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Hi,
I have been researching this topic for sometime as my grandparents lost 2 children in this incident and a further child was rescued from one of the life boats.One man was washedaway trying to rescue my uncle but another man managed to get him from the boat. Family history has it that it was an Irish Yachtsman who apparently came to see my grandparents sometime after the war as he was writting a book about the incident.(I cannot find a book with reference to the incident.)My mother was dropped between one of the lifeboats and the ship and was thought lost but she was swept onto a deck below and survived)My grandfather WAS a staff sergeant i the RA and I have a copy of the statement he made about the incident at the time.My aunt Margaret was also on board but was a baby at the time so has little recollection.The ships log can be viewed at the National archive but only under supervision it has not been digitised and you cannot order copies by e mail.The ships log shows some variation from my Grandfathers statement and some suspicious features when compared to other logs contained in the same folder. The incident was not written up until after the ship docked.The crew members registrations were all in the same hand not so in the other logs they seemed to have all signed in individually.I guess it may have been doctored for moral purposes. I noted at the time that the log had been taken to the board of trade at some point and wonder if there was some sort of enquiry but I have no Idea how to research that.There is a German U Boat site that has an account of the attack on the convoy.I emailed a lot of this information to Robert Loakes and I believe he may have forwarded it to you. I am not very savvy at this so I am not sure I could attach stuff here but I know how to do It with email so if you care to send me your email I will forward any thing you require. I have pictures on my I pad of the entries in the ships log I could send them to you.I obtained Death certificates for the 2 lost boys
I was never able to discuss the incident with my grand parents I new they had lost Edgar and Rowland on  the way back from India but it was never really talked about.Apparently my Gran was convinced till she dies that one of the boys had survived but I never knew this until recently. My mother had the miraculous escape falling between decks but had never mentioned it until my Grandads statement turned up even that was quite mysterious as his sister suddenly decided to produce at a family gathering and neither my mother or her sister knew of its existence.
I have stopped asking my mother about the incident as she began to have nightmares again about the ship that sunk the previous day(The Yorkshire) some of the lifeboats were pulled down into the void. There is an account by a survivor of this sinking in the archive I think of the New York Times/herald it comes up if you google Yorkshire sinking.There is also an account in a kentish parish magazine and I believe maybe some sort of memorial plaque.It sounds from your reply as if you are used to researching so you will probably have done better than I so I would gratefully received  any other information that you have.We live in south east London if you are coming over to London it may be possible to meet if you wish.
Kind regards RoyW

Hello,
I came across this post as I have been researcing an incident that presumably occurred at the same time. My Grand parents were aboard the SS Sagaing with their children on the way back from India via Malta and following what was at the time thought to be a U boat attack on the 18th October 1939  they also lost 2 children from an innappropropriately launched life boat on the SS Sagaing.A third child was in the boat but survived and amazingly my mother suvived a fall from the lifeboat deck to the one below!
The ship was part of convoy HG3.that ws attacked on the previous day by U boat  with the loss of the Yorkshire.
I have a statement made by my Grandfather about the incident he was in the RA.(Iwould attatch it if I knew how) I have been unable so far to get a copy of the ships log.
There is another thread on this site titled lost at sea by a Teddy Edards that appears to be about the same incident.I have left message but no reply.