Woodman Point Quarantine Station

Cmdr. Manfred Kinzel

The dreaded moment finally arrived that merchant seamen fear most, and that is, being attacked at night by a submarine. It was the 17th March 1943 at 03:05 hours, and 3rd Mate G .M. Griffiths was due to come off watch on the King Gruffydd in convoy SC-122 when submarine U338 under the command of Manfred Kinzel fired the spread of two torpedoes at the convoy and Kinzel had thought he had hit one ship, but in fact the Kingsbury in station #51 and the King Gruffydd in station #52 were hit and sunk.
The King Line vessel of 5072 tons, under the command of Captain H. Griffiths, was in position 51.55N 32.41W when it was attacked, and was on a voyage from New York to Hull via Halifax. U338 was part of the largest wolf pack of WWII, and it had been shadowing convoy SC-122. The wolf pack consisted of forty U-Boats and their targets were two convoys that had just come out of an Atlantic storm, namely SC-122 and HX-229 , the U-Boats lay in wait to attack the two convoys as they slowly traversed the North Atlantic on their voyage to the United Kingdom. The King Gruffydd sank almost immediately, and of her total ships complement of 49 she sustained 24 casualties, including the master, Hywell Griffiths, who coincidentally had the same surname as the 3rd Mate. The remaining ships company of 18 crew members, including the 3rd Mate G.M.Griffiths and 7 gunners, survived in a lifeboat for just over four hours in freezing conditions before finally being plucked from the ocean by the British rescue ship Zamalek under the command of Master O. C. Morris, DSO and eventually landed at Gourock Scotland on the 22nd March.
Compiled by Earle Seubert

Griffith Meirion Griffiths was born on the 24th November 1920 in Brynrefail in North Wales, and joined the Merchant Navy in 1937. After the sinking of the merchant vessel King Gruffydd he was then deployed to the vessel Empire Mist, a ship of similar tonnage ( 5072 Tons ) to his previous vessel, and this is where the Woodman Point Quarantine Station connection begins.

Griffith M. Griffiths wrote the article above for The Mandurah Eagle in 1987. ( To view article, CLICK on image )

MEMORIES OF A WAR-TIME VISIT

he writes..................

" War at sea was a pitiless, callous affair yet it did have its lighter moments. Recollections of such an occasion were revived for me by the news that the Quarantine Station and magazine areas at Woodman Point, 10 kilometres south of Fremantle are to become public recreational areas. "

Griffith M. Griffiths at home 21st April 2009

Mr. Ken Burton. and Earle Seubert at the Empire Mist Bell Commemoration Ceremony

In 2009, Earle Seubert from the Friends of Woodman Point Recreation Camp was contacted via the 'Friends' website, by a Mr. David Ferry, of Modesto California, requesting information on a ship's bell, namely the "Empire Mist", he had found whilst renovating a house in the suburb of Modesto. After numerous e-mails with Mr.Ferry, the question arose if he would be interested in selling the bell, a price was agreed upon, and the bell was purchased by Earle Seubert, Vice President of the Friends of Woodman Point Recreation Camp, and Mr. Ken Burton, Past Manager of the Woodman Point Recreation Camp and donated by them to the Friends Group, and is now on display in the Interpretation Room of the Isolation Hospital. The unveiling of the bell took place in the Isolation Hospital Interpretation Room on the 5th December 2010, and was officially unveiled by Mr.G.Griffiths who was 3rd Mate on the vessel when it came under quarantine juresdiction on its arrival off the West Australian coast during wartime in 1944. (see article above )