Forgotten tragedy that was
Gerry Warren reveals...
Their war lasted just seven weeks – their grave, the dark, cold North Sea. The scene was of utter devastation and heartbreak with hundreds of bodies left floating on the water and in the depths as three British navy ships were sunk in just 90 minutes by a German U-boat.
The tragic loss at the start of the First World War was a huge blow, not just to the grieving families of the sailors, but also to the reputation and morale of the Admiralty.
In total, 1,459 men and teenage boys perished off the Dutch coast on September 22, 1914, and very few bodies were ever retrieved – the sea their final resting place.
That is almost as many as who died in the Titanic disaster just two years earlier, whose story continues to engage and fascinate audiences.
But after the initial shock, other tragedies of the brutal four-year conflict occupied the headlines and the story of the sinkings of HMS Cressy, Aboukir and Hogue faded from memory, save for naval historians and family descendants.
That was until Dutchman Henk van der Linden first began investigating the incident after discovering the graves of sailors whose bodies had been washed up on the beaches of Holland.
He produced an English language version of a book called The Live Bait Squadron, in 2012 – so called because the ships were deemed “sitting ducks” – which was the first authored account of what happened.
And just two years later, a service of commemoration was held at Chatham Dockyard to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy with the unveiling of a plaque to those who died, attended by some of their descendants.
“Henk really is to be credited for getting the story out there,” says retired Royal Navy officer Stuart Heaver, from Whitstable, who was already working on his own book that revisits the tragedy in his newly-published account, The Coal Black Sea.
Published by History Press, it gets its title from the grim scene as the torpedoed ships disgorged hundreds of tons of coal into the sea.
Heaver’s research delves deeper into the alleged political shenanigans at the Admiralty to shift blame onto the mariners and the personal stories of those who perished – as well as that of the German U-boat crew who were deemed heroes in their homeland.
He reveals how the loss of the three ships was a shocking blow to Kent, leaving behind heartbroken parents and widows struggling to feed their children with no support from the state.
It also examines how the ignominious loss provoked widespread criticism of the then highly-ambitious First Lord of the Admiralty, 39-year-old
The loss of almost 1,500 sailors with the sinking of three British armoured cruisers by a German U-boat was the biggest naval tragedy of the Great War. The shock was felt especially deeply in Kent where up to 200 families were left grief-stricken. But now, a new book claims the devastating attack was considered an embarrassment for the Admiralty, especially for its then-First Lord, Winston Churchill, who played it down as a ‘meaningless tragedy’ and shamefully shifted the blame onto the brave mariners themselves, as
Winston Churchill.
“While the families of the victims grieved, Churchill succeeded in playing down the significance of the disaster and shifted the blame to those serving at sea to save his faltering career,” says Heaver.
He believes the Admiralty
were embarrassed by such an early devastating assault on British forces which gave huge kudos to the German navy.
“Reading transcripts of the inquiry into the sinkings, it’s clear that the aim was to shift blame onto the mariners, many of whom were merchant seamen who joined the Naval Reserve at the start of the war,” he said.
“The language is subtle but the inference is there that they simply weren’t up to it.
“It certainly wasn’t Churchill’s finest hour.”
Heaver’s interest in the story was sparked eight years ago when he visited a village in Suffolk where he has family roots and his grandmother used to live.
“I was looking at a war memorial outside the pub in Westleton to 14 men and saw the name William Potter who I was aware was my great uncle who died in the war, “he says.
“But I did not know any details until I read the inscription that he was lost in the sinking of HMS Cressy.
“Then a few names down, I saw another name, David Spindler, a stoker who also died on the ship on the same day.
“As I was walking around the nearby churchyard, the curate approached me and asked if I was looking for anyone in particular. I explained my connection to the Potter family and he then produced a grave record
about my great uncle Will and Spindler, which really fired up my interest.
“I couldn’t understand why, despite my own naval background, I had heard so little about this great tragedy.”
It led Stuart on an exhaustive trail through national archives, the Imperial War Museum and dozens of other sources including newspaper archives and documents to reveal what he believes is the real story behind the maritime disaster – instead of the one which “dishonours” the men who lost their lives.
“Because so many mariners had been enlisted from the same towns and villages, it meant that brothers and mates were among the casualties with multiple telegrams recording them as ‘missing, feared dead’ delivered to the same and neighbouring addresses on the same day,” he says.
The heartbreak for so many grieving families so soon into the start of the war was felt in towns and villages across the county, says Heaver.
“The more I researched this, the more it was clear there had been a huge injustice to the reputations of those brave men,” he said.
“I hope my book exposes this false narrative and corrects over a century of misinformation and fake news to honour those who lost their lives in the worst naval catastrophe of the First World War.”
‘Reading transcripts of the inquiry into the sinkings, it’s clear that the aim was to shift blame onto the mariners – the inference is there that they simply weren’t up to it…’