Early Life :

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 :

Master Mariner, John Stubbs, SS Mariston.

The SS Mariston was en route from Almeria, Spain to Glasgow with a cargo of copper ore when she was torpedoed by U-45, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Erich Sittenfield. The ship was hit twice and sank rapidly with the second explosion destroying the mid-ships bridge sections where John Stubbs, as Master, probably would have been. The Mariston went down about 80 miles west of Fastnet off the southern coast of Ireland. 28 crew were lost, with the sole survivor, the cook being picked up 15 hours later.

Kapitänleutnant Erich Sittenfield would be killed about 2 months later when U-45 itself was torpedoed off the west coast of Scotland.

See Wrecksite EU for further detail.

The sinking was reported in the Times under the headline ‘Torpedoed Crew Devoured by Sharks’….. ‘another instance of the barbarity of German submarine commanders’.

In Chapter Ten of World War 1 at Sea - THE MERCHANT NAVY, Volume 3, Spring 1917 to November 1918 (Part 2 of 2) by Sir Archibald Hurd, entitled 'The Intensive Subamarine Campaign III - July 1917 to November 1918, detail of the fate of the crew of the Mariston emerges: "On the same day occurred one of the most gruesome of all the incidents recorded during this barbarous campaign. The Mariston (2,908 tons) was torpedoed and sunk at 3 a.m. Out of a crew of 29, the only survivor was the cook. There were two explosions, and the ship sank very rapidly. The cook secured a hatch, and drifted about on this precarious raft for fifteen hours before he was picked up. When the ship first went down, he counted 17 of his shipmates clinging to various bits of wreckage in the water. The submarine came to the surface, and her officer stood for some minutes looking at his victims struggling for their lives. There was no ship in sight, and he could have rescued them all if he had been so minded. Then something happened which even he did not care to watch, and he closed his conning‑tower, and sub­merged. One by one the cook saw his comrades disappear, each uttering a piercing scream as he was dragged below. A school of man‑eating sharks had completed the ghastly work which the submarine began."

De Ruvigny's "STUBBS, John , s. of the late David Stubbs, of Whitehaven; co. Cumberland, and Melbourne, Australia; served in the Mercantile Marine from an early age, first in Australia, and later in Liverpool; gained rapid promotion, and was subsequently engaged as Master with various well-known ship owners. At the time of his death he was in commend of the S.S. Mariston, of Miller's, Glasgow, which was sunk by enemy submarine off the Irish coast 15 July, 1917. Although retired from active service, owing to advanced age, he nobly obeyed the call of his King and Country."

Probate: STUBBS John of Cryn-y-burch Farm Racecourse Oswestry Shropshire died 15 July 1917 at sea Probate London 30 October to Charles Henry Hutchence manager and Thomas Clark station master. Effects £1326 3s 8d.

Masonic :

The 1921 lists the entry as Joseph STUBBS, but after checking the records of Windsor Lodge at the United Grand Lodge of England, it shows no Joseph Stubbs in the records. They do reveal John Stubbs who was initiated in 1893, which is supported by the 1933 scroll, where the name has changed. The contribution record shows War Service (w.s.) and John is annotated "Killed at Sea" July 17"

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