The War on Hospital Ships 1914 - 1918 by Stephen McGreal

The War on Hospital Ships 1914 - 1918 by Stephen McGreal

Author:Stephen McGreal [McGreal, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2012-11-14T08:00:00+00:00


Gloucester Castle with attendant tug.

The ship served during the Second World War until 15 July 1942, when the German commerce raider Michel sank her off the Ascension Isles. The thirty-year-old steamer had 154 people on board; of these eighty-two crew, six females, two children, and three male passengers died. The survivors, fifty crew, two women and two children, were transferred to the German supply vessel Charlotte Schliemann for internment in Japan. In 1946, a war trials tribunal found the commander of Michel guilty of war crimes leading to his imprisonment in Spandau Prison.

Captain Charles Ruthven Stewart [Karnak] and Captain Edward John Holl [Gloucester Castle] were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in recognition of their zeal and devotion shown in carrying out the trade of the country during the war [LG 14 September 1917]. For their exceptional ability displayed during the Gloucester Castle episode the Chief Officer John Vyvyan Watson-Black [after promotion to Captain of Galeka he appeared again in the LG 29 October 1918] and Chief Engineer Harry Hunt Black were commended by the Admiralty.1

Under the Emergency War Programme a class of patrol craft, effectively coastal sloops, were constructed to relieve destroyers from patrol, escort work and anti-submarine work. Forty of these patrol boats each displacing 630 tons were constructed. Their armament usually consisted of one four-inch gun, one 2-pounder, anti-aircraft weaponry and two torpedo tubes of fourteen inch diameter, or suitable tubes salvaged from redundant craft. Two of these P boats were war losses; P12 sank due to a Channel collision, the other struck a mine. Tyne Iron Shipbuilders launched the latter vessel P26 on 22 December 1915. Capable of travelling at twenty knots, the almost 245 feet long patrol boats had a mild steel hull with a hardened steel prow for ramming submarines. Designed for high manoeuvrability, fuel economy and ease of construction, and with excellent sea-keeping qualities in all weathers, they proved excellent antisubmarine vessels.

Salta lost in a minefield

Although originally a French vessel, of the Marseilles, based Société Générale des Transports Maritimes Vapeur the Salta entered Admiralty service, manned by Union Castle personnel. The 7,284-ton vessel had forward and after hatches either side of a lengthy accommodation area. On 10 April despite the bad weather, the twin funnelled Salta commanded by sixty-two-year-old Captain Benjamin Thomas Eastaway, departed from Southampton with a cargo of hospital stores destined for Le Havre, where she would embark patients for the return trip. On the outward leg of the voyage she was accompanied by the hospital ships Lanfranc and Western Australia, all shepherded by a naval escort. During the night, the German minelayer UC262 sowed a minefield in the Le Havre roads approximately half a mile north of the Whistle Buoy near Le Havre. The French notified the peril to the Royal Navy who escorted their charges safely past the minefield. At 11.20 am on 10 April, the convoy arrived off Le Havre to await identification prior to the removal of an anti-submarine boom. On receiving, the signal to proceed up the Channel Eastaway ordered a course to the north, the direction of the minefield.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.