Diary of the War No.16
Today’s First World War Diary entry commemorates the loss of HMHS Anglia on 17 November 1915. Built in 1900 for the London and North-Western Railway, she became one of many civilian vessels requisitioned for war service. A couple of months ago, in the story of the Africa, we saw how railway companies at home built and exported railway carriages to support the evacuation of wounded servicemen from the front overseas. The ferries owned by railway companies also played their part: Anglia‘s peacetime role as a passenger vessel fitted her well for her wartime function as a hospital ship.
It was on one such journey from Boulogne to Dover, carrying nearly 400 wounded soldiers and medical staff, that Anglia struck a mine laid by UC-5 in the Straits of Dover. UC-5 had been active in mining the key route from London to France, laying fields off the Sunk in the Thames Estuary, off Dover, and off Boulogne itself. (1) Following the explosion the boats were got out and the first party of 50 quickly escaped.
The ship then began to list heavily and sank so rapidly that some of the crew and passengers, soldiers and medical staff alike, unfortunately went down with her. The exact numbers are not quite clear but it is believed around 129 persons lost their lives, including some of the wounded.
One of the vessels which steamed to her assistance was the Lusitania, bound from London to Lisbon and Cadiz, a route reflected in her name, by which the Romans had known their province roughly corresponding to modern Portugal. By coincidence, she was also lost to enemy action in the same year as the more famous vessel of that name, as she subsequently struck a mine in the same field as the Anglia, and sank half a mile south.
Anglia was not the first hospital ship loss of the war, nor would she be the last. (In a previous War Diary entry we have looked at the Rohilla, lost on the rocks near Whitby in October 1914.) The Red Cross livery signalled Anglia‘s humanitarian function to friend and foe alike, but was no talisman against minefields, which respected neither nationality nor function. Those evacuated from the front were saved from one hell, only for some to lose their lives in another.
Update 02 December 2015: ‘Twice Shipwrecked in an Hour’. For an interesting article looking at some of the survivors of Anglia and Lusitania, click here.
(1) Naval Staff Monographs (Historical), Vol. XV Home Waters – Part VI: from October 1915 to May 1916, Admiralty, London, 1926
I don’t think the other ship in the first photo is the Lusitania. It looks more like the torpedo boat Hazard.
Hello Steve, thank you very much for pointing this out, you’re on the right lines. It’s not HMS Hazard, though, but very close. The lines are similar, but the funnels don’t match Hazard (too close together to be that vessel).
I am reliably informed, thanks to a colleague in the MOD, that it is one of the other vessels that also went to the Anglia‘s assistance, HM Torpedo Boat No.4.
Confusion reigned at the time though – understandably. This suite of 4 photographs, two of which are reproduced here, was published in the Illustrated London News of 8 January 1916., in which this picture is captioned ‘Just after the Anglia struck the mine, in the Channel: the first rescue-boats and the collier “Lusitania” in attendance.’
The interesting thing about the First World War at sea is the evolution of documentary photography while events were in train: for the first time photographs of wreck events as they happened were becoming commonplace, rather than record compositions of vessels post-loss.
My great uncle William Edward Twist, was on this ship, wounded in Flanders, however he did not survive. Does anyone know if any bodies were recovered as I am wanting to know what happened to him. I know he is commemorated, along with others, at Southampton and on the cenotaph in Thornaby on Tees, his hometown, but would like to know whether his body was actually recovered. I read that two of the wards were blown up when the mine hit so maybe not. Any detailed information, if any, would be appreciated.
Thank you very much for your comment. The nature of shipwreck events, particularly sudden and/or violent sinkings, as here, means that going down with the ship has historically been fairly common.
Individuals’ fates are not always captured specifically in accounts of loss. I suspect it is highly likely, unfortunately, that as a cot case he may well have gone down with the vessel, as he is noted as missing in a newspaper report of 29 November.
It is possible that his body may subsequently have been picked up but, given the tides and currents in this area, bodies and wreckage are known on occasion to travel as far as the Dutch or German coasts.
I hope that the status of HMHS Anglia, which was designated last year under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, is of some reassurance to you.