Impression sketch
of Princess Irene - by Jamie. Original image can be seen at: http://www.loeildelaphotographie.com/2014/11/21/exhibition/26666/venezia-defends-itself-1915-1918-casa-dei-tre-oci-venezia
On the evening of 27 May the
Admiralty
Secretary made announcement,
How on that very morning H. M.
Princess
Irene and Auxiliary ships at
Sheerness,
Suffered a sudden explosion.
Onboard the Princess Irene at
harbour,
Were dockyard men, in total
78 - all believed killed - the only
survivor
Was a stoker David Wills, suffering
burns
In result of the destruction.
Completed early in 1915 by Denny
& Co,
At Dumbarton Shipyards,
The two large Steamships
commissioned,
For Canadian Pacific Railway Company,
For Pacific Coast trade.
Princes Irene, previously a
passenger liner,
Had oil fired boilers and geared
Turbines - at anchor in the Medway off
Port
Victoria in process of bring
refitted - eighty
Shipwrights and riveters on board.
At 11.15 a.m. explosions sent
columns
Of smoke with arching flames,
300 feet - heard at a distance the
town
Shook - other ships felt the blast
as men
Elsewhere suffered injuries.
Debris scattered over a vast distance
When the cloud of smoke
Dispersed, nothing was left of
vessel -
Other than some floating debris -
only
One body was recovered.
The dead man Identified as Mr Turner
Of Luton - an assumption
Was that others might not be found -
Injuries on other ships resulted
from
Falling splintered debris.
The wind had been blowing north
easterly,
Carrying the concussion
Of explosion, some five miles - at
Upchurch
Overlooking the Medway reacted in
part
Of the church tower to fall.
Ten miles to Sittingbourne, to shake
houses
Of the town - as glass fronted
Shops shattered, ceilings fell down
in some
Cases - as girls of county school
hurried
From their buildings.
One woman fainted in thought of
Zeppelin raid -
Elsewhere at Maidstone,
Swing doors flew open and other
elements
Thrown from the ship were caught in
the wind;
A cloud of papers -
Blown to travel twelve miles inland
the paper
Rained on villages of Maidstone
Teston, Barming and Allington - with
witness
To
navel signal forms and other papers
- some
Splashed
with lead.
A
total of 352 lives were found to be lost -
To
include a farmhand who had
Died
from shock, a girl of nine hit by debris
On
Isle of Grain - where severed heads
Were
also found lying about.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Liner Blown Up at Sheerness –
Great Loss of Life. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 28 May. P.9. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11631036/Daily-Telegraph-May-28-1915.html
[Accessed: 28 May 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication,
28 May 2015).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11631036/Daily-Telegraph-May-28-1915.html
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Royal Navy
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