Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Naval Campaign is defined as to include all sea operations where attrition rates are in ones and twos and which do not fall within specific naval battles such as Jutland, Coronel, Falklands etc. This includes Merchant Navy losses.

Detail :

RYAN, ALFRED WILLIAM (40), Second Engineer, Mercantile Marine,

The AFRIC was built by Harland & Wolff Ltd. in Belfast for the White Star Line´s Australian trade in 1899. Her tonnage was 11,948 tons gross, 11,183 under deck and 7,804 net. She was 550.2 feet long, 63.3 foot beam and holds 31.9 feet deep. She had one funnel, four masts, 3 decks, and refrigerated cargo space for the carriage of frozen meat. She had a quadruple expansion engine built by Harland & Wolff, with 8 cylinders of 22, 31 1/2, 46 & 67 inches diameter each pair and stroke 51 inches. The engine delivered 642 nominal horsepower with twin screws and a speed of 14 knots. There was accommodation for 350 single-class passengers.

She commenced her maiden voyage on 8th Feb. 1899 when she left Liverpool on a trial run to New York, after which she returned to Belfast for some months to allow alterations to be carried out. On 9th Sept. 1899 she sailed from Liverpool for Cape town, Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. She carried troops for the Boer War. She continued on the Australia service until 12th Feb. 1917 when she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UC-66 off the Eddystone Rock in the English Channel with the loss of 22 people whilst on a voyage from Liverpool via Devonport for Sydney (ns) with a general cargo. Call sign: Qrjd. Official registration #: 110537. Owners: "Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (Ismay, Imrie & Co., managers)". Port of was Liverpool.

The British steamship Afric was 12 miles S.S.W. of the Eddy stone Lighthouse at about 5.15 a.m. on the 12th February, 1917. Suddenly a torpedo struck her on the starboard side about abreast of the engine-room, causing a terrific explosion, which stopped the engines, put out all lights, broke the telegraphs, and brought the aerial down. The engineers and greasers on watch at the time were killed. The rest of the crew left the ship and stood by in eight boats, leaving the master, first officer and steward on board. At 6 a.m. a second explosion occurred on the port side abreast of No. I hold. The ship was finally abandoned after this, and at about 6.20 a.m. submarine UC-66 appeared, questioned the master, and then shelled the ship, which sank at 7.45 a.m. The boats were picked up about 5 hours later. Five men were killed, probably by the first explosion.

See more at < href="https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?5098" target="_blank">Wrecksite EU.

For his service he was awarded the Mercantile Marine Medal 1014-1918.

Commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial.

Masonic :

Listed as a Marine Engineer of 23 Church Road, Walton upon his initiation in 1901. He is noted to have "Died 17th Mar/17 - Torpedoed."

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley