The British steamer Clan Murray was about 30 miles south of the Fastnets on the 29th May when she was torpedoed without warning, being struck amidships on the starboard side. The boiler and engine-rooms were immediately filled with water, the vessel listed heavily to starboard and foundered within five minutes. The submarine then appeared and circled round the wreckage, taking the third officer and one other man prisoners. She then made off in a westerly direction. The survivors clung to floating wreckage for six hours before being picked up. Sixty-four men lost their lives; 12 were saved; two were taken prisoners.
The sinking of the Tycho and Porthkerry is a conspicuous instance of German callousness. The U-boat commander waited until the Tycho’s boats were alongside the Porthkerry before discharging his second torpedo, and thereby killed 15 men without the slightest excuse or necessity. He could have torpedoed the Porthkerry before those life-boats were alongside her, but apparently he preferred that her sinking should be accompanied by loss of life. There seems to be no other explanation of his conduct.
The schooner Jane Williamson, of Arklow, met with a small German submarine off the coast of Cornwall at 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the 10th September, 1917. The submarine opened fire at 150 yards range. Her first shot smashed one of the boats, the second killed a man. There were five men left, who got into their second boat, when a shell struck her, killing one man outright and mortally wounding the skipper and another man. The Germans beckoned the boat to them, in order to laugh at the survivors. The U-boat then submerged.
The skipper lived long enough to be landed and taken to hospital, where he died. The two dead seamen were buried at Penzance. An inquest was held upon their bodies, and the coroner described the Germans’ conduct as diabolical, the jury returning a unanimous verdict of “wilful and diabolical murder.”
On the 11th September, 1917, the schooner William, of Dublin, was attacked by a U-boat, which, after sinking her, fired on her crew with shrapnel, wounding one man.
The sinking of the Jane Williamson has been included under the heading of “Murder,” but it might as appropriately have been labelled “Barbarity.” The Germans displayed a callous disregard for human life, and after killing two men, signalled the boat alongside, in order that they might mock the dying. Plain men will agree with the jury’s verdict of wilful and diabolical murder. The Germans’ behaviour was that of savages.
The crew of the schooner William were lucky enough to escape with one man wounded, but the Germans’ intention was again murder.
The French sailing barquentine Mimosa had a crew of 31. On the 24th September, 1917, when 23 miles S.W. of the Scilly Islands, with a cargo of salt fish, she was attacked by a German submarine. It was 6 p.m., the weather was clear, the sea calm, and the visibility good. A submarine appeared and at 6.15 p.m. opened fire on the Frenchman. When 23 shots had been fired the ship was abandoned by all except the master, who refused to leave his vessel and was killed at the wheel by shrapnel. The submarine, which appeared to be an old one, dirty-grey in colour, and showing no number, closed the Mimosa to 150 yards on the surface. One German officer was seen, a thin, clean-shaven man, with dark hair and sunken cheeks. He ordered six men from one of the boats to board the submarine, and lined them up on deck forward of his gun. Soon afterwards the hatches of the submarine were closed, and she submerged, throwing the men into the sea without any means of saving themselves. The men were lucky enough to be able to reach their boats, however. Two boats, carrying 15 men altogether, were picked up by a British destroyer, and three boats, carrying the other 15 men, rowed to the Scilly Islands. The master was buried at sea by the crew of the destroyer.
The German appears to have had in mind his fellow-countryman’s exploit with the crew of the Belgian Prince. But he had not studied the case carefully enough, and so his victims were able to escape. To line up half-a-dozen men on the deck of the submarine and then to submerge was obviously an attempt to commit deliberate murder, and for this reason the case of the Mimosa has been included in this chapter.