Bermuda: H.M.S. Jervis Bay Memorial - Hamilton, Pembroke Parish

Capt. E.S.F. Fegen, Officers, and Crew 

of

 H.M.S Jervis Bay

Hamilton, Bermuda

N 32° 17.467 W 064° 47.211

Short Description: 

A monument honoring the Captain and crew of the H.M.S. Jervis Bay is located in Albouy's Point, in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Long Description:

A monument in the form of a sundial honors the heroism of the Captain, Officers, and Ship's Company of the H.M.S. Jervis Bay for their actions in the North Atlantic during World War II. The base of the sundial contains a bronze plaque with the following inscription:

REMEMBER

CAPTAIN E.S.F. FEGEN V.C.

ROYAL NAVY, THE OFFICERS

AND SHIP'S COMPANY OF

H.M.S. "JERVIS BAY"

WHO CHEERFULLY GAVE THEIR 

LIVES IN SUCCESSFUL DEFENCE

OF THEIR CONVOY, FIGHTING THEIR

SHIP TO THE LAST AGAINST 

HOPELESS OFDDS. NOV. 5TH 1940.

"BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH."

REV. II. 10.

H.M.S. Jervis Bay was a British liner which was converted into an armed merchant cruiser and assigned to protect merchant convoys crossing the the North Atlantic. On 5 November 1940 the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer attacked the convoy. Captain Fegen ordered the convoy to disperse and then attacked the battleship even though it was hopelessly outgunned and outranged by the guns of the German battleship. The Jervis Bay sailed towards the battleship while firing upon it to draw fire away from the convoy. The H.M.S. Jervis Bay was shelled and sunk but the convoy escaped. Of 254 members of the crew, 68 survivors were picked up by the neutral Swedish ship Stureholm.

Captain Fegen was awarded the Victoria Cross, posthumous, for this action. The citation for his award reads:

"for valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect. On the 5th of November, 1940, in heavy seas, Captain Fegen, in His Majesty's Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay, was escorting thirty-eight Merchantmen. Sighting a powerful German warship he at once drew clear of the Convoy, made straight for the Enemy, and brought his ship between the Raider and her prey, so that they might scatter and escape. Crippled, in flames, unable to reply, for nearly an hour the Jervis Bay held the German's fire. So she went down: but of the Merchantmen all but four or five were saved."