Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Robert Gordon Siteman
In memory of:
Mess Room Boy Robert Gordon Siteman
February 11, 1942
Offshore, North Carolina
Military Service
20
Merchant Navy
Canadian Merchant Navy
S.S. Blink (Oslo, Norway)
Additional Information
January 1, 1922
Nova Scotia
Son of Horace Gordon Siteman and Julia Odie Traynor from Lower Ship Harbour, Nova Scotia. During the Second World War, Horace enlisted on 16 March 1942 with the 26th Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Sent to England and then Scotland, he died of illness on 26 May 1943. He was posthumously awarded the Defence Medal, the 1939-1945 War Medal and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Bar.
Leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, for Ipswick, Suffolk, England, via Charleston, Virginia, on 12 February 1942, at 2:40 am, she was sailing unescorted when she was hit by a torpedo launched from U-108 160 miles (258 km) east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. After receiving a second torpedo, she sank at 3:34 am, position 35°00'N/72°27'W. Most of the crew perished after the sinking due to the very bad weather. On 14 February, only 6 of the 40 sailors were rescued by the American merchant ship SS Monroe, in position 33°34'N/71°41'W. They were taken to a hospital in Baltimore, Pennsylvania, on the 17th.
Commemorated on Page 228 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance. Request a copy of this page. Download high resolution copy of this page.
Burial Information
HALIFAX MEMORIAL
Nova Scotia, Canada
Panel 22.
The HALIFAX MEMORIAL in Nova Scotia's capital, erected in Point Pleasant Park, is one of the few tangible reminders of the men who died at sea. Twenty-four ships were lost by the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War and nearly 2,000 members of the RCN lost their lives. This Memorial was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and was unveiled in November 1967 with naval ceremony by H.P. MacKeen, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, in the presence of R. Teillet, then Minister of Veterans Affairs. The monument is a great granite Cross of Sacrifice over 12 metres high, clearly visible to all ships approaching Halifax. The cross is mounted on a large podium bearing 23 bronze panels upon which are inscribed the names of over 3,000 Canadian men and women who were buried at sea. The dedicatory inscription, in French and English, reads as follows:
1918-1945
IN THE HONOUR OF
THE MEN AND WOMEN
OF THE NAVY
ARMY AND MERCHANT NAVY
OF CANADA
WHOSE NAMES
ARE INSCRIBED HERE
THEIR GRAVES ARE UNKNOWN
BUT THEIR MEMORY
SHALL ENDURE.
On June 19, 2003, the Government of Canada designated September 3rd of each year as a day to acknowledge the contribution of Merchant Navy Veterans.
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