Days when ships off our coast were sitting targets for U-boats
UNDER full moonlight, the Apapa ship carried around 250 people and a hull full of silver and ivory along the coast of Anglesey.
The First World War was under way and the ship was travelling from an African port towards Liverpool at a steady pace in choppy waters on the night of November 28, 1917.
Just 10 minutes after the ship’s second engineer officer had carried out his checks, the vessel was struck. A torpedo fired from a German submarine caused a “tremendous crash” which “shook the ship from stem to stern”.
Water flooded the engine room, and the damage was so severe that the ship sank, three miles off Anglesey.
Of the 249 people on board, 77 passengers and crew lost their lives. 174 people managed to board the ship’s six lifeboats and were taken to Holyhead.
The attack on the Apapa was down to Germany’s U-boat campaign.
The war at sea began when the UK declared the North Sea as a war zone, ordering that any cargo heading to the central powers, including Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, would be confiscated.
Germany responded with a declaration that all waters around Great Britain and Ireland would be treated as a war zone, in a bid to cut off supplies.
In February 1917 Germany launched a new phase of submarine warfare where any Allied or neutral ship would be attacked on sight. The U-boat campaign meant the number of people to die at sea in Welsh waters sharply increased.
The attack on the Apapa was documented at the time in The North Wales Chronicle newspaper. In a report dated little more than a week after the attack, the second engineer officer said: “I had relieved the watch at 4am and found everything in order; the ship was making about 13 knots.
“About 4.10am there was a tremendous crash, which shook the ship from stem to stern, accompanied by a terrific rush of water into the engineroom.
“A torpedo had struck the ship about the starboard thrust recess, and the water striking the bulkhead came pouring on the starting platform, where I was standing at the time.”
He said: “While waiting [for people] to get into the boat I put on my boots and coat ... when there was another terrific explosion on the starboard side, a second torpedo having struck the ship which caused terrible havoc.”
Just seven minutes separated the torpedo attacks, and the vessel soon descended to the seabed.
One surviver of the Apapa attack described the German submarines as “like a dark shadow on the surface of the water”.
They told the newspaper: “The Germans would have you believe that their torpedoes are meant only to
destroy ships. “Their actions, however, prove that they are intended to destroy the lives of people, whether connected with the war or not.”
This story of crews trying to safely navigate Welsh waters in the First World War is just one of several documented by a Heritage Lottery-funded project instigated by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW).
The ‘U-Boat Project Commemorating the War at Sea/Prosiect LlongauU: Yn Coffáu’r Rhyfel ar y Môr’ has documented 17 wrecks in the depths of the ocean, delving into the circumstances around how and why they sank.
The U-Boat Project 1914-18 is a collaboration between the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, Bangor University and the Nautical Archaeology Society.
The 17 sites chosen are a small sample of the 170 vessels lost.
Vessels travelling around British waters were given advice from the Crew of the Steamer Hopemount, which was torpedoed and shelled by a German U- Boat Royal Navy on how to protect themselves.
They were told to steer in a zig-zag course or paint their ships with dazzle camouflage, which could confuse enemy ships.
Some Merchant Navy ships were fitted with deck guns and provided with naval gunners.
But, despite best efforts, ships in Welsh waters were usually no match for German U-boats.
■ The Hopemount
The Hopemount ship was travelling from Cardiff to Alexandria, Egypt, > carrying Welsh coal and several crew members.
The ship left the capital in June 1915 but was soon attacked by submarine shell fire.
A report printed in the Abergavenny Chronicle on June 18 that year said: “Captain Robert Gibson, interviewed at Barry Hospital, said that the Hopemount sighted the submarine about 6am on Sunday morning when about 70 miles west of Lundy Island.
“The submarine commenced to fire shells, several of which struck the ship, and fragments hit him (the captain) on the arms and neck.
“He and the crew took to the boat which had been flung out in readiness, and when they last saw the Hopemount she was settling down rapidly.
“After being in the boat about twelve hours they were picked up by a Greek steamer.”
■ The SS Cartagena
The minesweeping trawler and cargo ship was lost off the north-east of Anglesey on January 15, 1928, for unknown reasons.
There were no survivors and the ship mysteriously disappeared before a life jacket bearing its name washed up on Llandudno beach on February 4, 1928.
It has been suggested that changes to the ship’s ballast and additional coal being carried could have caused it to sink.
But the project said carrying this extra load “was considered uncommon practice”.
The ship now lies in 37m of water around six miles off Traeth Bychan, Anglesey.
■ HMS Marmora
Since the project began, people have been encouraged to send their stories. One came from the nephew of seaman Arthur Morris.
Arthur’s mother tried to stop him from going on his last journey aboard the HMS Marmora from Briton Ferry.
The boat was sunk by a German torpedo in July 1918. He had been planning to get married on his next leave.