James Montgomery Henderson

Name: James Montgomery Henderson Rank: Able Seaman Service Number: Z/27996 Service: SS Ruth, Merchant Navy Awards: Mariner’s Medal Date of Birth: July 1, 1902 Place of Birth: Stormont, Guysborough Co., Nova Scotia Draft registration address: 47 Berwick St, Wyoming, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts Date of Death: June 29, 1942 Age: 39 Memorial: Halifax Memorial, Nova Scotia Reference: Panel 21 Commemorated on Page 154 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 29, August 26, and November 1 James was the son of James Shier Henderson (1858-1920) of Stormont and Pamela (Latham) Henderson (1869-1918) of Seal Harbour, Guysborough Co., NS, and the brother of older siblings Amy Madeline Clarissa Henderson (1894-1973), Hilda Maud Henderson (1895-1957), John Howard Henderson (1897- 1918), Annie Pamela Henderson (1899-1984), and William Chipman Henderson (1900-1944). James’ brother John died of pneumonia during the First World War on May 29, 1918, at the Camp Hill Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a Stoker onboard HMCS Guelph, Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. At age 17, James emigrated to the US from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on the SS Northland, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts on February 2, 1920. He was granted US citizenship by the US District Court in Beaumont, Texas on November 14, 1932. His residence at that time was on 6th Street in Port Arthur, Texas. On February 13, 1934, James completed his application for a Seaman’s Protection Certificate, which served as seamen's passport. They were issued at all ocean and Great Lakes ports by the collector of customs or his deputy, usually in his capacity as shipping commissioner. On March 19, 1942, when he registered for the US Draft, he was already serving in the Merchant Navy fleet, employed on the SS Honomu of the Matson Navigation Company (office at Pier 32, San Francisco, California). He listed his home address as his sister’s home at 47 Berwick St in Wyoming, in Melrose, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. He was 5 feet, 8 inches, with a ruddy complexion, blue eyes, and gray hair. On the evening of June 28, 1942, the SS Ruth, an American steam-powered merchant freighter, was on the third leg of a return voyage to Baltimore, Maryland. The ship had taken on a cargo of 5,000 tons of manganese ore in Rio de Janeiro and had recently made a stop in Trinidad. The unescorted vessel was about 320 miles north-northeast of Barbuda, maintaining a customary zigzag course at 8.5 knots. Although traveling alone, the freighter was armed with one 4-inch gun and two .30-caliber guns, which were manned by a U.S. Navy Armed Guard crew of four Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS) gunners. The following morning, on June 29, 1942, at 5:55 AM, the SS Ruth was torpedoed by the German submarine U-153 at position 21°40'N / 59°20'W, roughly 100 miles north of Cape Maisi, Cuba. The torpedo struck the freighter directly in the stern, causing the ship's ammunition magazine to ignite and completely blowing the whole stern off. The damage was catastrophic, causing the vessel to sink stern- first in less than two minutes. The destruction happened so quickly that the 7 officers, 27 crew members, and 4 gunners had no time to formally abandon ship, much less launch any lifeboats or rafts. Of the 38 men on board, 34 did not survive the rapid sinking, including Able Seaman James Montgomery Henderson. This included 31 of the 35 Merchant Mariners, and all 4 of the Navy Armed Guards. Only four men managed to survive, though historical records offer two different accounts of their initial rescue. One account states that three of the men swam to a raft that had floated free from the wreckage, while the fourth man was picked up by the Germans, questioned, and then placed on the raft with the others. The second account claims that all four men were pulled from the water by the Germans, interrogated, and then placed together on the raft before being abandoned. After drifting at sea for several days, the four survivors were rescued on July 4 by the American destroyer USS Corry (DD-463). The Gleaves-class destroyer transported the men to the Port of Spain, Trinidad, where they were finally landed on July 7, 1942. James is listed on Panel 21 of the Halifax Memorial at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On his arm, James had a tattoo of a full-rigged ship, homeward bound, a sailor's eternal hope for a safe return to port. In maritime lore, a sailor who died at sea was often spoken of as having finally caught a fair wind for the "ultimate home port", a peaceful harbor beyond the horizon. In the US, merchant seamen are also remembered as a whole with the American Merchant Mariners' Memorial near the East Coast Memorial located in Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York.

Sources: findagrave.com Canadian Virtual War Memorial