STRANG, Alex Dougall

NAME STRANG Alex Dougall
RANK Radio Operator Canadian Merchant Navy
SHIP SS Carperby
AGE 23 March 1, 1942
MEMORIAL Halifax Memorial
Halifax
Panel 20
PARENTS Henry and Annie Strang - Exeter.
• Alex took training as a wireless operator after attending school and following that he acquired a position
with the Marconi Company.
• Four years to the day, after sailing for England as a Radio Officer for the Marconi Company and while
serving with the British Merchant Marine, word arrived in Exeter that Radio Operator Strang was missing.
This message was in fact sent three weeks after his death.
• Sometime later a second message was received in Exeter stating that he had in fact been killed.
• Because of the war situation and the secrecy, the Strang family did not know on what ship their son had
been serving on.
• The last letter they received from Alex was written in February 1942 from Oban, Argyle in Scotland and he
said they were sailing and would write again in 3-4 months and in the meantime he was going to get a good
tan.
• Radio Operator Strang was last home to Exeter in November 1941.
• She had begun her last voyage as part of Convoy ON-66 which dispersed off Halifax and at some point later
she left the convoy and sailed independently.
• His last voyage was his first on the SS Carperby. She had a GRT of 4,890 and she was sailing alone at 9.5
knots with a cargo of coal and coke. She was torpedoed by U-588 and all hands of forty-two plus six
gunners were lost. When she sank she was 400 miles south of Newfoundland and northeast of Bermuda and
was on her way to Buenos Aires in Argentina.
• Her position at the time of her sinking was 039.57N and 55.40W.
• U-588 was under the command of KL Victor Vogel. He and his crew perished on July 31st after attacking a
convoy and then being attacked by the convoy escorts.
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