George Evans died Jan. 19 in Fredericton. He was 91.
Evans, who moved to Amherst in 1961 from Corner Brook, N.L. to work for Canada Customs, was just 15 years old in August 1941 when he signed on as a cabin boy with the SS Invik, a Norwegian vessel preparing to leave St. John’s for England as part of a convoy across the North Atlantic.
It was less than two weeks into his voyage when the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat approximately 700 kilometres off the coach of Iceland.
In his memoir, Through the Corridors of Hell, Evans described being awakened early in the morning by a loud bang on the starboard side of the ship. He was knocked to the floor by the blast as he made his way on deck and eventually made it to a lifeboat.
After 10 days in a lifeboat the 23 crewmembers were rescued by a fishing boat and he eventually continued to England to join the Royal Merchant Navy.
“All I remember is it was very cold,” Evan said in a 2009 interview with the Amherst Daily News.
He survived the ordeal with a bad cold and swollen feet and arms.
A stoker, fireman and trimmer, Evans served on various ships during the Battle of the Atlantic, serving on the famed Murmansk Run in 1941 and 1943 that saw Allied shipping supply Russian forces through the northern ports of Murmansk and Archangel – all the while being under constant Nazi bombardment from Norway.
He also traveled the Atlantic, the English Channel, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean and was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the Atlantic Star, the Burman Star and the War Medal.
In 2005 he attended the 60th anniversary of the North Russia convoys at Murmansk.
Following the war, he was discharged from the Merchant Navy and joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a civilian guard and joined the Canada Customs Service in 1949 when Newfoundland joined Canada.
One of his happiest memories was recently when Gunnar Einvik, grandson of the owner of the SS Einvik, and Oyvind Marvik visited him in Fredericton to present him a copy of the biography of Isak Einvik.
Evans’ photo is in the book along with his story of the last voyage of the ship. He was the last surviving crew member of the Einvik.
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Source: Cumberland News Now
