Canadian Virtual War Memorial
James Wallace MacKenzie
In memory of:
Fireman James Wallace MacKenzie
December 9, 1941
North Pacific
Military Service
40
Merchant Navy
Canadian Merchant Navy
M.V. Donerail (Panama)
Additional Information
January 1, 1901
British Columbia
Husband of Pearl MacKenzie, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
In December 1941, the Donerail left Suva, Fiji, for Vancouver, British Columbia. On 9 December, she came close to accidentally ramming the Japanese submarine I-10 700 nautical miles (810 miles/1,300 km) south-east of Hawaii, in position 08°00'N/152°00'W. After diving, the I-10 launched a torpedo that missed the Donerail. It surfaced and fired twenty shells from its deck gun. It destroyed a lifeboat containing 2 women, 4 men and an 18-month-old baby. Of the 36 sailors and 7 passengers, only 24 were able to reach a lifeboat. After 38 days drifting over 2,500 miles (4,023 km), they reached the island of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, but only eight were still alive and were taken prisoner of war by the Japanese.
Commemorated on Page 180 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 19.
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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