 |
Unit / Ship / Establishment:
SS Tangistan
|
 |
Detail : |
| "Mike: Sunk 9 miles N from Flamborough Head / Benisaf - Tees by U-Boat U-12 The merchant navy (Volume 1) - Hurd, Archibald, Sir The Tangistan was on passage from Ben-isaf to Middlesbrough with a cargo of iron ore. The voyage from the Mediterranean had been like scores of other voyages which the crew had previously made ; they had seen no enemy ships, and they had run into no mines. As the ship approached Middlesbrough, it was realised that she was early for the tide, so speed was reduced. Night fell, and all on board were anticipating their early arrival in port, when suddenly the ship trembled from end to end and then stopped. The hour 298 APPEARANCE OF THE SUBMARINE [CH. vn of midnight was just striking ; the lights went out. All hands rushed up on deck, to find the Tangistan was rapidly sinking under their feet. There was little or no confusion as orders were shouted from the bridge for the boats to be lowered. Before this could be done, however, the tragedy was completed ; the Tangistan, on an even keel, disappeared in the dark waters, with all on board. Several of the men came to the surface, and cries rang out in the night, but only one of them survived the night's horror a seaman named J. C. Toole. He managed to secure a spar, and he clung to it in desperation as offering him the only hope of life. Benumbed with the cold, he noticed the other voices around him were soon silenced, and he remained the lonely survivor of the whole ship's company ! All he could do was to shout in the hope that he might attract the attention of some passing steamer, and this he did with all his remaining strength. One ship had passed in the night soon after he had reached the surface, and then he descried yet another vessel, but failed to attract her attention. Three times hope of rescue was excited, but each time the desperate man was disappointed. He had been in the water for two hours when at last the s.s. Woodville passed near him, heard his cries, now faint with increasing exhaustion, and picked him up. He was afterwards landed at West Hartlepool. Of the crew of thirty-nine, consequently, only one man survived to tell the tale of the loss of the Tangistan. Whether the Tangistan was, as in the case of the Princess Victoria and Blackwood, the victim of a submarine, or whether she exploded a mine, was a matter of some doubt, but it is significant that "" Die Deutschen U-Boote in ihrer Kriegsfiihrung, 1914-18 "" claims the Tangistan as a victim of U12, whose destruction the following day is described in a later chapter (p. 390)." |
Notes: - |
|
FIRST PREV ( Page 1 of 1 ) NEXT LAST
|
