Head but in challenging conditions the lifeboat managed to get safely alongside when it was less than 300 feet from the shore. The bowman (Davy 'Muck' Murphy) leapt aboard the raft and the weakened and distressed sailors were helped aboard the lifeboat Annie Blanche Smith. THE STEADFAST COAST WATCHERS v The SS Beemsterdijk, which sunk near LOP 17

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