To the Valeria, under the command of Captain W. Stewart, fell the good fortune to destroy a German submarine on June 20th, 1917, while nearing the end of a voyage from New York. It was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon that both Captain Stewart, who was on the port side of the bridge, and the Second Officer who was on the starboard side, felt the ship quiver as if she had struck something. The Captain immediately crossed the bridge and saw that the object hit was an enemy submarine, the working of her motors being distinctly audible. For a moment the Valeria’s gun crew were taken aback at this most unexpected appearance at such close quarters to the vessel. Captain Stewart, however, gave prompt orders to fire and the gunners depressing the gun as far as possible, immediately obeyed.
A volume of vapour was then seen to rise up from the ‘U’ boat, together with fountain-like spouts of water. A second shot was fired, falling short, but the third struck the submarine fair and square, at the base of her conning tower, and caused her to sink. It is believed that the Valeria, when she first came into contact with the submarine, probably broke her periscope. Captain Stewart’s first impulse was to turn back in order to pick up any survivors, but in view of the fact that German submarines were at this time usually hunting in couples he thought it wiser to continue his voyage, and brought his ship safely back into Liverpool. For this successful action, both Captain Stewart and the crew received special awards from the Admiralty, the Cunard Company, and other Associations, the destruction of the German submarine being later verified by Admiralty trawlers.
Officers of the torpedoed “Franconia”
A Cunard crew buying war savings certificates
It was perhaps not an unexpected fact, but it was one, nevertheless, of which the whole nation may well be proud, that the rescued officers and crews of these torpedoed vessels, never for a moment hesitated, and indeed were anxious, as soon as possible, to render further service in other vessels. An example of this occurred when the Vandalia was torpedoed on June 9th, 1918, her commander, Captain J. A. Wolfe, having already, as has been seen, had a previous vessel, the Caria, torpedoed beneath him in the Mediterranean. The Vandalia was in a convoy accompanied by six American destroyers, and though she settled down rapidly and was lost within less than two hours, no lives were lost.
The Veria, Captain D. P. Thomson, was sunk on December 7th, 1915, in the Mediterranean, having left Patras in ballast for Alexandria on the 3rd. At noon on the same day, when about 50 miles from Alexandria, she had sighted two lifeboats containing the crew of a Greek steamer, the Goulandris which had been sunk by a submarine, and at half-past four in the afternoon, it was probably the same submarine that was sighted approaching the Veria at high speed from a distance of about eight miles. Almost at once the ‘U’ boat opened fire, dropping a shell about 20 feet ahead of the Veria, when Captain Thomson, having no alternative, stopped his ship and ordered the crew to muster at the boats. On a second shell dropping closer to the vessel, Captain Thomson ordered the crew to take to the boats; the submarine continued to fire as she approached, one of her shells destroying the chart house and the bridge, just as the boats were leaving the vessel’s side. Captain Thomson had already destroyed the confidential papers, and all that the German commander obtained, was the ship’s register. It was at 9.15 p.m. that the Veria sank, her boats being not interfered with and arriving at Alexandria next morning, in safety.
One of the American howitzers assembled at the Cunard Works