Lieutenant James Cuthbert

Lieutenant James Cuthbert was the commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper H.M.C.S. Grandmere. Grandmere was the Navy escort for S.S. Caribou on October 14, 1942, when the ferry was sunk by a German U-boat. Lieutenant Cuthbert obeyed orders and immediately hunted for the submarine. After two hours, he gave the order to abandon the search for the U-boat and to change course to pick up the Caribou survivors. He later revealed he agonized over his decision to follow orders and leave the survivors in the cold North Atlantic for several hours. “You are torn. Demoralized. Terribly alone … I should have gone on looking for the submarine, but I couldn’t. Not with women and children out there somewhere.”