Remembering World War II

Name: Gerald Steadman Whynacht (Wynacht) Rank: Unknown Service Number: Merchant Navy Service: SS Africanda, Merchant Navy Date of Birth: September 12, 1909 Place of Birth: Blue Rocks, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia Date of Death: January 12, 1942 Age at Death: 32 Memorial: Lunenburg War Memorial, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Not currently commemorated in Canada’s Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance Listed on the Lunenburg War World War II and Korean War Memorial, Lunenburg Gerald Steadman Whynacht was the son of Francis Robert ‘Frank’ Whynacht (1881-1961) and Winnifred Elma (Richardson) Whynacht (1881-1911). His father was of German descent. He had sister Amy Elma Whynacht (1911) and eight half-siblings from his father’s first marriage. Some records, as well as some of Gerald’s relatives, spell the surname as Wynacht or Whynot. In 1931, Gerald served as First Mate aboard the SS Mahaska. In 1932, he was serving on the SS Metapan, and in 1936, he served on aboard the Schooner Eveline Wilkie. In 1937, he travelled to Boston via Yarmouth aboard the Evangeline ferry. By the time of the Second World War, he was serving on the SS Africanda. The Africanda was travelling in convoy from Boston to Scotland to Murmansk, Russia in January of 1942. A crew member of a Royal Canadian Navy Corvette, Petty Officer J. Ronald Wilson, notes in his account that his ship sailed from Saint Johns, Newfoundland on the morning of Saturday Jan 10th to meet a convoy bound for overseas. The day was a stormy one and the storm continued until Monday morning. On Saturday night about midnight, they picked up distress signals from a ship which had been rammed by another, the SS Africanda. Soon frantic flashes asked immediate help in removing its crew as it was expected to go down before daylight. However, it did not go down and they were busy from 6AM until nightfall rescuing its crew of about 32 men, a few at a time, over the tossing icy waters. A couple of men drowned right before their eyes and a couple more were just dragged from the jaws of death by Harvie and Richie, two seamen who jumped overboard, risking their own lives to save crew of the Africanda. “The ship, bound from Boston to Russia, was loaded with explosives, 6 twenty ton tanks, army trucks and planes. It was slowly going down as water seeped or splashed through the cut in its side, but we circled it for another 36 hours till a tug came out and took it under tow for port. The ship was the Africanda of Pan-American registry, formerly the Anssi of Italy, but seized in an American port.” Seaman Gerald Steadman Whynacht was one of the crew lost when the SS Africanda was abandoned. Gerald Whynacht has no known grave as he was lost at sea. Canadian soldiers and seaman lost at sea in the Second World War are remembered on the Halifax Memorial at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but Gerald is not currently listed. Gerald is listed on the Lunenburg War World War II and Korean War Memorial in Lunenburg.

Gerald Steadman Whynacht

Sources: Crew lists Merchant Navy

The Lunenburg Academy Yearbook, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 1948