HMS Jervis Bay Defends Convoy HX 84
Poet involved
What happened
The armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay confronted the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer in the North Atlantic in November 1940. Its sacrifice delayed the attacker and allowed most ships in convoy HX 84 to escape. Jervis Bay was sunk with heavy loss of life.
Literary impact
John Masefield wrote an elegiac poem about Jervis Bay that placed its captain and crew within the tradition of sacrificial naval heroism. The event gave wartime poetry a collective version of the last stand, where one vulnerable ship dies to preserve many others.
Source: Wikipedia
