One Hundred Years Ago Today…

During his first cruise in homes water, April–August 1915, Max Valentiner and U38 accounted for five trawlers, three sailing vessel and 22 merchant ships. Valentiner would go on to become the third most successful u-boat commander of the Great War (144 vessels sunk, six damaged and three taken as prizes).

… Max Valentiner, one of the ablest and most ruthless commanders in the German submarine service, brought U38 to the narrowing of the shipping lanes in St George’s Channel (between Cardigan Bay and the Tuskar Rock lighthouse, Ireland).

Over the next 24 hours, the submarine would sink 10 merchant ships and fishing vessels causing the loss of two lives.

The vessels were:

• BONNY, 2702 ton British steamship operated by the British & African Steam Navigation Co. Ltd (Elder Dempster Line);
• GEORGE BAKER, a British steam drifter owned by E. A. Baker of Great Yarmouth (NPRN 516131); http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/516131/details/UNNAMED+WRECK/
  
  
• GLENBY, 2196 ton British steamship owned by R. Ropner & Co, West Hartlepool, and carrying coal from Cardiff to Archangelsk (NPRN 274830); http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/274830/details/GLENBY/
  
  
• ISIDORO , 2044 ton Spanish-owned steamship carrying iron ore from Bilbao to Glasgow;
• KIRKBY, 3034 ton British steamship also owned by R. Ropner & Co, West Hartlepool, carrying coal from Barry (NPRN 274829); http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/274829/details/KIRKBY/
  
  
• MAGGIE, small British steamship, on passage from Youghal to Fleetwood;
• PAROS, 3596 ton British steamship requisitioned by the Admiralty and bringing wheat from Karachi to Manchester (NPRN 274828); http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/274828/details/PAROS/
  
  
• REPEAT, a British steam trawler owned by R. J. Tripp of Kessingland, Suffolk (NPRN 274831); http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/274831/details/REPEAT/
  
  
• THE QUEEN, 557 ton British steamship carrying coal from Ayr to Devonport (NPRN 274832); http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/274832/details/THE+QUEEN/
  
  
• THORNFIELD, 488 ton British steamship belonging to Liverpool and on passage from London to Peel, Isle of Man (NPRN 273139); http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/273139/details/THORNFIELD/ . 

THE QUEEN - built on the Clyde in 1897 by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company and owned by John Hay & Sons, Glagsow. The steamship was sunk by the guns of U38.

The ISIDORO was the first Spanish-owned vessel sunk by a German submarine and the loss brought protest from the Spanish government. Germany had come under strong pressure from America, after the sinking of the LUSITANIA on 7 May 1915, to modify its whole submarine campaign, with a promise that liners would not be sunk if engaged in no hostile act. The sinking of the ISIDORO alienated another neutral nation.

With the whole political situation so delicate, the German Admiralty despatched secret orders for submarines to confine themselves to ‘cruiser warfare’; i.e. submarines were to surface to search for merchant ships and ensure that crews were in a place of safety before sinking the ship, unless the ship had shown ‘persistent refusal to stop ... or active resistance to visit or search’.

However, U38 continued southwards after the 17 August, to join U24 and U27 in the Western approaches. These three submarines continued to sink ships between southern Ireland and Ushant on the French coast, bringing the total losses for the year to a peak in this month (121 ships sunk and five damaged). Each event a tragedy for the crews and shipowners concerned.

Today, we commemorate the lives lost by the sinking of the GLENBY in Welsh waters:

C. Neilson, Boatswain, age 21

Ernest Hall, Donkeyman*.

Remembering those who gave their lives for their country and who have no grave but the sea.

• http://www.peoplescollection.wales/collections/415321
• http://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/468344

*Note: the duties performed by a Donkeyman could be different on every ship, but generally they were responsible for the operation and maintenance of assorted ship’s machinery, other than the main engines, particularly smaller steam boilers and donkey engines used on deck for anchor windlasses and bilge pumps.

Tanysgrifiwch i Newyddion Treftadaeth Cymru a chofrestrwch ar gyfer yr RSS porthiant llawn: cliciwch y botwm RSS hwn a thanysgrifiwch!

Rydym hefyd ar gael ar:


Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

One Hundred Years Ago This Week …

Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kophamel, commander of U-35 from 3 November 1914 to 12 November 1915.
 http://www.uboat.net/wwi/men/commanders/150.html

… the most successful German U-boat of the Great War had stealthily left Welsh waters and returned to base, leaving behind it a trail of sunken and damaged vessels circling the UK.

U-35 was commissioned on 3 November 1914 and given over to the command of Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kophamel. During the Great War, the submarine undertook 17 patrols around the UK and in the Mediterranean, sinking 226 ships and damaging nine others.

Its first patrol, which caused the trail of destruction, appears to have begun in late April or early March 1915. On 9 March 1915, the BLACKWOOD, a British steamship owned by Tyneside Line Ltd. (J. Ridley & Son & Tully) of North Shields, became the U35’s first victim. The steamship was carrying coal from Blyth to Le Havre and was torpedoed off Dungeness, Kent, in the English Channel. The route of the submarine can then be followed into the North Sea (the sinking of steamship LAILIA on 30 April 1915), and on around the north of Scotland (sinking of CUBANO steamship off the Flannan Islands, Outer Hebrides, on 2 June), until U-35 was in the Western Approaches off southern Ireland. Between 6 &13 June 1915, it would sink 12 ships flying the flags of Britain, France, Norway and Russia.

The first losses in Welsh waters were on the 8 June 1915 – four in one day. The EXPRESS (NPRN 519183), a three-masted schooner, was captured and scuttled south-west of the Smalls. Next was the STRATH CARRON (NPRN 274643), a Glasgow steamship, torpedoed without warning, followed by the French schooner LA LIBERTÉ (NPRN 519181), which was shelled. Finally, the Falmouth schooner, SUSANNAH (NPRN 519182) was captured and scuttled.

A small feature in the ‘Mrs Grundy’s Jottings’ column of the Barry Dock News, 18 June 1915, notes that two of the crew members of the STRATH CARRON were residents of Barry.
http://newspapers.library.wales/view/4130135/4130140

U-35 moved westwards to sink three more vessels off southern Ireland, before returning to Welsh waters on 13 June 1915. Contemporary newspapers implied that the German U-boat captain had used a new infamous ‘tactic’ –- hiding behind a steamship to cover its approach to sink another vessel. The steamship was the HOPEMOUNT (NPRN 519188) of Newcastle, carrying Welsh coal from Cardiff to Alexandria. The HOPEMOUNT's crew, while in their lifeboat, saw the submarine attack and sink an unknown schooner. The submarine then returned and again shelled the HOPEMOUNT, because it was not sinking quickly enough. The master of the unknown schooner, which was the French-registered DIAMANT (NPRN 274645) of St Malo, stated that the submarine appeared from behind a steamer, which watched the operation, and that afterwards the submarine returned to the shelter of the ship.

With hindsight, from the above accounts, we can see that Kophamel was just making the most of the opportunity presented to him. Two days later, he was away to the west again, off southern Ireland, sinking the sailing barque FRANÇOIS and the full-rigged ship MORNA. From there, U-35 slipped away, back to its home base. Its next series of attacks on Allied shipping began in the Mediterranean in September 1915.

To read more of the STRATH CARRON and HOPEMOUNT stories, follow the links below:
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/node/465219
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/node/465183

Remembering those with who gave their lives for their country, and who have no grave but the sea.
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/collections/415321


Tanysgrifiwch i Newyddion Treftadaeth Cymru a chofrestrwch ar gyfer yr RSS porthiant llawn: cliciwch y botwm RSS hwn a thanysgrifiwch!

Rydym hefyd ar gael ar:


Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

One Hundred Years Ago Today…

Painting of the DUMFRIESSHIRE under sail. From the collections of the State Library of Queensland, Australia (http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/13203)

The service life of this elegant deep-ocean voyager came to a tragic and abrupt end when it was torpedoed without warning by a German U-Boat, 25 miles south-west of The Smalls.

Under the command of Captain R. W. Furneaux, the four-masted barque DUMFRIESSHIRE had left San Francisco on the 22 January 1915 for Falmouth to await orders for the cargo that it was carrying to the UK. On receipt of these orders from her owners, the ship was to head north to Belfast to unload, and then it was to go to New York for its next Australia cargo.

When the torpedo exploded, survivors described how the deck was blown into the air. The lifeboats had already been swung out and so the crew, including three Swedes and an American, were able to make their escape before the vessel sank. The periscope of a German submarine was seen by the patrol boats that rushed to the scene, but the U-boat responsible has still to be confirmed. The steam trawler WEYMOUTH would eventually bring the survivors to Milford Haven.

The DUMFRIESSHIRE represents the last days of building large, square-rigged sailing vessels for use across a number of deep-ocean trade routes. The ship was the product of a particular boom, from 1888 to 1893. In these few short years, iron was largely replaced by steel in the shipyards of north-east England, on Clydeside and at Belfast. Improvements in rigging methods, steam engines to help haul sail, and alterations to hull design all combined to produce vessels which were still able to compete with steamships on the long hauls. They relied on crews, as few as 25 in number, to work them, as well as their structural strength to survive the worst the southern oceans could throw at them. Typical cargos were guano and nitrate from South America, coal from Britain to just about anywhere in the world, grain from San Francisco to Liverpool, timber from Oregon and Washington State to Britain, jute from Calcutta and coal from Newcastle, New South Wales to South America. We know the DUMFRIESSHIRE undertook all of these long voyages and circumnavigated the world many times during its 25 years for Thomas Law & Co, Glasgow.

View: http://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/451702

View: http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/274803/details/DUMFRIESSHIRE/

Commemorating all who gave their lives for their country and who have no grave but the sea:
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/collections/415321

By Deanna Groom, Maritime Officer, RCAHMW

Tanysgrifiwch i Newyddion Treftadaeth Cymru a chofrestrwch ar gyfer yr RSS porthiant llawn: cliciwch y botwm RSS hwn a thanysgrifiwch!

Rydym hefyd ar gael ar:


Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

80th Anniversary of the Death of Lawrence of Arabia

Gorffwysfa, Tremadog, Gwynedd.

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Lawrence of Arabia. Thomas Edward Lawrence died on 19th May 1935 six days after he had been seriously injured while swerving to avoid colliding with two schoolboys cycling in a dip in the road near his home in Dorset. He lost control of his Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle and was thrown over the handlebars. He was an author, a renowned archaeologist, and a highly regarded British Army officer who mobilised the Arab Revolt during WWI. Otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia, he was born in Tremadog on the 16th of August 1888. A small plaque mounted above one of the bay windows on the ground-floor of Gorffwysfa (NPRN 17044) notes the birthplace of one of the greatest military leaders this country has ever known.

Gan Medwyn Parry


Tanysgrifiwch i Newyddion Treftadaeth Cymru a chofrestrwch ar gyfer yr RSS porthiant llawn: cliciwch y botwm RSS hwn a thanysgrifiwch!

Rydym hefyd ar gael ar:


Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

Sister Ship to Gallipoli Landing Craft Lost in Welsh Waters

In the past month, when many nations have been commemorating the human losses of the Gallipoli campaign, the Royal Commission has discovered that a small vessel lost off the North Wales in 1948 was built to the same design as the Allied landing craft which took part.

Launch of one of the twelve x-lighters built by Irvine Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, West Hartlepool, in 1915. Reproduced with the kind permission of Bert Spaldin. (http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/irvine/aalist.htm)

The Gallipoli peninsula is in modern-day Turkey but in 1915 it was part of the Ottoman Empire – and the Ottomans were fighting alongside Germany. The Allied plan was to land forces at Gallipoli, move inland to take the capital Constantinople (now Istanbul) and take control the Dardenelles, a vital sea route into the Black Sea for their ally Russia. The rugged terrain and small number of suitable landing beaches created logistical problems. However, in February 1915, James Pollock & Son were asked on behalf of the Admiralty to design and oversee the construction of 200 motor landing craft. Twenty-seven shipyards in the northeast England and three on the Clyde were subsequently appointed to construct these X-lighters.

The Gallipoli landings followed a naval assault and began on 25 April 1915 at six beaches. The ground forces included the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), regular British 29th Division, and the French Oriental Expeditionary Corps. The Ottoman troops occupied good defensive positions and inflicted many casualties. Fifteen awards of the Victoria Cross were made amongst the Allied infantry and sailors in the first two days. So began a terrible eight-month ordeal. The X-lighters were eventually used to withdraw all Allied troops on 7-9 January 1916.

Later in 1916, a further 25 X-lighters were ordered by the Admiralty. The RIVER LOYNE was one of these - designated X 215 and built by J T Eltringham & Co Ltd, Willington Quay, North Tyneside.

X30, X31 and X32 being completed in dry dock of the Irvine Shipbuilding Company. Reproduced with the kind permission of Bert Spaldin. (http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/irvine/x301915.htm)

After the war, many lighters were sold off. This is how X 215 eventually ended up in the ownership of R Gardener of Lancaster, carrying stone from the Penmaenmawr quarry to Liverpool. On 8 December 1948, the vessel foundered off Puffin Island with the tragic loss of all its crew.

Although the RIVER LOYNE/ X215’s wartime history is still being researched, we’d like to take this opportunity to recognise the sacrifices made by people from so many countries and the bravery shown on all sides during one of the most iconic and controversial campaigns of the Great War.

Remembering all who gave their lives for their country but who have no grave but the sea.

• http://www.peoplescollection.wales/collections/415321
• http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/240015/details/RIVER+LOYNE/

Follow this link to discover first-hand accounts of Welsh soldier who took part:
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/node/443935

By Deanna Groom, Maritime Officer, RCAHMW

Tanysgrifiwch i Newyddion Treftadaeth Cymru a chofrestrwch ar gyfer yr RSS porthiant llawn: cliciwch y botwm RSS hwn a thanysgrifiwch!

Rydym hefyd ar gael ar:


Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales