wartime memories.... trade & smuggling etc

martinedwards

Hi folks,

I'm researching a book about my grandfather who was a Royal Navy corvette captain who was invaleded out with TB.

he spent the remaining years of the war in Moville (Gortgowan) where, according to family legend, he was still on full naval pay and had far more petrol ration than he SHOULD have had.....

supposedly he would try to lay smokescreen rumours about convoy sailings to anyone who showed any interest in the hope that the disinformation would get back to german agents who would radio the lies to the Uboats waiting around the corner off Malin.

apparently he used to signal ships in the Foyle bay with morse code using his hall light and was told off by the guards for flying a Union Jack on VE day.

what I'm after is info on the general atmosphere around the border areas with a huge naval base in Derry and clearly an opportunity for contraband. would ships quartermasters buy illicit beef from a "bloke in a pub"? that sort of thing.

allegedly he was caught trying to smuggle fireworks across the border on VE day and rather than surrender them to the border official he dropped a match into the box and set the lot off inside the office. My mum (now in her 70s) claims that there were still scorch marks on the cieling 10 years later.......

I'm nearly local (Belfast) not some yank or anything......My Great grandparents on both sides were from Rathmelton and my father grew up there. still have cousins etc farming and running a farm shop there too...... The Speers in Leterkenny are 2nd cousins.....

anyway, I'm going to try and get to visit old folks homes in the Moville area to chat with the folks who might be old enough to remember being an adult in the war years (my parents were both kids, born '36 & '37 so they haven't really got TOO much to tell.....)

any (polite) suggestions as to where to continue my research would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

Durnish

Ha, you need to find out about the RN trawler in Killybegs during WW2, the Robert/James/William Hastie or something. It was involved in smuggling, according to the Killybegs tourist info place on the quay.

Durnish

Also, get hold of the book about guarding Ireland's neutrality (it is in LibrariesNI system), which is very good on the whole neutrality/blind eye issue. It is mentioned in the WW2 Structures thread in this forum.

martinedwards

cool, thanks!

muckish

You could start in the Maritime museum in Greencastle. They might be able to point you in the right direction. Or else pop in Michael John's pub in Shroove and start chatting. (and drinking!)

oranbhoy67

My dad is from Moville and he was born just as the war was ending but he told me his elder siblings used to fish out parachutes from the foyle to sell for silk though obviously i cant verify if this is true or not..also it may be of intrest to you that General Montgomery of "Desert rats" fame has many connections with Moville .

martinedwards

I knew the Monty connection.

his Mother actually called on my grandfather once but he was ill (Ok hungover) and wouldn't see her!!

got the maid to send her on her way!!

The parachute silk one is certainly possible. there was a huge black market in things like that for ladies undies.

My mum remembers collecting sailors hats off the beach in front of the house at Gortgowan. apparently a small vessel had been run over by a much larger one and sunk, killing a fair number, and the hats with the small ships name were washed up. she would have beem about 8 or so at the time and Mac said that it must have been a very windy day when all those sailors hats were blown off.........