THE STORM
On the afternoon of Thursday 18th March 1915, the National Lifeboat was launched for its quarterly practice, but the inclement weather prevented the usual crowd of sightseers from watching the event, which was usually a popular spectacle. The same applied to both the local Volunteer Company and the Bridlington School Officer Training Corps, which paraded separately in the town around the same time. A number of Royal Navy (RN) minesweepers had been sighted in the bay earlier in the afternoon, but since all were peacetime trawlers built for rough seas, their presence was not an immediate cause for concern.
Just before 17:00, snow began to fall heavily, and before long the whole town had taken on, “a winterly aspect such as [had] not been experienced in Bridlington for a long time.” [AOB, 1915/64] As darkness fell, the previously fitful northerly wind that had prevailed during the day rapidly increased. By 19:00 it was at hurricane force and, “the outlook in the bay was very wild and terrible.” [AOB, 1915/64]
Shortly before the hurricane broke, a small boat containing five men had been seen putting out from the harbour, heading for the last remaining minesweeper riding at anchor some distance from the piers. She was the Grimsby trawler the Lord Airedale, now pressed into war service as His Majesty’s Minesweeper No. 847. Her crew numbered twelve, all members of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), with the exception of a regular RN Chief Petty Officer. The coastguards signalled to the minesweeper that the small boat had left the harbour, but fishermen on the piers were of the opinion that it never actually reached the ship, and that the five men were therefore lost even before the main drama of events that would later unfold.
By 23:00, the snow was lying two inches on the ground, even though it had been interspersed with sleet. Around 23:30, the coastguards sighted distress signals coming from the minesweeper, opposite Auburn House 3.8km (2.5 miles) from the harbour, and apparently attempting to head south towards deeper water at Barmston. Three signal rockets were sent up, summoning the Lifeboat crew, although a number of them had inevitably been waiting all night in anticipation of just such a summons. Despite the fact that the weather was now at its worst, with blinding snow and sleet sweeping across the bay, many townspeople rushed to the Lifeboat station in Marine Drive, on the South Side of the harbour. The Lifeboat, the George and Jane Walker (Official No. 433), was 35 feet long, 8.5 feet wide, and weighed 3.6 tons. The horse-drawn carriage weighed an additional 3.5 tons. Normally manned by a crew of 13 – ten oarsmen and three officers – the Lifeboat had been in service at Bridlington since late-1899 [See Note 1], and carried sails in addition to oars, but was not otherwise powered.
The Lifeboat carriage was normally drawn by between two and eight (depending on conditions) workhorses owned by the Bridlington Corporation, but as they had not yet arrived, many willing locals – including some 250 soldiers of the Norfolk Regiment stationed in the area – began the task of hauling the carriage down the slipway. With the tide not yet in, the combined weight of over seven tons had to be dragged across the heavy sand to a point opposite the stricken minesweeeper, which by around 23:45 seemed to have grounded in about fifteen feet of water, near the low water mark between Auburn and Wilsthorpe, 100 to 150 yards from the water’s edge and some 3km (1.9 miles) from the slipway.
THE AFTERMATH
In the following hours, there was no lull in the storm, and with the tide rising rapidly, the minesweeper was quickly swamped. By the time dawn broke, only the top of her masts showed above the water. The next morning, the following telegrams were sent by the Coastguard:
A456 – From Flamborough Head to Admiralty 07:50 19/03/15 [Sent 07:56; Received 09:00]
Bridlington Coast Guard reports Mine Sweeping Trawler 847 wrecked South Bay. Communication with life saving apparatus but did not use it. Three bodies recovered.A457 – From Flamborough Head to Admiralty 10:40 19/03/15 [Received 11:36]
Refer to my A456. Mine Sweeping Trawler went ashore 11.45pm last night, South Side Bridlington Bay. L.S.A. established communication, crew made fast line but nothing more took place. Vessel now submerged only masts showing, four bodies recovered, feared all crew lost, if present weather continues vessel likely to become total wreck, will probably dry at low water.[ADM 1/8414/71]
After the tide had gone down, it could be seen that the minesweeper’s funnel and steering gear had been swept away, and that she had been extensively damaged by the pounding received in the storm. Of the dead, seven bodies were recovered between Fraisthorpe and Barmston during the Friday, and four more the next day, including that of Carr near Barmston. The minesweeper crew – including the skipper, John Robert Dawson – were placed in the local mortuary, while Carr was taken to the family home at 55 Brooklands Road, where the blinds of many houses in the immediate vicinity were already drawn in mourning. Miraculously, Lakes’s horse, Peddler, was found alive on the Saturday, having made it ashore furthur down the coast. He lived for a furthur 23 years, and was for ever known in the town as, “the Sea Horse.”
POSTSCRIPTS
Minsweeper crewmen Leman, Buxton, Taylor, Stephenson, Booth, Ellis, Salt and Llewellyn are buried in graves 41 D 15-thru-22 respectively in Grimsby (Scartho Road) Cemetery. Grice is buried in grave 76 N 19 in the same graveyard (presumably a Catholic plot). Dawson is interred in Great Yarmouth (Gorleston) Cemetery (grave D 4 105); while Mayson is buried at Fleetwood Borough Cemetery (grave 357). As the body of Doore was never recovered, he is comemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent. Although it was at first thought that the vessel was beyond furthur use, the Lord Airedale was refloated within three weeks and towed to Bridlington harbour, taking in a great deal of water in the process. Despite hopes that the remains of the two still missing crewmen would be found inside the minesweeper, this turned out not to be the case. The Lord Airedale was repaired and returned to mine sweeping service, but was herself sunk by a mine on 29/11/16 with the lost of seven of her fourteen crew. None were recovered, and they are comemorated as follows:
CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL: James Brunton (Deck Hand) Frederick Charles Fletcher (Trimmer/Cook) John Thomas Wilson (Engineman) PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL: Albert George Boobyer (Signalman) Neil Mackie (Engineman) Albert George Wiles (Trimmer) PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL: John Thomson (Trimmer)
[See Note 2]
Robert Brown, the volunteer driver on that fateful night, later served as a driver in the Royal Garrison Artillery and survived the Great War.
Of Robert Carr’s four sons, three returned safely from service, although Robert Jnr was wounded, and Tom (who had driven RAMC ambulances) suffered a bout of trench fever. The youngest, Joseph, received a shrapnel wound to the forehead (which also blinded him) in the very early hours of 15 June 1917, while taking ammunition supplies up to the front line near Ypres. He was evacuated via the 2/1 Wessex Field Ambulance and No. 12 Casualty Clearing Station to No. 4 General Hospital near Boulogne. He eventually died of meningitis as a result of his wounds on 13 July, and is buried at Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France. He named his unmarried sister Eliza as beneficiary in his army will.
Michael Fursey O’Neill, the absent father of Eliza Carr’s daughter, Ruth, had been mobilised whilst in Australia at the start of the War during his period of Reserve service in the Grenadier Guards (he had originally enlisted for three years active service in September 1904, with nine years in the Reserve). He arrived in France on 15 January 1915, and was awarded the Military Medal in early 1918. At the end of October 1918 he was repatriated to the UK after receiving a gunshot wound to the right shoulder. He died of pneumonia at his home in Ireland less than two weeks later, and is buried nearby.
Ruth Carr had four daughters, who in turn gave her two grandaughters and two grandsons, one being the author. She died in 1989, but since then her descendents now include four great-grandsons.