Born in Bournemouth in March 1901, Mervyn Clement Stone joined the Royal Navy as a naval cadet in 1917, he served on an oil tanker in the Great War. He married Marcia Davidson Wilt in San Francisco in 1936. During the Second World War he was the Master on the American Matson Lines merchant vessel the S.S. Olapana.
On 7th July 1942 the SS Olopana was just 10 miles west of Moller Bay on the remote Russian island of Novaya Zemlya. She had been part of convoy PQ-17, however since the convoy had been ordered to scatter on 4 July Master Mervin Stone was alone and without an escort. At 11:10 p.m. a torpedo from the German U-boat U-255 struck the SS Olopana on the port side in the engine room, killing crew members John Durham, John Sochacki and Sam Aiau. The explosion blew in all bulkheads. Edward Owen, a British DEMS gunner was blown overboard by the explosion and drowned. American crewmen Charles Kaialoha and Albert Percell were also washed overboard when the torpedo hit, they too drowned. The vessel settled immediately allowing the survivors to abandon their ship.
An American Naval report states that the ship’s two lifeboats were destroyed: one by the explosion and one capsized on launching, this meant the 34 surviving men took to the four lightly provisioned life rafts. As the crew climbed onto the rafts, the submarine which had hit them surfaced and began shelling the ship at 01.16 hours. After 30 rounds the Olopana sank, just 20 minutes later. The U-Boat crew questioned the survivors and gave them the course to land, they asked if they had enough food and water before submerging and leaving the area.
Captain Stone found a landing beach along the rocky shore of the Moller Bay on Novaya Zemlya on 11th July after 50 hours rowing. They found some food when they found a lifeboat washed ashore from another PQ17 vessel; the SS Hartlebury. The fourth raft containing Olopana survivors that had gotten separated spent 80 hours in the Arctic Ocean before finding land on a different part of Novaya Zemlya, they were picked up by a Russian Survey ship and taken to Archangel.
Captain Stone’s group were spotted and picked up by a Soviet Catalina flying boat and taken to Matochkin Strait. Here they were put aboard the SS Empire Tide, which was one of the nine surviving vessels from PQ17, reaching Archangel on 24th July 1942. Over half the survivors were suffering from frostbite.
After the Second World War Captain Stone served as captain on several Matson Lines cruise ships, including the S.S. Monterey, the S.S. Lurline and the S.S. Mariposa. On retirement Captain Stone lived North of San Francisco in Sonoma, California. He enjoyed spending his time on the beach and at Sonoma Golf Club. He died in April 1974 having celebrated his 73rd Birthday.