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Battle or Action:
SS Feltria, Sinking of
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Detail : |
| It was on May 5th, 1917, at 7.30 p.m., while en route to Avonmouth from New York, that the Feltria was torpedoed without warning about eight miles south-east of Mine Head off the Irish coast. A very heavy sea was running at the time. No 1 boat was capsized during launching, and No. 4 boat blown to pieces by the explosion of the torpedo. Boats Nos. 2, 3, 5, and 6 were successful in clearing the ship's side. Most of the crew were in boats Nos. 3 and 5, the captain and chief steward being alone in No. 2 boat, which had also been damaged by the explosion. The last boat away, No. 6, contained the Chief Officer, Second Officer, Purser, and three sailors, and it was this boat that the submarine, coming to the surface, ordered alongside. Having obtained particulars as to the Feltria and her cargo, she then left but stopped to pick up Mr. Stott, one of the Feltria's 95 engineers, and returned towards the lifeboat. From her deck, he was then assisted into the water. The Feltria's Quartermaster, Mr. Burt, with great courage, jumped into the water to meet him, and helped him to the boat's side, where he was taken on board in a very exhausted condition, while huge breakers were washing over the little boat itself. Of the boat containing the Captain, Captain W. G. Price, and Chief Steward, nothing more was seen, their lives being lost, and by midnight, three other members of the Feltria's crew in No. 6 boat had died from exposure and exhaustion, one of the victims being Mr. Stott himself. The remaining five in this boat were picked up early on Sunday morning by the S.S. Ridley and landed at Barrow; twenty other survivors were landed at Queenstown but out of a crew of 69 no less than 44 lost their lives, 17 dying from exposure in the lifeboats. "A Merchant Fleet at War". |
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