On the soft breast of Ocean borne.
O waking England, rise and pray
For sons who guard thee night and day!
Cecil Roberts.
We have dealt at length in the previous Chapter with the loss of the Lusitania not only because, as we have said, her torpedoing marked an epoch in the history of crime at sea, and was perhaps the determining factor in the entrance of America into the war, but because the Cunard Company was thus identified with this world-tragedy, and its servants exemplified then, as always, the noblest traditions of the British Mercantile Marine. Unhappily the Lusitania, although the circumstances of her loss brought her, from so many points of view, into the limelight of publicity was, as we have already seen, by no means the only one of the Cunard vessels to be lost at sea in the service of this country, and in the present chapter it is proposed to deal briefly with some other of the Cunard Company’s vessels that fell victims, many of them after the bravest resistance, to the submarine menace. It will, perhaps, be the more convenient, for purposes of after reference, to deal with these alphabetically, rather than chronologically.
Thus it was at 5.30 p.m. on February 4th, about 40 miles north of Londonderry that Captain W. R. D. Irvine of the Aurania saw a torpedo approaching his ship, which eventually struck her between the funnels. The Aurania immediately listed heavily to port, but then righted herself. The boats were immediately lowered and the crew and passengers, with the exception of Captain Irvine himself and some of his officers, were all safely aboard them within ten minutes after the torpedo had exploded. No sooner had they got into the boats, than the Aurania was again struck by a second torpedo, a third following in the wake of this, just as the Captain and the remaining officers were coming down the ropes into the last boat. Seven men in the engine-room were killed by the explosions of the torpedoes, and two others were lost by drowning. The crew were in the boats for about one and a half hours, when they were picked up by some mine-sweepers.
The “Aquitania’s” garden-lounge as hospital ward
It was then seen that the ship was not sinking, and Captain Irvine with some of his crew, returned on board and made her fast with hawsers to one of the trawlers that had arrived on the scene. During the night, however, the ship broke adrift, and when day broke she was nowhere to be seen. A message was then received from one of the naval patrols to the effect that the Aurania had drifted ashore at Tobermory, nearly 50 miles from the place where she had been torpedoed. Unfortunately, she had grounded at a very exposed position and in the heavy weather that followed she went to pieces, it being found impossible to salve her. She was a particularly severe loss in that she was a new ship, only on her eighth trip.
The Dwinsk, one of the steamers being operated by the Cunard Company for the Government, and in command of Captain H. Nelson, was torpedoed on June 18th of the same summer, at about 9.20 a.m., while some 650 miles east of New York, the torpedo striking her on the port side in the region of No. 4 hold. Seven lifeboats were immediately lowered and all the crew successfully embarked. The submarine then came to the surface, and with a heavy calibre gun fired 19 shells into the torpedoed vessel, sinking her about two hours afterwards. A passing steamer then came in sight and firing five shots in the direction of the submarine, passed on her course, the submarine submerging. When the unknown steamer had disappeared, the submarine again came to the surface, and overtaking the boats in which the crew had taken refuge, hailed the one in charge of the Chief Officer, and after interrogating him, moved off in an easterly direction. Meanwhile, during the night, the little group of lifeboats became separated, meeting with various adventures but all except one ultimately reaching safety, their crews being landed as far apart as New York, Bermuda, Newport, and Nova Scotia. As in the case of the Ausonia’s boats described in Chapter III, they underwent the severest hardships. The First Officer’s boat, for instance, after sailing all that day and through the night, sighted a steamer, but, though she showed signals of distress, received no reply. Toiling on, a barque, and another steamer, were sighted in the evening, but again the little boat was unsuccessful in attracting attention.