Tag Archives: Naval warfare

Diary entries which mention naval engagements during the war.

8 May 1915; Saturday

May 1915, , , ,

At work as usual1. Finished in decent time. Met Charlie in the station. At work at night. Went to Roker.

Heavy loss of life in Lusitania2 disaster. Got news at night of loss of “Maori”3 off the Belgian Coast.

  1. Saturday morning working was of course normal – as it remained until the 1960s. ↩

  2. Lusitania: See notes on 7 May. ↩

  3. “Maori”: RN destroyer, built 1909, sunk by a mine on 7 May 1915 off Zeebrugge. ↩

7 May 1915; Friday

May 1915, , , , ,

At work as usual. Busy all day. Finished late. Wrote up some of Parson’s Weekly News. Wrote up shop books. Received word of Bob’s Death1.

Lusitania2  3 sunk, with about 1900 people on board, by German submarine4. Relations between Japan & China very strained.

  1. See Robert Thomas Brotherston on this site. ↩

  2. “Lusitania”: too well known to require much comment, but – launched 1907, briefly world’s biggest ship (31,500 tons), commandeered as armed cruiser in 1914, but unsuitable so returned to passenger use on condition she carried government cargoes; left New York 1 May 1915 (allegedly carrying munitions), torpedoed 7 May 11 miles from S. Irish coast, sank in 11 minutes; 1,195 lives lost, including 128 Americans, thus influencing American opinion against Germany. ↩

  3. Coincidentally, the departure of the Lusitania (presumably from New York) is noted in the same New York Times headline as reports the declaration of war on Germany by “England” on 5th August 1914. ↩

  4. The submarine was the SM U-20. ↩

1 May 1915; Saturday

May 1915, , ,

At work as usual. Finished rather late. Played the piano and went out with Willie Whittaker last thing. Joe, Willie and I played ping pong most of the night as it was wet.

“Recruit”1 sunk by submarine, and Two German Torpedo boats sunk by British destroyer.

  1. “Recruit”: British destroyer, 335 tons, sunk by UB6 off Dover, 1 May 1915 with the loss of 39 men. 4 officers and 22 crewmen were rescued. ↩

18 April 1915; Sunday

April 1915, , ,

At chapel and Sunday School as usual. Played organ in the chapel in the afternoon, and managed rather badly. Had usual walks. A boy sang at night, and a lady, and Charlie sang in the anthem. Both the other turns were off. Fine night.

Submarine E 15 lost in Dardanelles1.

  1. On 16 April 1915 E15 sailed from her base at Moudros and attempted to break through the Dardanelles to the Sea of Marmara. Early in the morning of 17 April, the submarine, having dived too deep and become caught in the current, ran aground some ten miles (16 km) in near Kepez Point directly under the guns of Fort Dardanus. E15 was (after some difficulty) eventually sunk by allied forces in order to ensure that she did not fall into enemy hands. ↩

11 April 1915; Sunday

April 1915, ,

At chapel all day and at Sunday School as usual. Mr Chadwick preaching and preached pretty well. Came up with Willie Peake at night and talked a long time. Played a bit and read. Fine night. Rumour of the loss of the Queen Mary and big sea fight1.

  1. “Queen Mary…”: If referring to HMS Queen Mary, the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I, this rumour was clearly unfounded. Queen Mary was in fact sunk at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. ↩

29 March 1915; Monday

March 1915, ,

At work as usual. Snow in the morning but got out fine. Did a bit shorthand1 at night from Macauley’s Essays2 and played a bit.

Received news of the Falaba3 disaster also the Aquila.

  1. See Pitman’s Shorthand. ↩

  2. Thomas Babington Macauley, now best known for his poem Horatius (“Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate:…”) whose essays, originally published in the Edinburgh Review, were collected as Critical and Historical Essays in 1843. See also Arthur Linfoot’s Library. ↩

  3. Falaba: See footnote yesterday. ↩