British Coastal Convoys WWII

[Erik Vind Frost]

Hi again! The question is, when the small boats were taken as prizes and put under British flag. When it was merchant wessels they were under the Red Duster, but when it was Admirality-controlled boats - what was the case? Regards Erik

[Fouro]

Just a few lines to say I used to speak to an old chap and whilst speaking to him he went into bouts of severe coughing. When he sat down again, he said working in subs caused this. He told me one of the main reasons subs had to surface was to charge the batteries. The engines inside the subs which were used to do this required fresh air to work.

Fouro.

[Fouro]

Re #:32.
Most probably an exhaust pipe would always be at the ready to be fitted to these inside engines once the subs surfaced.

Fouro.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
I would suggest that all the small boats would have been put under the Red duster for quick recognition, a mix of flags could have been confusing. Except where they were manned by the royal Navy
Des

[Ken Atkinson]

The coastal convoys of WW2 were a continuation of the hazards faced in WW1 as described below involving my grandfather:

S. S. Lonedith CT55

My Grandfather Austin William Stephenson Clarke was born in Stockton 11/7/1879. He gained his First Mate (Foreign Going Steam Ship) No.002098 passed 7/4/1904. Discharge No. 691321. Later as Master my Grandmother accompanied him. He suffered a heart attack which terminated his sea service and died in Hartlepool 15th February 1941. Also see scans of Indentures, Mate’s Cert, Award Letter & Submarine Menace & photos of child and man relevant to account below.

The Admiralty Coasting Trade Office afterwards transferred to the Ministry of Shipping Coasting Trade Office employed him from June 1915 to June 1920 (age 40) on the steamers “Nyland”, “Comet”, “Albert Clement” and “Lonedith as Chief Officer then later on the “Lonedith” as Master. Lonedith was a class of ships combining London with a girl’s name. These were jointly managed by E.R. Newbigin Ltd. (shipbrokers and coal exporters also The Newbigin Steam Shipping Ltd.) of Mansion House Chambers, Newcastle upon Tyne 1. The Managers receive £100 + 7.5% net profits/ship/year to max £2,500 each. National Archives, The Admiralty Coasting Trade Office files (not digitised) MT25/12 Correspondence, MT23/574 Cargoes, MT23/761 Vessels, badges & gratuities. Registry Shipping & Seamen BT165/2—Ships logs & voyages. On Wednesday the 13th March 1918 @ 07.55 with Chief Officer AWS Clarke the S.S. Lonedith struck a submarine. For this the Admiralty in accordance with the schedule awarded him as his proportion £20:2s:8d., quite a lot of money then. Presumably they preferred sinking to striking of submarines as he attended a four-day Submarine Menace Course 2-8/7/1918 at Portsmouth as Chief Officer. The attendance certificate carries the warning (not to be taken to sea). The following day the 14th March a Zeppelin dropped bombs on Hartlepool with shrapnel piercing the family home.

The LONEDITH action is described in file ADM 239/26 "Reported Destruction of Submarines: Summary of Cases" held at TNA. The incident happened at 54°41'N, 01° 00'W and was classified as a U-boat being "Probably seriously damaged." Description: "British S.S. Lonedith left the Tyne on March 13 on passage to the Thames, and when about 6 1/2 miles ESE of Hartlepool at 0755, steaming 9 knots in the clear weather, she bumped heavily on a submerged object and a grating sound was felt throughout the ship. After passing over the object several of the crew observed the periscope of a S/m rise 6 or 8 feet above the water under the port quarter and disappear again rapidly before fire could be opened. The periscope was painted silver gray and the upper part of it was bent over." The U-boat that was rammed by LONEDITH was UB 34. After torpedoing the Norwegian steamer ADINE earlier during the day (see: Steamer Adine - Ships hit by U-boats - German and Austrian U-boats of World War One - Kaiserliche Marine - uboat.net -- note the location "Torpedoed 8 miles E of The Heugh, Hartlepool" ), UB 34 was coming to periscope depth from 30 meters when she collided with the LONEDITH. Both periscopes were
rendered unusable and UB 34 had to return to base.

SS Stalheim 1890 290.4 or 290.5 ft. long. Built for 'Harloff & Bøe', of Bergen, Norway. In Jul. 1893 sold to 'Andr. Olsen', also of Bergen. In 1911, sold to 'Otto Banck', of Helsingborg, Sweden & renamed Fama. On Dec. 8, 1915 sold to 'D/S A/S Blus' (Harald Hansen (or maybe Hanssen?) the manager?), of Skien, Norway, & renamed Blus. In Feb. 1916, sold to 'D/S A/S Adine', of Kristiania i.e. Oslo, Norway, (C. H. Engelhart & E. I. Hansen, managers) & renamed Adine. Later that year, in Dec. 1916, sold to 'D/S A/S Lloyd I' (Louis Poulsen & Co. manager), also of Kristiania. On Mar. 13, 1918, while en route from Rouen, France to the Tyne in ballast, was attacked & sunk by UB-34, at 03.45 54.42N/00.58E in the North Sea. Captain Kristian Sorenson with 22 crew.
Adine
Name Adine
Type Steamer
GRT 2,235 tons
Country Norwegian

Built 1890
Builder J. Priestman & Co., Sunderland
Operator D/S A/S Lloyd I (Louis Poulsen & Co.), Christiania
History

U-boat attacks on Steamer Adine
Date U-boat Loss type Position Location Route Cargo Casualties
1 13 Mar 1918 UB 34 (Hellmuth von Ruckteschell)
Sunk Torpedoed 8 miles E of The Heugh, Hartlepool 54.42N, 00.58E Rouen - Tyne ballast 0


“S/s Adine — we are torpedoed
and admonished by a submarine captain
The following is abbreviated excerpts from the section S/s Adine — vi torpederas och förmanas av ubåtskapten. The seamen in the forecastle, all sleeping with their clothes on, have been awakened at 3:45 in the morning by a violent explosion.
”The coffee pot and the stove overturned, the lamps went out and the ship was trembling. The explosion was a direct hit, no doubt about that. The Adine's journey down and a few breathtaking minutes for us had begun. For the people in the two forecastles it was a matter of life and death to get out. All sprang up from their bunks, and in a lump we went groping through the narrow gangway to the deck.
Well in the open we speeded up considerably but we did not reach longer than to the No 2 hatch where we all tumbled over a wire which had been stretched across the deck. I hurt myself badly in falling against the deck. We felt palpably that the Adine was trembling in mortal dread. When I had got up I felt that the ship began leaning astern. The wire was stretched between the winch of the hatch and an anchor in order to stay it, a stock-anchor hanging out for pure indolence.
The only one who retained his composure completely was the commander. He issued his orders as coolly as usual. He alone remained on the deck amidships when the boats were launched, and with calm voice he ordered that all should be counted. It turned out that the messroom boy of the officers was missing. The skipper then made a hasty search in the midship quarters, where the boy had his cabin, and found him. Though the boy was a bit giddy the skipper got him up on deck and after that down into the starboard lifeboat where I was too.
The messroom boy, who was only 14 years old, sighed when he came down into the boat: ”No, now I have never seen the like. Is Adine sinking?” Thus the resolution of one man saved this young human life.
The Adine, which sank rapidly with the stern while we launched the lifeboats, was evidently severely damaged right under the main mast. It fell overboard with a tremendous crash long before we managed to get clear from the side of the ship. We heard all the time how the water gushed into the hull. Loose parts made an alarming noise, the more the Adine sat down on the ”behind”
In my boat there was a real shambles. A piece of plate had been blasted away from the ship's side and slung high in the air, finally landing in the lifeboat. The piece had knocked off all the oars and the mast, which were lying lashed down together midships in the boat, as well as two thwarts and various other gear, and therefore the word shambles maybe was too mild.
When the stern was below in the water and the ship's body formed an approximate angel of 40 degrees with the surface of the water, the skipper called out a powerful ' set off'. He himself got down into the port lifeboat by in one of the tackles of this boat, first slinging himself out and then easing off. The last commander of the Adine was, as it ought to be, the last to tread the deck of the steamer.”
The drama did not end here. The submarine surfaced, frightening the people in the lifeboats. The commander ordered the lifeboats along side. Carl-Otto continues:
I was in the stem of our boat and handled the painter, and when I handed it to one of the German seamen, I was shaking in despair and fear of my life. The Germans showed a coarse and harsh manner, and their threatening canons and revolver muzzles were all aiming at us. We hardly dared to breath. The German seaman close to the stem of my boat asked me for some reason to keep still. Did he suspect that I had a hand grenade or other nuisance in my pocket? I got even more nervous, sat down on the stem half paralyzed and wished to myself both him and the submarine the way of all flesh.”
Was it in that very moment Carl-Otto Claesson, at the age of 19, decided to withdraw from the war and his life as a seaman and to go home, starting his studies to become a sea captain?” Carl-Otto Claesson later to become Captain of GRIPSHOLM & DROTTINGHOLM for Swedish-American Line up to 1953.

“The Norwegian steamer ADINE was in ballast from Rouen to Tyne under charter to a French concern. At 10.10 p.m. the vessel had passed Flamborough Head at 3 miles. In the early hours of of 13th March 1918 she was off Redcar following the war channel buoys. The night was fine and she was making nine and a half knots on a smooth sea. The only light showing was a screened stern light, vessels were ordered not to show port or starboard lights unless other traffic was present. At 3.50 a.m. a torpedo was sighted 200 yards away on the port beam. Nothing could be done and it struck about 30 feet abaft of the engine room between the number 3 and 4 holds. The explosion blew up the after decks and blew the main mast over the side. The crew of 22 abandoned the ship in the boats without panic, the only injury was to the North Sea Pilot who was knocked off the ladder from the bridge by the force of the explosion. The ship sank in 10 minutes and after she had gone down the submarine surfaced alongside the boats. The submarine was not identified but history reveals that she was the UB-34. One young Officer spoke in good English from the conning tower, he asked the ship’s name, tonnage, cargo capacity, and he demanded the ship’s papers. He said he was in a great hurry and told the Captain to give his kind regards to his friends the English. The crew were picked up by the trawler HERMIA (HERMIS?) and landed at Middlesbrough.”

Wreck-site: The wreck believed to be the steamship Adine (ex-Stalheim) lies on a seabed of mud, gravel and coarse sand at a general depth of 40m. The wreck is quite substantial and lies in three sections, with the largest, central part being some 6m high. It stands upright, but the stern-end has collapsed a little. It is 40m in length and 6m wide, lying oriented in a north-east to south-west direction, while the centrally positioned bridge section, which is about 10m long and 4m wide, faces east-north-east to west-south-west, the third section, being rather smaller than the first two. Her boilers and engine are visibly exposed, while lots of copper piping, brass valves and even a couple of portholes can be seen, protruding out of the twisted wreckage, which has all collected a fair amount of muddy looking sediment. Shipwrecks of the NE Coast by Ron Young

UB 34
Type
UB II

Shipyard Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (Werk 258)

Ordered 22 Jul 1915 Laid down
Launched 28 Dec 1915 Commissioned 17 May 1916
Commanders 10 Jun 1916 - 16 Mar 1917 Oblt. Theodor Schultz

17 Mar 1917 - 31 Aug 1917 Ludwig Schaafhausen

1 Sep 1917 - 30 Mar 1918 Oblt. Hellmuth von Ruckteschell

31 Mar 1918 - 8 Sep 1918 Oblt. Erich Förste

9 Sep 1918 - 6 Oct 1918 Hans Illing


Career 21 patrols
27 Jul 1916 - 1 Feb 1917 I Flotilla
1 Feb 1917 - 10 Sep 1917 II Flotilla
10 Sep 1917 - 3 May 1918 V Flotilla
3 May 1918 - 9 Sep 1918 I Flotilla
9 Sep 1918 - 6 Oct 1918 Flandern Flotilla
6 Oct 1918 - 11 Nov 1918 training Flotilla
Successes 31 ships sunk for a total of 39,496 tons.
2 ships damaged for a total of 12,406 tons.
2 ships taken as prize for a total of 2,210 tons.
Fate 26 Nov 1918 - Surrendered. Broken up at Canning Town in 1922..

Type UB II
UB coastal torpedo attack boats class


30 boats commissioned
Construction history of type UB II
U-boats # Shipyard Werk # Built during
UB 18 - UB 23 6 Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
248 - 253 1915
UB 24 - UB 29 6 A.G. Weser, Bremen
238 - 243 1915 - 1916
UB 30 - UB 41 12 Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
254 - 265 1915 - 1916
UB 42 - UB 47 6 A.G. Weser, Bremen
244 - 249 1915 - 1916

All U-boats of type UB II
Below are the 30 commissioned U-boats of this type.
UB 18, UB 19, UB 20, UB 21, UB 22, UB 23, UB 24,
UB 25, UB 26, UB 27, UB 28, UB 29, UB 30, UB 31, UB 32,
UB 33, UB 34, UB 35, UB 36, UB 37, UB 38, UB 39, UB 40,
UB 41, UB 42, UB 43, UB 44, UB 45, UB 46, and UB 47.

Technical information for type UB II
Displacement:
(tons) 263 (sf)
292 (sm)
324 (total)
Length: (m) 36,13 oa
27,13 ph
Beam: (m) 4,36 oa
3,85 ph
Draught: (draft) 3,70 m
Height: 7,34 m
Power: (hp) 284 (sf)
280 (sm)
Speed:
(knots) 9,15 (sf)
5,81 (sm)
Range:
(miles / knots) 6650/5 (sf)
45/5 (sm)
Torpedoes: 6
2/0 (bow / stern tubes)
Mines: No mines carried
Deck gun: 88mm
120 rounds
Crew: 23 men
Max depth: ca. 50 m
(164 feet)

sm = submerged, sf = surfaced, ph = pressure hull,
oa = overall, hp = horsepower.

Hellmuth von Ruckteschell
Oberleutnant zur See (Crew 4/09)
Successes
20 ships sunk for a total of 25,963 GRT
1 warship sunk for a total of 1,290 tons
1 ship damaged for a total of 5,136 GRT
1 ship taken as prize for a total of 185 GRT

Born: 23 Mar 1890 Hamburg
Died: 24 Sep 1948 Hamburg-Fuhlbüttel


Ranks


2 May 1915 Oberleutnant zur See
Decorations



U-boat Commands
UB 34
1 Sep 1917 - 30 Mar 1918
U 54
23 Mar 1918 - 11 Nov 1918
Notes
01.04.09 Eintritt in die Kaiserliche Marine 02.03.16 zur U-Boot-Waffe, W.O. auf U 3 und U 57, ab 24.8.17 Kdt. UB 34 und U 54 24.11.19 Entlassung aus dem Wehrdienst 05.09.39 als Reservist zur Baubelehrung, KM-Dienststelle Bremen 28.12.39 Kdt. Minenschiff Cobra 16.01.40 Kdt. Hilfskreuzer Widder __.12.40 Baubelehrung, ab 17.9.41 Kdt. Hilfskreuzer Michel 03.03.43 - 08.05.45 z.Verf. Marineattaché Tokio, anschl. Internierung und Kriegsgefangenschaft Died in the Hamburg-Fuhlbüttel prison shortly after hearing that he was to be released due to his deteriorating heart condition.

WW1 German Subs 372, destroyed 178, remainder surrendered
Mines 44, depth charge 38, torpedoed by sub 19, rammed 14, decoy ship 12, aircraft 6, nets 6, high speed sweep 5, captured 1, wrecked 1, unknown 12, scuttled 15.

It seems likely that the case of Captain Fryatt described below had influenced the reporting as a pure accident rather than deliberate sighting of periscope and attack.

Charles Fryatt: The man executed for ramming a U-Boat By Laurence Cawley and Stuart Woodward BBC News 16 July 2016 The name Charles Fryatt is memorialised from New Zealand to Canada. Yet he was tried, convicted and executed as a "terrorist". A century on, Captain Fryatt's case is still debated by legal experts. But why would a merchant ship's commander ever try ramming a U-boat? "I don't think he set out to be a hero," says Louise Gill. "I think he set out to look after his crew, his men and women, and trying to avoid capture." Gill is the great-granddaughter of Fryatt who, in March 1915, attempted to ram a prowling German U-boat with his 1902-built passenger ferry, the Great Eastern Railway-owned SS Brussels. Ordered to stop by submarine U-33 near the Maas light vessel off the Dutch coast, Fryatt - born in Southampton and raised in Harwich - saw the German U-boat surface. It was his third such encounter with a U-boat that month. Believing it was being readied to torpedo his ship, Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and tried to ram the Uboat head on, forcing it to crash-dive. The SS Brussels managed to escape and Fryatt was awarded a gold watch by the Admiralty. But 15 months later his ship was cornered by five German destroyers shortly after setting sail from the Hook of Holland. Fryatt, his crew and passengers were taken to an internment camp near Berlin. Fryatt was then taken away to Bruges to stand trial on charges of being franc-tireur - a civilian engaged in hostile military activity. His gold watch from the Admiralty was used as evidence against him and he was accused of sinking the German submarine - despite U-33 still being in active service. The hearing, sentence and execution by firing squad all took place on the same day, 27 July. Fryatt had earlier told his captors he had done his duty to protect his crew but, according to press reports at the time, was not allowed to speak at his trial. His death was to have propaganda value for both sides, says Mark Baker, a Fryatt memorabilia collector who is organising an exhibition commemorating the centenary of his execution. For the Germans, the execution of Fryatt was a case of justice served. For the British, says Baker, Fryatt's execution was both an outrage and a useful springboard for recruitment and swaying international opinion against Germany. "In 1916," he says, "people were starting to become a bit war weary and recruitment had become conscription. "His death came at the right time for the government which used the case of Fryatt to show how ghastly the 'Hun' were." The name "Fryatt" was also written on shells fired at the Germans. The Fryatt case was also seized upon by Irish nationalists who accused the British government of hypocrisy. If the British government was outraged at the execution of a civilian committing an act of war, the nationalists argued, how could they condone such executions in Ireland? The U-boat threat  The name U-boat comes from Unterseeboot (undersea boat). Early U-boats were designed to protect German ports and harbours  U-boats tended to leave port on the surface at night and only submerged when spotted by the enemy, or after conducting an attack  Once submerged, the electric batteries posed a real explosion threat to the crew  They were turned against merchant ships supplying Britain in February 1915 in retaliation for an increasingly tight British blockade preventing ships carrying vital supplies from reaching Germany  The U-boats' most notable victim was the liner Lusitania, sunk by U-20 on 7 May 1915; this caused the loss of 1,201 lives Mr Baker, whose exhibition takes place at the Masonic Hall in Harwich (where Fryatt himself was once a member), said: "I find the story itself fascinating, "Though sometimes the way it is told on websites is as if he was the only person who had ever rammed a U-boat. "U-boat ramming was actually common practice following an instruction from the Admiralty that crews should attempt to ram U-boats. "The objective, however, wasn't to actually hit the U-boats," says Baker, "because merchant ships were usually fairly fragile. "The actual objective was to make the submarines dive." There were four reasons for this, Baker says. The first is that a submerged U-boat could not pull up alongside a merchant ship and board it. Nor could a submerged submarine use its deck guns. Thirdly, submarines were slower underwater which gave shipping an advantage in terms of getting away. Finally, torpedoes were notoriously unreliable and inaccurate and, given a beam view of a ship rather than a broadside, a merchant ship's chances of getting away unscathed were vastly improved. Fifteen months after he tried to ram the U-boat, Fryatt's ship was cornered by five gunboats and he was imprisoned. "He was tried in Bruges on charges of being franc-tireur - a terrorist - for a civilian act of war, and he was executed for being a terrorist. "It is still very, very controversial," said Baker. "It's a case that has exercised legal minds ever since. "Merchant mariners' rights to defend themselves in open water is still very much a grey area." One of the lesser known effects of the Fryatt case, says Gill, was the fear it instilled in his widow Ethel. "They were not allowed to talk about the case and even after the war," says Gill, "her children (of which there were six) were not to take the name Fryatt." The reason? Widow Fryatt had an uncanny grasp of future history. "It was in case there was another war with Germany," Gill explains. "If they won and invaded she feared they would track down the Fryatt family members." So today, the relations that bear Fryatt's name are not his direct descendants but those of his siblings, many of whom still live in the Southampton area. Mr Baker's exhibition takes place at the Masonic Hall, Ferndale Road, Harwich, CO12 3LP







Frank Alfred Cook born October 1876 in Bideford, Appledore, Devon the youngest son of Alfred Cook and Elizabeth Tully Dennis. The other children being Thomas Crockford b1864, Charles Dennis b1867 & Blanche Stanbury b1874. By 1881 the family had moved to Swansea as Alfred was a Shipbuilding Manager.
Frank Alfred married in April 1901 to Martha Ann Pitman but no children appeared while they lived at 17 Earl Road, Penarth.

The SS Bangarth, of Liverpool, a Rea Shipping Company collier of 1872grt built in Middlesbrough in 1906 with a triple expansion steam reciprocating engine built in Sunderland was on passage from Methil (Edinburgh) to Dunkerque. On 13th December 13miles NNE of the River Tyne she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB34 commanded Lt. zur See Hellmuth von Ruckteschell. The First Engineer Frank Alfred Cook aged 41 and his Second Engineer Taliesin Jenkins, son of the late Samuel and Margaret Jenkins; husband of Margaret Sarah Jenkins of 81, Windsor Road, Penarth born Blaina, Monmouthshire were the only ones killed.

Frank Alfred Cook was my cousin’s mother’s uncle and this is where fate appears as four months later on the 13th March my mother’s father, AWS Clarke was on the SS Lonedith off Hartlepool and rammed this submarine UB34 with HvR commanding which the government thought was a good thing and gave him over £20. They had never met but across two future marriages they struck back.

[john mc dermott]

Hi Des ,in your book is there any mention of a small coastal collier called the QUICKTHORN , number 118734. She sank off Skokholm Island in the Irish sea on 15/01/1942 , off the coast of Wales .She was loaded with coal from Wales to Londonderry .Thanks in advance.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.

There were only ten merchant ships starting with the letter Q sunk during the war, the nearest to that name is the Quickstep sunk on the 12th of January 1942, it only gives the cordinats.
Cheers Des

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
It might have been a storm that caused her to sink, in which case sh wouldn't have been put down as a war casualty. Have you tried Wikipedia?
Des

[john mc dermott]

Hi Des ,yes she foundered in a storm and some of the crew survived. I am trying to find out how they were rescued but to no avail .Thanks for your help Des ,and maybe one day i will find the answer.