Merchant seamen sign on at the beginning of each voyage as I discovered in 1958 when I signed on as a supernumerary for a voyage to the West Indies on the MV Sugar Importer beneath my father's name as Chief Engineer. Officers and men in the Royal Navy sign on for several years and are drafted to their next ship at the whim of the Admiralty. The collective names for all the men on a warship on a specific date is the ship's Complement but since the term Crew List is more familiar outside the Navy I thought it appropriate to also use it on this page.

When a warship was first commissioned the ship's complement would join her from the Naval Barracks at her Home Port. The Home Port for HMS Hecla was Devonport, Plymouth. When docked for a major refit most of ship's company would leave and return to barracks until they were drafted to new ship leaving only a care and maintenance party aboard. A new ship's complement would join and a new Commanding Officer would probably be appointed. Throughout the life of the ship officers and men would change as deemed necessary and these changes were meticulously recorded. The names on this list link to further details of their lives supplied by the men themselves or their families.

The capital ships of the Royal Navy, the cruisers and battleships,  and other large ships including HMS Hecla, a 12,000 ton Destroyer Depot Ship with a ship's complement of 858 on the day she was lost, were self-accounting. The ship's Writers were responsible for keeping the Pay and Victualing Ledgers for the ship and the Service Certificates for the men. Officers' Records were kept by the Admiralty - not on board. To reduce the possibility of fraud in the victualing account John C.H.Harber, Master at Arms (responsible for discipline), reported the numbers on board on victualing and check sheets. These recorded the names of men joining and leaving the ship, going on leave, returning from leave, changing messes, becoming entitled to a tot and anything that could effect the numbers being fed on a particular day. They were enclosures to the Pay Ledger and the victualing account. The writers and indeed all the supply staff, cooks, stewards, Stores Assistants would have reported through their chain of command to the Paymaster Captain, Paymaster Captain (S) Frank Leonard Monk RNR (1892-1942), who was killed when Hecla was torpedoed. In smaller ships up to  and including destroyers the master copy of ledgers and service certificates were held by the "depot" at the Home Port.

These ledgers and service certificates are  the key to telling the story of men who served in the Royal Navy but when a self-accounting ship like HMS Hecla was sunk they were usually lost. The accounting period for the ledgers was 120 days, three ledgers per year, and the preceding ledger could be used to to produce a replacement  ledger and lost service certificates could be reconstructed by reference to ledgers for ships in which a man had served previously. All the surviving Pay and Victualing Ledgers and the Service Certificates for men born less than a hundred years ago are held by the Navy Records Office of Restore Records Management at Swadlincote, South Derbyshire. The Pay and Victualing Ledgers for HMS Hecla "must have been lost during the sinking, as the Hecla pay ledger on our shelf today is a re-constructed ledger for that quarter", Sue Pass, Navy Search Supervisor, Restore Records Management.

This list of the 858 officers and men aboard Hecla when she was torpedoed off the coast of North Africa on the night of 11 - 12 November 1942 was extracted by TNT Records Management (now Restore Records Management) under contract to the MOD from this reconstructed ledger in 2013. Links are given from the names on this list to further details of their lives on this website or elsewhere on the Internet. Johnny Harber, Master of Arms, compiled a list of the men saved by HMS Venomous and a similar list was made aboard HMS Marne. The names of survivors were also recorded when they returned to Hecla's "Home Port" of Plymouth before being sent on survivors leave in time for Christmas. The names of survivors were deleted from the names in the ship's complement to arrive at a list of the missing before telegrams and letters were sent to their families. Mistakes were made but these usually occurred when a man had left Hecla at Simon's Town, South Africa, while under repair after being mined. The lists of survivors made aboard ship have been lost. The names of the men on the official corrected Admiralty  list of those killed or Missing Presumed Killed (MPK) are marked on the Complement List below as Killed when the body was recovered or MPK. This list can also be seen as a PDF.

Arliss, Stephen H.T. McCoy, James A

Captain Captain

Captain Stephen H.T. Arliss RN was the CO of HMS Hecla until 2 August while under repair at Simon's Town but was also the designated Commodore commanding the Eastern Fleet Destroyer Flotilla based at Mombassa and is believed to have taken passage on HMS Hecla when she left for Gibraltar via Freetown but his name was not found by TNT in the Pay and VIctualing records as being in Hecla so does not appear on the crew list below.

Captain James A. McCoy succeeded Arliss as the CO of HMS Hecla in August but Capt George Faulkner was in command when Hecla left in late October for Gibraltar. Capt McCoy is thought to have been at HMS Afrikander (RN base, Simonstown, South Africa) when Hecla was torpedoed but may have been on passage in Hecla.

The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI)

NAAFI personnel serving aboard ship are part of the Naval Canteen Service (NCS), wear naval uniform and have action stations, but remain ordinary civilians. The names of the catering manager and his assistants were not given in the Pay and Victualing Ledgers but since James Gow and Frank Smith appear on the official Admiralty list of those "MIssing Preumed Killed" (MPK)  it is reasonable to assume they were all aboard Hecla on that fateful night.

Gow, James A Hardingham, George Hoile, Ronald R Lilley, Raymond L Smith, Frank A

Canteen Manager Canteen Assistant 2nd Canteen Assistant 1st Canteen Assistant 3rd Canteen Assistant

If a member of your family is on this list and you would like me to tell his story on this website get in touch. I shall need your help in supplying family stories and photographs but this is a hobby for me so there is of course no charge. Click on the links to read.  If you want to know the full story of the loss of HMS Hecla and the rescue of survivors you may like to consider buying a copy of the new edition of A Hard Fought Ship which was published in May 2017.