Killed by Mine Explosion

Walter Bentley Sharples, 5th Engineer Officer, Merchant Navy is named on the family memorial in Haslingden Cemetery, Lancashire. His name is listed on the Tower Hill Memorial. The names of the mostly Chinese crew are recorded on the Hong Kong Memorial.

MV Arinia was a British Motor Tanker of 8,024 tons built in 1936 by Lithgows, Port Glasgow for the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company. She was powered by a diesel, single screw giving 12 knots.

On the 19th December 1940 she was mined and sunk off the Nore Light Vessel when on route from Aruba for the Isle of Grain. It seems that the engines were switched off while the boat was in the Thames Estuary waiting for dock gates to open. Sadly, as soon as the engines were turned off, the anti magnetic system was disabled and the metal hull attracted a mine. All the crew perished with the exception of a cabin boy