On 24 March 1918, while the British ship SS War Knight was proceeding up the English Channel in convoy, she collided with the United States oil carrier O.B.

On 5 November 1940 in the Atlantic, Captain Fegen, commanding the armed merchantman HMS Jervis Bay, was escorting 38 ships of Convoy HX 84, when they were attacked by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer (often termed a "pocket battleship").

I can only pray that in years which I shall not see, the shame will be forgotten and the glories will endure, and that the peoples of the British Isles and of the British Commonwealth of Nations will walk together in mutual comprehension and forgiveness.The citation for Fegen's Victoria Cross was published in the London Gazette on 22 November 1940, reading:[5] The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the VICTORIA CROSS to the late Commander (acting Captain) Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen, Royal Navy for valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect.

Sighting a powerful German warship he at once drew clear of the Convoy, made straight for the Enemy, and brought his ship between the Raider and her prey, so that they might scatter and escape.

So she went down, but of the Merchantmen all but four or five were saved.Issue #47 of the comic book Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea contains a fictionalized account of Fegen's last battle and the sinking of the Jervis Bay.