The sinking of the SS Devonian

[Randi]

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HMS Virginian, 21st August 1917, sailing from Lough Swilly in Northern Ireland to join a convoy.

'5.50 Convoy getting underweigh

11.52 SS Devonian struck
11.53 Alarm rung Hands to action stations.Full speed

12.45 Devonian sunk

1.12 Sighted periscope of submarine 3 Pts on Stbd bow,Ported Helm engaging her.
Ship struck by torpedo abaft stern Stbd side.
Flooded after 6'' mgz + part No 5 hold.Endevouring to make Lough Swilly.
Vessel's steering proving very difficult.
TBD 'Rob Roy' attempted to steer us but proved unsuccessful

8.30 Passed Boom
8.45 Let go port anchor...''

From www.wrecksite.eu and naval-history-net, the Devonian was a 'defensively armed merchantship of the Leyland Line' and was 'torpedoed by U-53 (Hans Rose), on a voyage from Liverpool to Boston, with general cargo', 20 miles NE from Tory Island.

Wrecksite quotes two people as being killed in the attack, (the ship had a crew of 133) while navel-history-net has 'possably 2 lives lost' and gives the name of one naval casualty.
'Meaney,John, Seamen RNR, A6213' - May he rest in peace.

[Randi]

At least Devonian seem to have had a well-drilled crew and weren't too far from land. Losing only 1 or 2 men after a torpedo attack which sinks your ship shows a high level of organisation. Having been brought up on WW2 reminiscences one tends to forget that they didn't have sonar or even much in the way of RDF. Mind you, they couldn't stay down for so long so it did even up a bit. I've visited a nuclear sub but I don't think I could have coped with a WW2 let alone a WW1 version.

I've been inside a WWII sub - U505 is a permanent exhibit of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. It was captured off West Africa in1944, and moved to a custom indoor garage after 50 years of Chicago winters threatened to destroy it totally.

Even as a small school kid, it was very tight and crowded and an unpleasant living space. A WWI sub must have been worse.

[Randi]

You may find it interesting to compare the Virginian's log for 21 August 1917 with the Changuinola's page for the same date:

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The Changuinola refers to the lost ship as the "Devonia" rather than the "Devonian" - the latter appears to be correct.

Isn't it strange that neither the Changuinola nor the Virginian mention the other ship?

This was the Changuinola's very first convoy duty - she was sent straight back to Atlantic Patrol!

I've noticed when sailing with other ships, they mention each other when they leave harbor, and when they directly communicate or do something to or linked with each other. Just sailing along in the same direction doesn't count as worthy of logging, nor is doing something different in the same waters. They may or may not mention each other when they re-enter a harbor together.

[Randi]

Hi, thanks for posting the Changuinola page for this.It's fascinating to see the same incident from two points of view.I don't think I've seen a log page where all the members of a convoy were named, but did wonder why the Virginian hadn't mentioned the Roscommon.

However, Naval-history-net lists no fewer then seven ships sunk on the 21st August 1917, one at Cape Bon in the Eastern Med', the rest around the British Isles.This is the entry for the Roscommon.

'ROSCOMMON, 8,238grt, defensively-armed, 21 August 1917, 20 miles NE from Tory Island, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine'

Also,again from Naval-history-net, it seems that more then one U-Boat was attacking that particular convoy;- U-53 is listed as having sunk the Devonian and U-102 as firing the
torpedo that struck the Virginian.