John Poore is the 4th from the right in this picture made in the engine room
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The next five pictures are provided as updates to this Honor Page by John's Grandson. The first photo is of my grandfather(on the left) when he was in the U.S. Navy during WWI. The Second one is a photo and his friend on the deck of the W.P. Frye, date unknown. The third photo is a plaque dedicated by the Mystic Steamship Company for those lost during the sinking. The fourth photo is of Ens.Carl S. Dalby Jr., who continued to man the radio room sending out an s.o.s. as the ship went down. He was lost as well. The fifth is of the S.S. William P. Frye, which judging by the photo may be tied up at the New England Shipbuilding yard in So. Portland, Me. where it was built, but I'm not sure. I also wanted to mention one nugget of information which might change the After Action Report (AAR) and any account on it's sinking, which was provided to me by an eyewitness. He was one of only two Naval Armed Guard survivors, the other five were Filipina stewards. Together they swam to a barge that had broken free and which stayed afloat until they were picked up several days later by the HMS Shikuri. He stated that the report regarding a lifeboat having gotten off with other survivors was untrue. He said they could not lower any of the boats due to the fact that in the interest of keeping the ropes up out of the way, the ropes had been knotted and thrown up over the top of the davits. After being torpedoed, and as the ship began to sink, they couldn't untie the knots to lower any of the boats. Secondly, he said that they didn't really have time. He said that the Wm. P. Frye went down so fast that he barely had time to get his leg over the rail and jump free. He got let off in Northern Ireland after having been picked up by the HMS Shikuri, as I mentioned above. He was then transported back to New York and never learned the fate of the rest of the crew, nor of the other Naval Armed Guard surivor who he said was a guy named "Blackie" Bauer. He thought he lived in the Cincinnati, Ohio/Kentucky area. As an aside, the HMS Shikuri was the last ship to leave the beaches of Dunkirk with a load of survivors. Thanks, Alan Poore, grandson of John Poore, 2nd Ass't Engineer, S. S. William P. Frye
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