Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

"Sir In the case of the Artist (3,570 tons) little short of a miracle accounted for the survival of nine of her complement of thirty- five men. January 27th was a dirty day in the North Atlantic, and as the Artist (master, Mr, G. Mills) drew in towards the Fastnet, she encountered the full force of an easterly gale which swept her from stem to stern. She had battled her way across the Atlantic, having been hove to for three nights and two days, and it may well have seemed to Captain Mills and his little company that in weather which had so severely tested the seaworthiness of their big ship no smaller enemy craft could live. But about 8 o'clock in the morning the confused noise of wind and sea was drowned by the sound of an explosion. A torpedo had torn a great hole in the vessel on the starboard side. It was soon apparent that, in such a sea, the damaged ship could live only a few minutes. It was a desperate situation for all on board, for as they turned to the task of launching the boats water poured over the decks as the Artist began to settle down by the head. But these men were not to be easily daunted, and all three boats were in a few minutes safely in the water and the stricken vessel was deserted. The master, with the second and third officers and a portion of the crew, was in one boat, the chief engineer was in charge of another, and a cadet was put in control of a third : and it was the last of these boats which survived the ordeal. The chief officer with his companions disappeared almost at once in the raging tumult of the waters. But Captain INIills and the cadet managed to get clear of the doomed ship, and throughout that day, with sea anchors laid out, they drifted. Throughout the night the gale increased in violence, the thermometer dropping to 37 Deg. Those who have never spent a night in mid-winter in an open boat cannot by any stretch of imagination picture the horrors which these men endured as they devoted themselves to the task of baling out the water which broke over the gunwales. Wet to the skin and cold to the marrow, they must have realised how wellnigh hopeless was the prospect that they would survive. By the following morning nothing was to be seen of the captain's boat ; it had disappeared, and nothing was ever heard of it or its occupants. The cadet and his little group of companions alone survived. They were the sole remnant of the forty-five men who had put out on the voyage. They knew that the wireless operator had sent out a call for help when the Artist had been struck, but what prospect was there that help could reach them in such weather ? Moreover, though the Artist had been sunk fifty-eight miles W. 1/2 S. from the Smalls, the position of their little boat as she had drifted hour by hour was unknown to anyone. Throughout the Sunday, all the following day, and until long after dawn on the Tuesday, the boat was at the mercy of wind, tide, and wave. Men died and their bodies were committed to the deep ; others sustained various injuries, and all suffered the agonies of cold, wet, and physicaland mental exhaustion. Were there not overwhelming official evidence, as well as the narratives of the survivors, it would be almost past belief that any men could have existed throughout those three days and three nights. But, at last, the wind dropped and the sea began to subside. With unspeakable relief their tired, overstrained eyes picked up in the far distance lights which spoke of land being nigh. A short time afterwards a steamer outward bound bore down upon them, but there remained of the original crew of sixteen persons only ten in the boat, and one of these was rigid in death. In calmer seas it proved a simple matter to transfer the survivors to the patrol-boat, and thus in due course they were conveyed ashore to receive at the hands of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society the succour of which they stood in such dire need. A brief account of the sinking of the Artist was issued shortly afterwards by the Admiralty, and in this statement it was remarked that "the pledge given by Germany to the United States not to sink merchant ships without ensuring the safety of the passengers and crews had been broken before, but never in circumstances of more coldblooded brutality." A new chapter in sea warfare without parallel in history had already opened." The Merchant Navy (Volume 2) - Hurd, Archibald,

Detail :

James had served his apprenticeship and joined the Liverpool branch of the Marine Engineers Association. The surviving crew lists show James as Chief Engineer aboard the SS Matador from 1904 t0 1907 then transferring to SS Artist, also as Chief Engineer until his death Like many other Liverpool engineers, his life ended tragically at sea, off the British coastline, on Saturday 27 January 1917, aged 47.

The ship left Newport, South Wales, on 24 January 1917, with a cargo of coal and railway stock heading towards Alexandria. However, due to the severity of a storm she encountered she had to lay up and let the storm subside. On the 27th she was spotted by a German submarine and torpedoed without warning, her position being 58 miles W½S from St David’s Head, Pembroke. The ship had time to send a distress signal, and a patrol boat was quickly sent to look for any survivors. Before sinking the ships crew had managed to launch at least one lifeboat, which was found drifting three days later by the steamer “S.S. Luchana”. The life boat had set out with 24 people aboard, but when found only 17 were still alive, of the other members of the crew nothing was ever found, they either went down with the ship, or their lifeboats, if launched, later capsized.

The vessel that sank her, the U55, captained by Wilhelm Werner, was a patrol submarine built in Kiel, which had four 20” torpedo tubes and carried a crew of 35. Ironically, 35 lives were lost from the “SS Artist” when she sank, including not only James R Armstrong, but also R James McWalters, the Chief Officer, a member of Neptune Lodge No 1264., Liverpool

The national probate calendar says, James Richardson Armstrong 20 Wellesley Road, Liverpool, marine engineer died 27 January 1917 at sea. Probate granted at Liverpool 14 December 1917, to Clara Ann Armstrong, widow. Effects £1097.14s.6d.

James is further commemorated, with his shipmates on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.

Masonic :

James was initiated into Everton Lodge No 823 on 8th July, 1901 while residing at 78 Admiral Street, a 31 year old Marine Engineer. He was passed to the second degree on 7 October in Neptune Lodge No 1264, and raised on 5 March 1902 to the degree of Master Mason. His Grand Lodge certificate was issued on 9 April 1902. In the records of the United Grand Lodge of England on the records of Everton Lodge it shows "Died January 17 - Torpedoed."

He is commemorated on the Liverpool Masonic Hall Memorial, Hope Street, the Scroll of Honour at Freemasons Hall in London, and within the Roll of Honour Book, published by United Grand Lodge in 1921 on page 26 as Armstrong, Richardson James Engr.-Lieut. R.N.R.

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