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Hi Amanda and welcome to the forums !

You have the wrong rescue ship in your details and this is probably why your research has met a blank so far.

It was HMS Campion which rescued the survivors of Stork. My stepfather was an asdic operator on Campion, but not when this event happened, he joined in Spring 1942. However, the rescuer himself, Geoff Drummond is still alive and I have his contact details! Geoff was the coxwain of the 16ft lifeboat on Campion throughout the night of 22nd/23rd August 1941. In his own words here is the account of the rescue of the three survivors...........

'At about 01.00 (on 23/8/41) there was a terrific explosion followed by the surrounding sea being set on fire. The Motor Vessel Stork, loaded with cans of aircraft fuel, had been torpedoed (by U-202). At that point in time I could not believe that it would be possible for any of Storks crew to have survived the explosion. My crew and I were called away and were dropped up wind to search for survivors. Quite miraculously in my view we found three men close to the flames, two of the injured men were being supported by the other much larger man. The two injured men were were quickly got into the boat but getting the large man, who I later found found out to be Stork's carpenter Stanley Smart, was most difficult. Stanley Smart probably weighed over 20 stone and could only be got into the boat by unshipping the rudder and heaving him in over the stern. We returned to Campion a bit scorched, hoisted and rejoined the convoy'.

According to details of the same event given in the book Nightmare Convoy (A whole book about Convoy OG71 by Paul Lund and Harry Ludlam, 1987 - secondhand copies available on Amazon here http://www.amazon.co.uk/N...qid=1220527499&sr=1-1 ) on page 70 the rescued crew consisted of the Stork's second mate and the Carpenter (Stanley Smart) who escaped from the wrecked bridge section of the ship plus the second engineer who had dived out of the porthole from his cabin as it burst into flames, fracturing both his feet on the process. The Carpenter had grabbed his comrades, one under each arm, and pulled them to safety by swimming on his back through a gap in the encircling wall of fire on the surface.

If you want to contact Geoff Drummond I can let you have his address - email me at mark*at*sunnymeade.plus.com (substitute @ for *at* - this is just to stop the email address being collected remotely for spam)

All the best
Mark Walters