THE family of an Island war hero who braved freezing conditions and Nazi U-boats during the Second War World, scattered his ashes from Ryde Pier on Armistice Day.
Douglas Turtle, who served on the treacherous Arctic Convoys which helped to supply the Soviet Union during the war, died at Christmas last year.
He was presented with the Arctic Star medal in March 2013 by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Mr Turtle was mentioned in dispatches, received the Distinguished Service Medal and took part in one of the most dramatic sea battles of the Second World War.
He was just 19 years old and a crewman aboard HMS King George V when he took part in the epic sea chase which finally destroyed the Bismarck in May 1941.
At the moving ceremony at Ryde Pier were his sister-in-law Sheila Mathews and her husband, Jim.
She said: “Doug moved to Newcastle three years ago but he was an Island man and wanted to have his ashes scattered here.”
Doug’s niece, Lisa Matthews, now 50, wrote a poem in memory of him which is reprinted below.
Out across weather and water
The convoy journeys north
All sailors return to the sea
Raw hands pull on frozen ropes
The sky burns morning fire
Out across weather and water
Day after day, scanning the horizon
Striking ice from the cables
All sailors return to the sea
Photographs and letters in lockers
Boxing matches on the deck
Out across weather and water
A pennant of the heart, of home
A single flare as they cross the bar
All sailors return to the sea
Caulkhead and man of saltwater
Beloved of us you will always be
Out across weather and water
This sailor returns to the sea.
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