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Post by KG on Aug 3, 2018 14:25:03 GMT
Daybreak - lives lost
Masters: 1911-14 E Morris: 1915-17 ST Pope. The defensively armed British merchant ship survived a U-boat attack in the Arctic Ocean on 1 November 1916 but on a voyage from Huelva for Glasgow with a cargo of maize, when she was near Strangford Lough shore, off the Ards Peninsula a mile east of South Rock lightship, County Down on 24 December 1917, she was torpedoed without warning & sunk by German submarine U-87 (Rudolf Freiherr von Speth-Schulzburg) 21 lives were lost including the master. Lives lost December 1917: Barrett, James, ordinary seaman, 18, Kinsale, County Cork; Bianchi, Paolo, fireman, 37, Casal Zebbug, Malta; Collins, W, able seaman, 35, b. St Johns, Newfoundland ; Dobson, John Edward Tomlin, 2nd mate, 30, Polruan, Cornwall; Fredericksen, T, able seaman, 19, Denmark; Gomez, Jacine, able seaman, 35, Portugal; Greenway, Thomas, boatswain, 47, Kinsale, County Cork; Gomez, Jacine, able seaman, 35, b. Portugal; Gulwell, Ernest, mess room steward, 17, Tewkesbury; Harrop, Griffiths, Joseph, 2nd engineer, 23, Pontardulais; Holland, James Allcock, ship’s cook, 45, Birkenhead; Kennedy, Joseph, fireman (served as Bonner) aged 33, Thomas St. Londonderry; Muscat, Michael, fireman, 39, Bona, Malta ; O’Conner, William, seaman, 39, Brownsmills, Kinsale; Owen, William, 1st mate, 39, North Llanllechid; Pepper, Thomas, seaman, 18, Nottingham; Pope, SF, master; Postlethwaite, Tom Bennett Steward, 62, Keswick, Cumberland; Sumner, Frank, signalman, 18, Leamington Spa; Verney, Samuel, seaman, 19, London; Wilkins, W, fireman, 27, Southampton. LINKFate
The West Hartlepool-registered steamship Daybreak was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-87, (Rudolf Freiherr von Speth-Schulzburg) off the South Rock Light vessel, Northern Ireland, on December 24th, 1917. The ship was on a voyage from Huelva, Spain, to Glasgow with a cargo of iron ore. Twenty-one crew members were lost including the Master, S.T. Pope. LINK
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Post by KG on Aug 3, 2018 14:31:55 GMT
SS. Daybreak, Christmas Eve 1917
Christmas Eve 1917.
From the Memorial Card of Thomas Greenway (of Kinsale)
One sad year has passed away
Since our great sorrow fell,
But in our hearts we mourn the loss
Of those we loved so well.
We think of him in silence,
And his name we oft recall:
But there’s nothing left to answer,
But his picture on the wall.
Sacred Heart of Jesus
HAVE MERCY ON THE SOUL OF:
THOMAS GREENWAY
Who lost his life off “SS. Daybreak”.
On 24th December, 1917.
Aged 45 years.
RIP
Most merciful Jesus, lover of souls we beseech Thee,
by the agony of Thy Most Sacred
Hearth and by the sorrows of Thy immaculate
Mother, cleanse in Thy blood the soul of Thy servant – Amen.
Roll on, Roll on, on Western deep,
That loved my lovely boy to sleep.
Were I to know Lough Swilly’s shore
Would be your grave for evermore,
I’d clasp you to my loving heart,
And never would I let you part.
The SS Daybreak was sunk as a result of a torpedo fired without warning by a
German submarine on Christmas Eve 1917 near South Rock Lightship, Strangford Lough, off
the Ards Peninsula, Co Down. Previous records stated that the vessel was sunk at Lough
Swilly and this is even mentioned in the memorial card of Thomas Greenway.
Although a British ship registered in West Hartlepool on the North East coast of England, she
was defensively armed due to the state of hostilities and actually survived a U-boat attack in
the Arctic Ocean on November 1, 1916.
Three Kinsale men amongst the crew died that day, they were: James Barrett, ordinary seaman,
aged 18, son of Patrick and Hannah Barrett, Fisher Street (now Lower O’Connell Street). William
O’Connor, able seaman, aged 39, son of Michael and Ellen O’Connor and husband of Ellen
(nee McCarthy), Higher (O’Connell) Street. He was born at Brownsmills. Thomas Greenway,
boatswain, aged 47, son of the late James and Mary Greenway and husband of the late Nora
Greenway.
An eye witness, John Bailie of Newcastle, a boat contractor attending the South Rock Lightship, recalled the loss of the steamer one mile east. “I remember being on the South Rock as a temporary for 2/6 a day, feed yourself. On Christmas Eve 1917 at about midday, the Daybreak, loaded with maize, was torpedoed and 21 were lost. Her nose was cut clean off. It happened so quick her propeller was going round in the air as she sank. You talk about explosions, boilers were bursting one after another”.
On Christmas Day, the same U-boat 87 attacked a convoy in the Irish Sea but sank after being rammed by the sloop HMS Buttercup and British patrol boat PC56. All of its 44 crew perished..
The names of all casualties of the Daybreak are listed at the Merchant Navy Association’s Commonwealth War Dead Memorial at Tower Hill, London (which has a total of 22,000 names). In 1998, Jim Greenway, of Barry presented the World War 1 medals of his Grandfather Thomas to Kinsale Regional Museum at a function in the Municipal Hall, Kinsale.
The Daybreak is remembered in a poem by Captain Joe Earl.
The S.S. DAYBREAK
Nineteen seventeen it was – during perilous days,
The freighter S.S. Daybreak loaded deep with maize,
Steamed along on Christmas Eve near the Southern Rock,
Off the coast of County Down abeam of Strangford Lough,
No notice or forewarning, a torpedo found its mark,
It came and blew the nose right off – plunging all in dark
The vessel’s screw rotating during its descent,
Her boilers then exploding as underneath they went.
U – Boat Eighty Seven had loosed her lethal load,
To meet this helpless target on a winter’s ocean road,
One and twenty brave men - the total of her crew,
Murdered in the Irish Sea by folk they never knew,
It was seen by witnesses or perhaps we’d never know,
What occurred to brave men dragged down far below,
Entombed there now forever, thirty fathoms deep,
Akin to unsung mariners in Davy Jones’s keep.
Joe Earl
Honoured also at Tower Hill is James Greenway, Brother to Thomas who was
boatswain on the SS Tregenna, built at West Hartlepool in 1919 but registered in St. Ives,
Cornwall when it was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-65 while in convoy North
West of Rockall in the Atlantic Ocean while on a return voyage from Philadelphia to
Newport, Monmouthshire, with a cargo of 8,000 tons of steel during World War II on
September 17, 1940. Thirty-three died and four survived. James Greenway was aged 62.
Another Irishman to perish was ordinary seaman Michael O’Brien from Arklow.
CHRISTMAS 1917 - HOW DEEP THEIR GRAVES
Canova, 4,637grt, defensively-armed, 24 December 1917, 15 miles South from Mine Head, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, 7 lives lost
Daybreak, 3,238grt, defensively-armed, 24 December 1917, 1 mile East from South Rock LV, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, 21 lives lost including Master
Turnbridge, 2,874grt, defensively-armed, 24 December 1917, 34 miles NE by N from Cape Ivi, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, 1 life lost
Argo, 3,071grt, defensively-armed, 24 December 1917, 18 miles NW from Cape Tenez, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine
Cliftondale, 3,811grt, defensively-armed, 25 December 1917, 36 miles E by N ½ N from Cape Tenez, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, 3 lives lost, Master prisoner
Agberi, 4,821grt, defensively-armed, 25 December 1917, 18 miles NW ½ N from Bardsey Island, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine
Umballa, 5,310grt, defensively armed, 25 December 1917, 8 miles SW by W from Cape Scalea, Gulf of Policastro, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, 15 lives lost
Tregenna, 5,772grt, defensively-armed, 26 December 1917, 9 miles south from Dodman Point, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine
They Bore the Brunt
By Joe Earl
They sailed the seas to bear the brunt,
They steamed the courses laid,
Ten thousand miles their battle front,
Unbacked and undismayed.
Fine seamen these of our great race,
From your seaport or town,
They risked their lives with danger faced
Until their ship went down.
Remember them - they held the line,
Won freedom on the way,
Remember them - their life was thine -
On merchant navy day.
J.Earl
SS. Daybreak: Captain and crew.
POPE, Master, S F,
OWEN, First Mate, WILLIAM,
DOBSON, Second Mate,
GREENWAY, Boatswain (Bosun), THOMAS,
SUMNER, Signalman, FRANK,
HARROP-GRIFFITHS, Second Engineer, JOSEPH,
POSTLETHWAITE, Steward, TOM BENNETT,
GULWELL, Mess Room Steward, ERNEST,
HOLLAND, Ship's Cook, JAMES ALLCOCK,
VERNEY, Able Seaman, SAMUEL,
FREDERICKSEN, Able Seaman, T,
COLLINS, Able Seaman, W,
GOMEZ, Able Seaman, JACINE,
O'CONNOR, Able Seaman, WILLIAM,
BIANCHI, Fireman, PAOLO,
KENNEDY, Fireman, JOSEPH,
MUSCAT, Fireman, MICHAEL,
WILKINS, Fireman, W,
PEPPER, Ordinary Seaman, THOMAS
BARRETT, Ordinary Seaman, JAMES,
ARCHANGEL ALLIED CEMETERY, Russian Federation
ROSS, Ordinary Seaman, JOHN HAMILTON, J/51016, S.S. "Daybreak.", Royal Navy.
Killed by an internal explosion of the vessel 8 November 1916. Age 21.
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