SS Haxby

Stornoway Gazette, 20 September 1940
The whole Island will join in sympathy with the parents of Donald John Macarthur, Upper Carloway and Norman Maciver, Knock, Carloway, the two Lewis youths who were on SS Haxby when she was sunk in the Atlantic by a German raider. Last week when the news came through that the captain and crew of the Haxby had been rescued from a German prison ship by the submarine Truant, there were high hopes that Donald and Norman were safe, but on Friday their parents were officially informed that they ahd both been killed when the German raider shelled the Haxby. In all, 16 members of the Haxby's crew were killed.
Both these young men were making their first voyage as merchant seamen. When the Haxby sailed from a British port last April, she vanished into the unknown. It was presumed that she had fallen a victim to a German U-boat or raider, and all the crew were posted missing feared lost. After nearly five months, the silence was broken when the British submarine Truant reported that she had stopped the Norwegian steamer Tropic Sea off Cape Finisterre, and found on board the captain and 23 of the crew of the Haxby, together with the Norwegian crew of the Tropic Sea, being taken to Germany as prisoners of war.
A delusive hope was raised by the first news of the incident, which was to the effect that the Truant had rescued "the captain and crew of 23" of the Haxby, a phrase which carried the implication that all were saved. The shelling of the Haxby as the crew were taking to the boats is another example of the wanton brutality of the Nazis, for a merchant ship, even if she carried a defensive gun, could not have given any trouble to a well-armed German raider.