One of the more difficult casualties to trace – at one point he is shown as “Roslyn Stevens”, in another reporting the unveiling of the Eltham War Memorial as “Private Rozell Stevens“.
At least the latter got the name right, but in fact he never enlisted in the armed forces and hence the rank of Private was inappropriate.
Stevens was in the British Merchant Navy, serving aboard the British oil tanker s.s. Conch as 4th Engineer and was posted as Missing, later confirmed drowned when the vessel was sunk by a German submarine off the English coast.
The Conch was reported as carrying 8,000 tons of benzene when torpedoed around 11 p.m. A British destroyer sighted the blaze about four hours later and found 30 men trapped on board, unable to abandon ship because of the burning oil, but managed after an hour and a half to take all the survivors off.
One report of the incident claims 28 lives were lost and that Stevens was on watch when the Conch was hit. It appears that Stevens was still on board at 12.30 a.m. when the engineers decided to abandon ship after they found a small boat; the Chief Engineer and four Chinese stokers made it down to the boat and were picked up by a cargo vessel around 2.30 a.m. – Stevens, however, drowned in the attempt to escape, his hands so badly burnt he was unable to keep hold of the rope.
Stevens was commemorated at the Tower Hill Memorial in London along with over 35,800 men of the British Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets from the two World Wars who have no grave but the sea.
His Canadian-born father at the time of Stevens’ death was Senior Constable at Williamstown, but previously had been in Eltham for five years after transferring from Footscray in 1904.
Williamstown Advertiser
The Sinking of s.s. Conch
See also Rozell’s Last Journey
