Dad's next ship was HMS Lincoln( G42)/ USS Yarnall , A Wickes class Destroyer first laid down on 12/2/18 at Philadelphia Pennsylvania., by William Cramp & Sons ; launched on 19/6/18 and commissioned into the U.S.Navy 29/11/18 given the Destroyer No. 143.

Because of the dire position Britain found itself in at the beginning of the war she had to buy time to build up the fleet so 50 old U.S. destroyers were made available under the" Destroyers for Bases" agreement (2/9/1940) (44 to the U.K and 6 to Canada). These ships had been badly maintained and were far from seaworthy some better than others . She came out of a 21 month retirement from the reserve fleet at Philadelphia. Named as Town Class Destroyers they were in fact three different types of destroyers (Wickes,Clemson and Caldwell),and they were known as "Flush Deckers" or "Four Stackers". USS Yarnall was decommissioned at St. Johns,Newfoundland on 23/10/40 and on the same day commissioned by the Royal Navy as HMS Lincoln (G42). The ship under the command of Commander Alan Sheffield left Halifax (I presume Bedford Basin) leading HMS Ludlow (ex-USS Stockton) and HMS Lewes (ex-USS Conway, ex-USS Craven) as the first Flotilla on 1/11/40, they were followed by a delayed second flottila consisting of leading ship HMS Leamington (ex-USS Twiggs) ,HMS Churchill (ex-USS Herndon), HMS Montgomery (ex-USS Wickes), HMS Leeds (ex-USS Conner), HMS Sherwood (ex USS Rodgers) and HMS Stanley (ex-USS Macalla).

The 1st. flotilla left St. Johns,Newfoundland on 3/11/40 the 2nd. flotilla a day later on 4/11/40 to cross the Atlantic for the U.K. Being mainly fast coastal vessels with small fuel bunkers, crossing the ocean was a challenge just about managed at half speed together with the fact the ships were all suffering problems, two of the ships did not make the crossing. It was hoped that the Town Class Destroyers would make their convoy debut and escort convoy HX 84 (of Jervis Bay/Admiral Scheer fame) across the Atlantic but repairs on the ships meant they were four days behind and limited to speed so unable to catch/assist in the action that sank 6 ships. Having searched the area HMS Lincoln then went to the aid of the Empire Dorado (convoy OB239) which had been attacked by Folke-wulf FW 200 Condors, survivors picked up and ship towed back to the Clyde by a HMRT Man 'O' War.HMS Lincoln arrived in Belfast 9/11/40 then onto Devonport, Plymouth 15/11/40 for a brief refit until 30/11/40 then assigned to the 1st. Escort Group at HMS FERRET (Londonderry Northern Ireland). The ships operated in the Eastern Atlantic to protect the convoys, meeting them mid-Alantic and ferrying them in/out of their home ports for nearly a year until September 1941 when the ship had a refit at Woolwich Dockyard on the river Thames, London.They were very unstable because of their narrow hull and had the misfortune of having both propellers rotating the same way rather than counter rotating which made the ship very awkward to manoeuvre. Les recalled that "they were hit by a huge wave and she went so far over they all thought they were gonners" and "they lost all power and were scrambling in the dark with lamps trying to get it back on" and I did read somewhere that they tried to keep their tanks full of seawater to help keep the ships stable.

While serving with HMS Lincoln the ship was involved in 2 rescues. The first was during heavy seas with the swell up to 50' feet, atrocious gale force winds and with daylight fading fast. HMS Comorin(F49) an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC) of the Freetown Escort Force on 6th April 1941 had left Liverpool together with MV Glenartney and were West of Ireland in a Military convoy on their way to Freetown (Sierra Leone). She had caught fire in her engine room which could not be contained. HMS Lincoln saved 121 souls. HMS Broke repeatedly pulled alongside for survivors to jump from one ship to the other and saved 180. MV Glenartney saved 104. Altogether 405 were rescued,many injured whilst trying to jump down into HMS Broke as the ships were being tossed around with waves up to 50 feet. 20 died trying to evacuate into the life boats. It was a perilous rescue lasting three hours and the rescue efforts have been well documented in various books.HMS Comorin burnt out and was sunk by HMS Lincoln on 7th April 1941.(54.34N, 21.20W). The second was the Javanese Prince sailing on her own as an Independent on 20th May 1941 three days out from Millford Haven to New York.She was sunk by a U-boat ( U-138 ) 155 miles west of the Butt of Lewis near the Outer Hebrides (59.46N/10.45W). HMS Lincoln (Dad's ship) together with HMS Faulknor (W59) and the tug HMRT Assurance (H62) rescued the ships Master,45 crew,8 gunners and 4 passengers. Survivors were transferred to the rescue ship S.S.TOWARD and landed at Gourock Inverclyde. S.S.Toward was later torpedoed on 7th February 1943 having saved countless merchant seamen.

Survivors from HMS Comorin pull alongside the British Destroyer HMS Lincoln. Originally a passenger ship of the P&O Steam Navigation Co Ltd, the Comorin was requisitioned by the Admiralty in September 1939 and converted to an armed merchant cruiser. The vessel was part of the Freetown Escort Force, when it caught fire in the North Atlantic.

HMS Lincoln had the distinction of serving under five different navy ensigns ( USA, ,NORWAY, CANADA and RUSSIA). Les left the ship in November 1941 when she underwent a refit at Woolwich Dockyard London. He then had some deserved leave home and returned to his base HMS Pembroke until March 1942.

Article by L.E.LEVETT found March 2014 from an old HMS Vernon exercise book.

Football summary 1941 at Londonderry

Since commissioning we have supplied the opposition on the football field on 15 occasions, all the matches have been played at Londonderry.

Our very first game was against HMS Watchman on the 28th January and taken into account that this was our very first effort with talent of an unknown quality it must be admitted that our side did extremely well to lose only by the odd goal of nine, to a more seasoned and settled side.

We played (HMS) Watchmen again on the 29th January with a slightly changed team but after a hard game on a heavy ground we had to admit defeat to the tune of 6-4. We played further games with the (HMS) Leamington, (HMS) Keppel and The Electric Light Company as our opponents, but we seemed to be going from bad to worse. For we lost and drew with (HMS) Leamington and lost to (HMS) Keppel and The Electric Light Company 10-2 and 9-0 respectively. Dame fortune was certainly leaving us in the lurch. Perhaps the only ray of hope at this period was our drawn match with (HMS) Leamington (2-2) this was a hard fought game, which we might have won, but for one of our players handling the ball in the penalty area, which the opposition were able to score the equalizer. Looking at our record up to 22nd February we find that our lads had played seven matches, drawing one and losing six, far from encouraging to say the least.

On Sunday 23rd February we took to the field with a team that could be classed “unknowns”, our opponents on this occasion was (HMS) Mansfield(Norwegian crew) and after a humdinger of a match our boys emerged victors to 2 goals to one-a well earned victory. This success was the much needed tonic required to put new life into our team and to win it has been for me not tasted the bitterness of defeat since February 22nd. In all we have gone 8 games without loss six victories and two draws, our latest was against the (HMS) Keppel, both sides fielding their strongest side and the result, a draw (2-2) was very satisfactory as far as we were concerned in view of the formidable reputation (HMS) Keppel have earned themselves in the soccer world. Now that we are a settled and progressing along the right lines we hope to get some stiffer opposition and still bring home the bacon for HMS Lincoln.

Our results since commissioning reads as follows:-

Books : Bernard Edwards "Convoy Will Scatter The Full Story of Jervis Bay and Convoy HX84" . Publishers: Pen & Sword. ISBN: 9781781593769

Sources : http://www.fleetorganization.com/1940transfer.html ; http://unithistories.com/units_index/default.asp?file=../officers/personsx.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Basin ;

http://www.naval-history.net/Map00Index.htm

http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/143.htm