Royal Naval Patrol Service

PART TWO
Magnus Johnson Cogle R.N. - Wireless Telegraphist
A brief chronicle of Magnus Johnson Cogle’s service history during World War by his son Derek Cogle.

The next tour of duty was to patrol the shipping lanes off the East Coast of America.
They had a short visit to Stornoway, before embarking with the Buttermere and twenty six other trawlers, two of which were lost on the journey, travelling via Halifax, they encountered the coldest Canadian Winter for twenty years, with temperatures down to forty degrees below freezing..

Although they encountered the worst storms in living memory, the ex-trawler men on board had every confidence in the ship saying that it rode the waves better than any deep water trawler that they had sailed on.

From Canada they sailed on to New York, where they were to be based from February 1942 until November 1942.

Whilst based in New York they were given an inspection by an American Commander with a party of Officers and they past with flying colours, the Americans were particularly impressed with the astic which they said was far superior to there own.

It was during this time that Magnus travelled to Virginia to meet his cousin Pauline Cogle in Disputanta Virginia..

Magnus travelled by train from New York and when the train reached Washington all the Black people who were on the train had to change to other carriages.

When Magnus reached Disputanta there were no taxis available to take him out to Paulines, so he went to Arthur Cogle’s house, and his son Edwin took him a tour of the town, before going on to meet Pauline. (Edwin later joined the USAF and came to England where he salvaged damaged bombers.)

In his time in Virginia Magnus visited Williamsburg the old Capital, assisted Paulines class with a project, and went cherry picking in the orchard.


Burrowsville School Virgina USA- M J Cogle pictured with local school children	HMT Wastwater - Ariving in Trinidad 1943

At the same time that Magnus was down in Virginia, the rest of the crew met up with the American seamen that they had rescued from the sea off Iceland.

Based in New York they patrolled the coastal waters around the East Coast of America, and in August they convoyed a floating dock to the Virgin Islands.

After successfully escorting the floating dock to its destination they visited other ports in the Caribbean including, Porto-Rico, St Thomas’s, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic before returning to New York.

In November 1942 they left New York for good, returning to the Caribbean where they spent Christmas in Bermuda

They stayed on in the Caribbean until February 1943, when they sailed on to Brazil.

In Brazil on shore leave they were able to take part in a Samba festival which was even better because the girls were able to leave their chaperones.

On another shore leave the crew were involved in a fight with a group of American sailors. One of these Americans later had the unfortunate task of having to come on board to repair the Marconi wireless set, which was done in double quick time.

They left Brazil in June 1943 making for Freetown South Africa, on approaching Freetown they picked up survivors from a British merchant ship SS Celtic Star. Because of the atmospherics in that region the radio reception was very poor and Magnus caused a full alert by using the wrong call sign, they had been away for over two years and the codes had changed.

The crew of the Wastwater were posted home on a Destroyer, and were back in Britain within one week.
But the he Warrant Telegraph Officer in Durban wanted Magnus to stay on in South Africa, as they had very few telegraph operators there.
The only way Magnus could get home was to apply for a commission, this he did but he had to work his ticket home on a Corvette which took three weeks to complete the journey.

On return to Britain and after some well earned leave, Magnus was posted to Devonport as Duty Crew in the Barracks, where on one occasion he was called out to join a flotilla of torpedo boats for a raid on the Channel Islands.


Wastie Rovers 1941 - HMT Wastwaters very own football team..	SS Celtic Star - sunk by the Italian submarine Finzi, off Freetown, 29/3/43. Two crew lost. Survivors picked up by HMT Wastwater.

Part One of the story ....