CN Co. Master Hoihow. Andrew Behan has researched this man:
Master William Mackenzie Christie was born on 14 April 1899 in Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of Gilbert and Ann Laughton Lyon Christie. He first went to sea on the S.S. Pyrrhus on 12 February 1917 and as a result he was awarded the Mercantile Marine Medal 1914-1918 at the end of World War One. In May 1921, in Glasgow, he obtained his Certificate of Competency as a Second Mate for foreign-going steamships and his home address was recorded at the time as 'Laxford', Dalry Road, Kilwinning, Ayrshire.
He married his wife Anne, and UK Incoming Passenger Lists show that they both left Shanghai, China, aboard the Blue Funnel Line ship Hector, arriving in London on 30 November 1932. These lists also show that he travelled from Montreal, Canada arriving in Greenock, Scotland, on 23 September 1938 aboard the Canadian Pacific ship Duchess of York. His occupation was recorded as a Master Mariner and he was still living at 'Laxford' in Kilwinning. He was appointed the Master of the S.S. Hoihow, a British registered vessel of 2,798 tons, owned by the China Navigation Company Limited of London and requisitioned early in 1943 by the Ministry of War Transport. It was used mainly as a 'General Purpose Stores' ship servicing the island bases in the Indian ocean.
On 1 July 1943, the German submarine U-181 sighted three allied merchant ships - S.S. Hoihow among them - in port at Port Louis, Mauritius. The U-181′s commanding officer, Korvettenkapitän Wolfgang Lüth, decided to loiter offshore and wait for them to leave port. On the morning of 2 July 1943, two of them put to sea, and U-181 set out in pursuit of the second to leave, which was Hoihow. On board were a crew of 94 and 7 gunners plus 48 passengers including members of the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, some military and medical personnel. After a 10-hour chase, at 9.07pm on 2 July 1943, U-181 hit Hoihow with two torpedoes in the Indian Ocean 105 nautical miles north-northwest of Mauritius. Hoihow sank by the bow within three minutes with the loss of 145 of the 149 people aboard.
The four survivors were rescued by the American merchant ship SS Mormacswan, which put them ashore at Montevideo, Uruguay, on 25 July 1943. The UK Merchant Seamen Death index cards held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, record that he died on 7 July 1943, aged 44 years, at sea between Tamatave (also called Toamasina), Madagascar and Mauritius on a raft after torpedoing. As he has no grave he is commemorated on Panel 57 of the Mercantile Marine Memorial, Tower Hill, London. On the Marine Memorial he is shown as William Mackensie Christie, but all other records, including some of those bearing his signature, show his second forename, Mackenzie, spelt with a z, not an s.
