This two‑part guest blog by Nick Simpson, Researcher and Archivist at Sunderland Maritime Heritage, shares new research into the life and loss of Captain Robert Powley, master of the Sunderland‑built merchant ship S.S. Empire Dryden, lost on her maiden voyage in 1942.
A strategic wartime hub, Bermuda became a place of refuge for torpedoed sailors throughout the Battle of the Atlantic. Contemporary Royal Gazette headlines—reporting survivor arrivals, overcrowded facilities, and public sympathy—underscore the Island’s position on the front line of submarine warfare. When twenty‑five crewmen from Empire Dryden were rescued after sixteen days adrift at sea, it was Bermuda that received them; her captain and remaining crew were never found.
Through meticulous archival research, survivor testimony, and family records, Simpson reconstructs not only the final voyage of Empire Dryden, but the human consequences of the Battle of the Atlantic as they unfolded in Bermuda. This is a story of survival, loss, and remembrance, connecting Sunderland and Bermuda within the wider Atlantic theatre of the Second World War’s longest continuous military campaign.
Dr. Deborah Atwood, Curator, National Museum of Bermuda
On a cold February morning in 2024, I entered Sunderland Maritime Heritage’s small visitor centre in the old east end of Sunderland, Tyne & Wear—a town deeply shaped by Britain’s shipbuilding history. Sunderland’s yards once launched vessels that travelled the world, and its people lived lives bound closely to the sea.
It was there that my colleague Ian handed me a shoebox of personal effects and an A4 folder of documents donated to our charity by Dorothy Powley of Bishop Auckland. The items had belonged to her father‑in‑law, Captain Robert Powley.
The collection included photographs, papers, crew lists, and correspondence relating to Empire Dryden—as well as copies of U‑Boats off Bermuda by Eric Wiberg, whose work documented the ship’s sinking, the attack by U‑572, and the rescue of survivors by City of Birmingham. Together, these materials formed a remarkably complete starting point.
While the wider events surrounding Empire Dryden, U‑572, and the Battle of the Atlantic are well documented, the life and service of Captain Robert Powley himself have not previously been told in full. Central to this story is the testimony of Second Officer David Whittet, a close friend of Powley and one of the last men to see him alive. A recorded interview conducted with Whittet by Powley’s niece, Maggie Brown, along with her family research, provided invaluable personal context.
This article brings those strands together: archival records, family memory, and survivor testimony—centred on one man, one ship, and the human cost of merchant service during the Second World War.
It was the usual run from Savannah, Georgia, to the island of Bermuda, a British overseas territory where a United States Naval Operating Base and air station had recently been established. The date was 5 May 1942. The United States had entered the war only five months earlier following the attack on Pearl Harbor, and German U‑boats were already operating aggressively in these waters.
Despite the growing U‑boat menace, the American steamer City of Birmingham sighted an orange signal flare and the grey smoke of a burning lifejacket drifting across the sea. Ignoring the danger beneath the surface, her captain altered course and steamed toward the distress signals. What the ship discovered were twenty‑five survivors from the Sunderland‑built motor ship Empire Dryden, launched only weeks earlier in March 1942.
The rescued men were brought aboard, treated for exposure, and later landed in Hamilton, Bermuda. They believed that the remaining lifeboat—carrying Captain Robert Powley and twenty‑five others—would soon arrive. It never did.
In Sunderland, Mary Powley waited for news of her husband. On 2 June 1942, a letter from the ship’s owners, R. Ropner & Sons of West Hartlepool, confirmed her worst fears. Captain Robert Powley was presumed lost at sea.
Robert Powley was born in 1906 in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, the son of Wilfred and Mary Powley. The family name was well known in Sunderland, where R. Powley & Sons operated a successful soft‑drinks business. Robert began his maritime career in 1929 aboard the steamship Stonepool and steadily rose through the ranks of the Merchant Navy.
Throughout the Second World War, the Merchant Navy formed the backbone of the Allied war effort, carrying vital supplies across oceans dominated by submarine warfare. Merchant seamen, many of them civilians, sailed repeatedly into danger, sustaining heavy losses.
After attaining the rank of Chief Officer, Powley married Mary Maddison at St Gabriel’s Church, Sunderland. In early 1942, with the war at its height, Powley was instructed to remain in Sunderland in readiness to take command of a new ship: S.S. Empire Dryden, built at the William Doxford & Sons yard.
At the same time, Second Officer David Scott Whittet was overseeing the ship’s fitting‑out. In later interviews, Whittet described Empire Dryden as heavily armed for a merchant vessel, with naval guns, Oerlikon anti‑aircraft weapons, rocket launchers, and even a barrage balloon.
Empire Dryden was handed over on 19 February 1942 and sailed with a complement of fifty‑one men. Her early voyage took her from Sunderland to Scotland, then Liverpool, before joining Convoy ON‑74, which included forty-seven ships escorted by ten warships, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
David described the mood on board as a “happy-ship”, and Robert Powley from his quarters would play classical-music and opera. The Chief Steward; Raymond Zammit of Malta, would sing along with the operatic tones whenever in earshot of Powley’s record player.
The crossing was uneventful, and after unloading ballast, the ship was ordered to New York to take on her first full cargo. Using a then‑uncommon route via the Cape Cod Canal, they sailed past Nova Scotia, across the Bay of Fundy, past Martha’s Vineyard, into Long Island Sound to the East River, past the Statue of Liberty and arriving at Staten Island, New York on 1st April. There she loaded war supplies including aircraft parts, vehicles, rations, munitions, and provisions destined for Allied forces overseas. After a week in port, the ship departed unescorted on 18 April, following routing instructions issued by naval authorities.
The following day, Captain Powley received new orders directing the ship further south. No reason was given. Shortly before 0900 ship’s time, Empire Dryden was struck by a torpedo. What followed would test seamanship, leadership, and endurance to their limits and would link the fate of Empire Dryden indelibly with Bermuda.
