Poem ~ Tragedy Of The Belgian Prince, Thursday 9 August 1917 - Sunday 12 August 1917

Source: File: Two Survivors of the Belgian Prince. See an original image at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40831765> [Accessed 06 August 2017]

A steamer, Belgian Prince, out at sea

Some 200 miles from Irish coastline,

With a crew of varied origins - they

Included an American black man,

William Snell and a man of Tyneside

Thomas Bowman - Chief Engineer.

Built by Laing James and Sons Ltd

In 1904, the cargo ship was built

To reach 10.5 knots - The Belgian

Prince then owned by Prince Line.

Tuesday 31 July 1917, Thomas

Bowman was on deck; time 8 p.m.

175 miles distant from Tory Island

On Donegal coast, a German sub

U 55 was on a mission to sink any

Allied shipping - commanded by

Oberleutnant zur See Wilhelm

Werner; Belgian Prince was seen.

The U boat's engines were thrown

Into action and a course was begun.

The U boat launched a first torpedo.

Then struck Belgian Prince lurched

Sideways - chief engineer Thomas

Bowman fell on deck, hit by debris.

Boat's crew of 42 men took action

As the vessel gave a list, taking

To the lifeboats. Once in the water

The submarine came alongside

Fired on the disabled Belgian Prince

To foil attempts to call assistance.

The crew in the lifeboats were

Ordered by the U55 to remain

Alongside - with no other choice

They did so - a veteran of close

Escapes Thomas Bowman, told

How they were ordered aboard.

Among the 42 standing on the

Submarines deck Captain Hassan

Was separated and taken below -

Their prize from steamer Belgian

Prince that now hung limp in sea -

U boat crew focused on the crew.

While some took axes to the life

Boats other Germans removed

The lifebelts from all but 8 men;

Told to strip off their outer clothing -

Oars, balers and gratings were

Taken from the smashed lifeboats.

Without any consideration of 41

Men’s lives, the U55 crew climbed

Into their vessel and closed the

Hatches - Thomas Bowman told

How the U boat began to move

To wash them all into the waves.

One of eight Thomas Bowman

Still wore a life belt - a number

Of his fellow crew floundered

In the water to be pulled under

By the U55's swell - others swum

Back to the wrecked steamer.

By then the submarine was two

Miles distant, their Captain's fate

Unknown - hanging in water was

2nd Cook William Snell, of Florida

Jacksonville, and able Seaman

George Silessi; time passed.

The youngest apprentice aged 16,

Edward Sharp was calling out

For assistance - Bowman dived

Back into water and swam

To the boy to reassure the lad -

Bowman held him above water.

Hours passed into darkness,

As the figures left were carried

By the sea. Thomas attempted

To keep Edward awake but

The lad losing consciousness

Succumbed to exposure - he had

To let the boy drift from his hold.

Midnight was judged to pass

Still in darkened hours - the final

Survivors waited for daylight -

Finally some time after dawn,

Emerged on the sea the floating

Hulk of steamer Belgian Prince.

Smoke still drifted up from wreck

As Thomas Bowman summed

Energy to crawl through water,

When an explosion from debri

Halted chance to reach any kind

Of safety; around him were bodies.

Crewmates hung limp in the water -

In their isolation two others were

Still alive - able Seaman George

Silessi had already returned to their

Stricken steamer, to remain for hours

When a submarine lifted from sea.

While not certain this was the same

That had attacked them, Silessi saw

Numbers of Germans climb aboard

To claim any loot - Silessi slipped

Away into the water and made for

For the remains of a small boat.

William Snell, the American cook

Had also spent the same hours

Afloat, having concealed lifebelt

Under his clothing - time and water

Had caused him to drift in distance;

In daylight he saw Belgian Prince.

Holding onto his life Snell began

To head back towards the wreck -

At some distance he judged a mile,

Snell paused - close to the Prince

He saw the black U boat shape

To believe Germans had returned.

Stalling his return by his hesitation

He saw the final act to finish her -

The deck gun flashed twice with

A crack upon the hulk, the Belgian

Prince by her stern, finally sank -

He could do nothing but watch.

The slowly rising sun suggested

7 a.m. - was William Snell the only

Man left? The U-boat vanished to an

Underwater route, when little more

Than an hour later, a British boat

Found 3 survivors with 39 dead.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1917. Murder On The High Seas - Hums Fiendish Callousness. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 04 August 1917. P.8. Col.3. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214750/Daily-Telegraph-August-4-1917.html> [Accessed: 09 August 2017].

Source:  McCauley. C. File: BBC News: World War One: The sinking of the SS Belgian Prince 100 years on. Available at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40831765> [Accessed 09 August 2017]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 09 August 2017). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214750/Daily-Telegraph-August-4-1917.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Fishing Boat Versus U-boat - Thursday, 5 April 1917 - Friday, 6 April 1917

Impression sketch of French fishing boat Hyacinth Yvonne, sinking a German submarine by Jamie. See an original image at: <http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/1307670/wwi-u-boat-sunk-by-a-french-fishing-boat/> [Accessed 5 April 2017]

By contradictory respect

For those who sailed the seas,

Wartime orders of U-boat

Commanders were to sink

Allied vessels.

Self-protection was advised

In wariness for all those at sea.

Campaigns of submarines

Of Germany centred about

British isles.

U-boat missions were to cut

Trade routes - German intentions

Were once again renewed;

Breaking Sussex pledge

To distress the US.

Any boat large or small

Might become a U-boat victim,

As was the intention

In an encounter with

One fishing crew.

A six-man crew of a French

Fishing boat found themselves

Confronted, in the shape

Of a surfaced German

U-boat.

The two crews regarded

Each other, separated by yards

Of waves that carried

Them in a union of

Sea currents.

The German commander

Called out to the French captain

Orders to abandon their

Fishing vessel, but the

Men refused.

From under a cover,

The French revealed their single

Small gun, which they

Then aimed and fired

On the U-boat.

A Furious commander

Ordered his crew to sink them

And their boat - for

Over twenty minutes

Two sides fought.

Despite the fishing vessel

Hit various times, was refusal

To give in - the French

Crew kept up fire

On U-boat's skin.

A journal report via

Paris, told the story how that

Six French fishermen

Made a decisive hit

To sink enemy.

Yet a mystery would

Centre around the claim - were

Such fishermen actually

A decoy vessel, called

A Q-ship?

Such boats sailed

With intent to lure submarines

To the sea's surface -

Hyacinthe Yvonne

Being one.

Part of the French

Navy the story of Hyacinthe

Yvonne was in fact

An armed patrol

Vessel; a Q-Ship.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1917. U-boat Sunk By Fishermen. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 4 April March 1917. P.4. Col.6. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214428/Daily-Telegraph-April-4-1917.html> [Accessed: 05 April 2017].

Source: File: List of Shipwrecks in March 1917. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_March_1917> [Accessed 05 April 2017]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 05 April 2017). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214428/Daily-Telegraph-April-4-1917.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Sussex Pledge Broken - Wednesday, 7 March 1917- Thursday, 8 March 1917

Source: File: torpedoed Cross-channel ferry Sussex at Boulogne, March 1916. The entire forepart of the ship was destroyed in the attack. See an original image at: <http://study.com/academy/lesson/sussex-pledge-definition-lesson.html> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Within hours of the Laconia's loss, survivor

Reporter Floyd Gibbons of Chicago Tribune,

Composed his account of certain night, February

25 1917 - over the next few days newspaper

Debates expressed American opinions.

Only 11 months before a diplomatic crisis 

Had threatened America's neutrality; German
UB 29 in a grave error of judgment, had attacked 
What was believed to be a Mine Sweeper - 
A daily passenger ferry left Folkestone.

The situation at sea had seen declared

War zones; German frustrations at land-war

Stalemate turned towards the sea - from 1916

Unrestricted U Boat policy of attacks were

Made against shipping, though restricted.

The Lusitania that had been torpedoed

In May 1915 had initially riled America with

The deaths of 128 Americans - in order to pacify

USA, Germany curbed U-boat attacks; armed

Merchant ships again valid targets by 1916.

March 1916 the Sussex carried civilians;

Being a cross channel ferry sighted by UB 29

Believed to be a mine layer the ferry was targeted.

The Sussex did not sink yet damage was heavy;

Amid the 80 casualties were 25 Americans.

President Woodrow Wilson's reaction

Was a threat to cut off all diplomacy with

Germany - actions were swift to Wilson's angry

April speech - on 4 May came a promise

With Germany's 'Sussex Pledge.'

The Sussex Pledge promised that no

Passenger ships would be targeted - while

Merchant ships would only be sunk; after being

Searched for weaponry passengers and crew

Would be made safe - rescinded by 1917.

Germany confidently believed that

They might win the war swiftly by an act

At sea, whereby unrestricted warfare would
Defeat allied forces, before any chance

Of the USA joining in conflict.

The Laconia attack sparked debate,

As daily American newspapers endorsed

The Governments view, to see the Laconia

Sinking as an overt act - such event

Were changing opinions in USA.

Tuesday 27 February an address

Made by President Wilson saw mixed

Reactions, about ambiguous nature of armed

Neutrality; 'peace at all costs' had then

Been the central policy of USA.

President Woodrow Wilson, along

With legal advisor Robert Lansing, met

To confer how blatantly Germany had gone

Against their word of the 'Sussex Pledge,'

Resulting in a new congress policy.

A quote from the New York Times

Called on all Americans to defend their

Liberties of the nation - a right to sail the seas

Securely and without risk - any surrender

Would show a nation lacking courage.

Debates in arming of American shipping

Were yet to be tested - to stretch the mind

How America might enter a war centered purely 

In Europe - President Wilson believed only

An invasion of the US would cause war.

Only time might tell any future 
Direction; in the meantime all American

Consular officers, along with all diplomats,

Started a process of leaving Austria,

Breaking with the central powers.

At the foot of America on Mexican 

Border, stretching from Tijuana across

To Brownsville, had been brewing a line

Of adversity - although regarding war

The country shared USA neutrality.

Mexico itself was in the throws

Of lengthy revolution - with strained

Politics openly made the hispanic country

An ideal sideline for German intent -

To entice Venustiano Carranza.

The President of Mexico held key

To deflect the USA; the Zimmerman

Telegram decoded message had revealed

German intent to restart their submarine

Warfare, to curtail 'Sussex Pledge.'

Ideal was that America remained

Neutral - if this did not happen then

Germany proposed a Mexico alliance -

The carrot being financial support

For regaining all lost territories.

Arizona, Texas and New Mexico taken

In the 1848 Mexican cession in the treaty

Of Guadalupe Hidalgo; von Eckardt was given

Free reign to gain Mexico as an ally,
By a settlement to retake territory.

Von Eckardt instructions was to distract 

President's attention; that in a few months

England would be compelled to make peace.

'Make war together make peace together,'

Was motto of an alliance with Mexico.

Although the telegram kept options

Open, von Eckardt was requested to use

His initiative; also to mediate some agreement

With Japan, who was then fighting alongside

The allied powers; signed Zimmerman.

Strains of mutual dislike lay all around;

America was anti Mexican, with element

Of anti British - with anti Germany in Mexico

Was anti America - German held hopes

For a Mexico-American war to break.

So a scene was set - with the 'Sussex

Pledge' trashed, to see by start of March
Defensive arms to be carried by American ships.

A direct result of overt act; diplomacy ties

With Germany fell - time might tell.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: US Department Of State: American Entry into World War I, 1917. Available at: <https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/82205.htm> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: Wikipedia: Sussex Pledge. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_pledge> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: The First World War, East Sussex. The Sussex Pledge. Available at: <http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/the-sussex-pledge/> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

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Poem ~ Laconia Omen - Monday, 5 March 1917- Tuesday, 6 March 1917

Impression sketch of RMS Laconia by Jamie. See original images at:<http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/L-Ships/laconia1912.html>

With launch in 1911 RMS Laconia,

A Cunard Ocean Liner, was a young vessel

When war began in 1914 - built

At Wallsend Britain, by makers Swan Hunter

And Wigham Richardson Ltd.

Later commandeered for war

Service Laconia sailed to South Africa -

At Simon's Town, having then
Been fitted out as an armed Merchant

Crusier, with a new purpose.

The Laconia patrolled waters,

In Indian and South Atlantic Ocean,

From April 1915 - employed

As a headquarters, during the actions

To take on German East Africa.

Returning to Britain in June

1916, the Laconia again returned

To Service September 
1916 with Cunard - six months later

Laconia departed New York.

25 February 1917 on route

For Liverpool - the hour 9 O’clock when

The Laconia steamed west,

Northwest by Fastnet - aboard were

75 passengers and 217 crew.

Outnumbered by crew, only

A fraction of usual passengers travelled

Including Americans - time

Was almost 10 O’clock, when many

Travellers were yet to retire.

The crossing of the Atlantic

Had been uneventful - a passenger

Quizzed a London solicitor

Over chance of being torpedoed; '4000

To one,' said Henry Chetham.

A member of the British diplomatic

Service offered another opinion to state

'250 to 1, if we don’t meet a sub.'

An apt answer came along, creating

A sudden slam like a large door.

A lurch forwards and sideways

Under their feet, everyone jumped up.

A New Yorker commented.

To say It's a lousy torpedo, only a fizzer.'

A hit had been made starboard.

An explosion blew near the 
Engine room - the Laconia still floated. 

Captain Irvine's instructions for 
Safety saw orderly move to lifeboats

The U50 sub still close by.

Lifeboat drills now became

Real as five blasts on the ships whistle

Signalled an evacuation.

After 20 minutes another hit struck, full

On into the engine room.

The blast damaged a lifeboat

Being lowered into the water, in which

Sat two Americans - mother

And daughter; Mrs Mary Hoy along with

Elizabeth Hoy reached sea.

Now the Laconia began to list

Taking on water, as passengers and

Crew released more lifeboats.

Quickly sinking the Laconia's stern -

The nose of the vessel, dipped.

Then straight in the air; silently

The vessel slipped into dark waters,

10.20 p.m. within 30 minutes

Survivors rocked alone in their boats;

Not all had made it safely.

In sour silence the survivors

Saw a black, glinting wet shape move

Towards them - in darkness

An accented voice called out, 'vot ship

Was dot?' A reply called back.

A steward yelled, 'the Laconia,

Cunard Line' - the German voice gave

Casual reply; 'yov’ll

Be alright the patrol vill pick you up.'

The sub moved away.

Some six hours later Royal

Navy patrolled came across these

Drifting boats but not all

Had made it - 6 crew 6 passengers

Had become victims.

Boat No 8 had held 14 souls -

This had been badly damaged during

The torpedo hit, so as soon

As it touched water, the sea began

Dragging them down.

Survivor, Able Seaman Walley,

Told of hopelessness to try to bail any

Water out - yet it did not

Sink, but kept afloat by fact of holding

Tanks - he held on in the stern.

Everyone clung to the edge

Of the underwater boat - every swell

Whipped over the souls that

Held on - in the stern seats Mrs Hoy

And daughter stood in the boat.

Time passed, counted

By the cold waves that washed them

No. 8 - finally grey haired

Mrs Hoy lay back; daughter Elizabeth

Held her and talked away.

Likely her mind became

Lost as she held her dead mother.

Soon it was too much,

Left weak in body and her mind

As another swell came.

The two women wearing

Lifebelts and were swept away -

The frozen survivors left

With more corpses, stubbornly

Holding on until rescued.

Account by Floyd Gibbons

Told of the despair and struggles

In the sea, until encounter

Of a mine sweeper and a patrol

Boat found their pale lights.

Six hours had passed when

One after another they pulled aside

HMS Laburnum, where

Tattooed arms of jack tars reached

Out to the fortunate few.

The story of yet another

Lost sea vessel; although relatively

Few lives were lost - unlike

The Lusitania - the small act would

Have great effect in war.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: RMS Laconia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Laconia_(1911)> [Accessed 5 March 2017]

Source: File: Today in World War I - U-boat Sinks Laconia, Kills Two Americans. Available at: <http://today-in-wwi.tumblr.com/post/157711139713/u-boat-sinks-laconia-kills-two-americans> [Accessed 5 March 2017]

Source: File: The Sinking Of The Laconia, By Floyd Gibbons. Available at: <http://www.worldwar1.com/sflac.htm> [Accessed 5 March 2017]

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Poem ~ Little Tragedy - Wednesday, 27 December 1916

Source: File: Men from 6th (City of London) Bn, The London Regiment (City of London Rifles) 1915. See an original image at: <http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/6th-city-of-london-bn-london-regiment.html> [Accessed 27 December 2016]

To illustrate tragedies of war on families,

Came the story of a family of the Littles'

From Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire -

Before 1914 Jim Little and his wife had 

Emigrated to begin a new life in America.

The young couple had a daughter, Alice.

While the husband and father remained

In New York, Mrs. Enid Margaret Little aged

24 and daughter Alice Laura of 14 months,

Set out to sail to England onboard the ship

Lusitania - on 1 May 1915 they travelled

Second class when the ship was struck.

Sunk by a German submarine both were

Drowned - after the tragedy greatly plagued 

With grief, husband and father Jim Little had

Decided to fight for his homeland. He came

Back to England joining 1st/6th Battalion

London Regiment (City of London Rifles).

A rifleman, Private Little 6460 by autumn

1916, was fighting on the western front.

Further sadness befell the Little family,

When Arthur and Laura Little of Aylesbury

Received the telegram that told how their

Son had been killed on the Belgium front.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Toll Of The War. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 2 December 1916. P.11. Col.6. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12213909/Daily-Telegraph-December-2-1916.html> [Accessed: 27 December 2016].

Source: File: entry by Liverpool Anne 02 December 2009. Available at: <http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=302984.72> [Accessed 27 December 2016]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 27 December 2016). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12213909/Daily-Telegraph-December-2-1916.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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