Stephen Spender cC:l/n Mystery Ship

The Spanish Civil War pitted the fascist Nationalists against the com munist-backed Republicans. The Nationalists,led by Francisco Franco, received financial and military aid from Germany and Italy while the Republicans were supported finan cially and politically by Soviet Rus sia.

There was no doubt where Spend er's loyalties rested. Long a Commu nist sympathizer, before leaving for Spain, he made it official by joining the party. In his book World Within World, Spender wrote:

"Shortly after Jimmy's departure for Spain, and a few days after my joining the Communist party the Dallv Worker telephoned and asked me to report on the case of a Russian ship which had been sunk by the Ital ians in the Mediterranean. The crew of the Cotnsontol had disappeared and the Russian Embas.sy was anxious to know what happened to it."

Jimmy was Jimmy Younger, a young Welshman and Spender's former secretary and lover. After be ing jilted by Spender, Younger had joined the Communist Party and travelled to Spain to fight with the International Brigade. Spender was filled with guilt believing that Younger would never have gone off to war if it hadn't been for him. Spender wrote:

"Without my influence he never would have become a Communist, and unless I had decided to live apart from him, and then married, he cer tainly would not have joined the Bri gade."

Younger wrote letters to Spender telling of his experiences including his first battle ["see belowj, so Spender was in "an agonized state of mind" and welcomed the diver sion this "rather absurd trip would provide."

Absurd seems to be the right word for it. I have done extensive research on the internet and in libraries and

In his book Spender doesn't men tion what type of ship the Cowsome/ was but in his book Bn'fi.sli Masciilinill! and the Spanish Civil War, Kris Rothstein refers to Spender search ing for the crew of the Russian 'bat tleship' Co?r(somc)/.

1 checked /ane's Fighting Ships, the authoritative source for naval ship ping of all countries,and there are no battleships, cruisers, destroyers or frigates named Comsomol or Komsomol in the 1936 or 1937editions.

1 did find a submarine named Komsotska but it was still there in the 1938 edition and so could not have been sunk.

The Comsnmo/ may have been a merchant ship but again I could find no ship with that name in any of the reference books. In reports of ship ping casualties of the Spanish Civil War there are no Russian ships listed.

In January, 1937, in his quest for the Comsoinol crew.Spender first flew to Barcelona and then Alicante.

"I strained my eyes for some sign of gunfire or ruins. The outspread map of a country torn by war seems

Stephen S

pender, celet^rated poet and author, visited Gibraltar at the height of the Spanish Civil War. He was on assignment for the socialist newspaper the Daily Worker in search of the crew of a Russian ship believed to have been sunk by the Italian Navy.

found any survivors of the crew or even anyone who had met survivors.

In his book he does comment on the class divide in Gibraltar regard ing the Civil War: to the imagination like a mutilated corpse,but under the bright sunlight the mountainous landscape had an appearance of incorruptible morning peace. It suggested nothing more war-like than the creaking of a wooden axle, as a wagon moved among the wintry vineyards.

"The British members of the Calpe Fox Hunt(which continued to func tion in Franco territory throughout the Civil War) repeated atrocity sto ries about the Republicans told them by aristocratic Spanish members from over the frontier, but did not mention any stories of Franco atroci ties. The refugees who came into Gibraltar for British aid were Francoists, not Republicans. Never theless,the Gibraltcse,and the Span ish workers who came every day from La Linea into Gibraltar,queued up at the newspaper kiosks to buy the Republican newspapers."

"Pursuing our inquiries, we went to Gibraltar, Tangier and Oran, and from Gibraltar we tried to get to Cadiz, but were turned back at the frontier by Franco's guards." Frus trated at being barred from Spain, Spender contented himself with in terviewing Gibraltarians and Span ish workers in Gibraltar.

"1 had no idea how to look for a crew of a sunk ship, so I simply in terviewed people whoseemed likely to be informed,revealing to them the purpose of my mission."

Spender wassurprised to find that the Comsomo/ was a 'cause celebre' and everyone seemed to have an opinion about it. One fellow even told him that the Italian Consulate in Cadiz had confirmed the sinking of the Comsomol.And yet Spender never

So was the Comsomol story all a hoax; a piece of malicious propa ganda in an attempt to influence the neutral powers such as Britain and America to turn against the Italians? Spender might have thought so for he doesn't seem to have pursued the matter with any great enthusiasm. He only made the one attempt to get into Spain and after Gibraltar trav elled to Tangier, Marrakesh and Casablanca but in his book he never mentions the Comsomo/ or her crew again.

Spender was one of the most cel ebrated poets of his generation. He was also a writer, critic and editor.

He was born in London,educated at Oxford and was associated with W.H.Auden,Christopher Isherwood and C.Day Lewis. His volumes of poems include Ttwufy Foems(1930), The Still Centre(1939)^ Poems ofDedi cation (1946) and Collected Poems 1928-1985(1986). He was knighted in 1983 and died in 1995 aged 86.

I will continue my search into the fate of the Comsomo'l and her crew. If anyone has any information regard ing this mysterious Russian battle ship I would appreciate it if they wrote to me care of Gibraltar Maga zine or via the Gibraltar Magazine message board.

'limmi/ Younger saw action at the battle offaraxva but xvas later accused ofcowardice and ofbeing a Trotskyite and was sent back to England because ofa stomach ulcer.