Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Loss
of Six Dutch Ships
near
Bishop Rock
22nd
February 1917
A
story of drama
and
of treachery against Neutral Merchant Ships
Please read the Update of New Information dated 22nd
January 2008.
Link at the bottom of this page.
At Falmouth,
Cornwall, UK, on the 19th February 1917, written orders were given to the
Captains of the seven Dutch merchant ships BANDOENG, JACATRA, MENADO,
NOORDERDIJK, ZAANDIJK, EEMLAND and GAASTERLAND,
by the Netherlands delegate acting on behalf of the respective companies.
Their orders were
that they should now leave Falmouth, after having been taking shelter there,
and they were to leave in a convoy as early as possible on the 22nd February
1917. They were to take a westerly route in close formation to the safe zone
(20°W) and then, when there, they were to disperse, northwards or westward,
according to their port of destination.
In accordance with
those instructions, they left on the morning of the 22nd from Falmouth; at 10am
they were passing The Lizard and at 2.15pm they passed Bishop Rock Lighthouse.
All in good weather, a light westerly breeze and calm seas. At 3.30pm they saw,
on the port side, two lifeboats with crew members of the Norwegian ship NORMANNA which had been torpedoed and sunk at
around 12 o'clock. (The rest of the crew of the NORMANNA had already been
picked up by a sloop from Scilly and taken to St Mary's).
The convoy slowed.
JACATRA came about to pick up the men, and so the Norwegian seamen were on
taken up on board. They had only been aboard for a short time, congratulating
themselves on their good fortune and the kindness of the Dutch crews.
It was around 5.30.
They were unaware of the torpedo heading towards them.
This torpedo missed,
passing their bow by 20 feet. The crew of the EEMLAND spotted the periscope of
a submarine, 300 feet to rear and starboard, and they watched, with horror, the
torpedo as it headed towards the EEMLAND. Two more torpedoes were in the water,
one heading for JACATRA and the other for BANDOENG but they passed their bows.
The JACATRA was missed by just three feet.
Then MENADO's crew
saw the submarine, as it surfaced. A menacing profile against the darkening
sky.
The U-boat commander
was not without a degree of nervousness, as he was seen to be keeping a very
and ever watchful eye out for British Patrols, throughout the attack.
Immediately the
BANDOENG launched a boat with their Captain in it and rowed to the submarine to show their Papers. They
did not get a chance to do so, for within a few minutes, the submarine was off
at speed, and coming up to the GAASTERLAND, she fired her guns. Two warning
shots were fired from the submarine - one at the EEMLAND, past the MENADO, and
landed in the water; the second towards the GAASTERLAND. The submarine
signalled the message "A.B." to the MENADO. Slow engines was the
order. The crews of all the Dutch ships heard the gunfire and the screech from
the shells; a dread of what was to come gripped them. The submarine lay by the
GAASTERLAND and the call came out that they were to leave their ship within
five minutes.
The same orders were
given to MENADO, JACATRA and NOORDERDIJK.
The Captain of the
NOORDERDIJK, got into the ship's boat and made way to the submarine to show his
papers. The submarine continued on its tour, instructing each ship to get their
crews into boats within five minutes.
By now it was around
6.30. Catching up with the submarine, the Captain of the NOORDERDIJK was
startled by the sight of a torpedo being launched, and passing within a few
feet of his boat; it passed and struck NOORDERDIJK. Then torpedoes were fired
at JACATRA and BANDOENG.
As the ships were
hit, every light on board went out. After a while, the submarine surfaced near
the ship's boat, in which was the Captain of the BANDOENG. Tying up to the
submarine, the Captain made protests against the attack on his ship, telling of
his special orders given by the Netherlands, in Falmouth and the leave of
passage by the German Government and that the course he had to follow as
quickly as possible to the safe zone.
They had various
destinations, four for Rotterdam, one Sandy Hook, one New York and the other Philadelphia.
But they had to get to the safe zone first, and fast. They were not in the war
zone by choice. They were under way by orders, they had instructions to make
full speed, and with the guarantee of the German Government that they would be
safe.
The submarine went
around to the ships, a German Officer and two sailors, placing bombs on each of
the ships, towing the boat with the Captain of the BANDOENG behind them. First
the ZAANDIJK, then MENADO, EEMLAND and GAASTERLAND.
When they had
finished, again the Captain of the BANDOENG and the Captain of the NOORDERDIJK,
who had now caught up again with the submarine, attempted to show the Commander of the submarine their papers and
their orders and the guarantee of passage; there was no doubt as to the country
of origin being the Netherlands, as their flags and insignia were well lit; The
commander got more and more agitated. He said he was entirely indifferent as to
whether they were Dutch ships. The papers were torn up and the Dutch captain
and crew were put on the lifeboat
again, shouting at them that the instructions and the agreements that the
Netherlands Ambassador, in London, had made with Germany had no validity.
The Dutch crew
wondered what submarine she was, and the answer came that she was the U-3,
Captain Huisman of the BANDOENG was of the opinion that this was a trick, since
U-3 was in the Mediterranean, and she was shorter than the submarine which had
made this attack; this submarine was 75 metres and also she had two guns, and
U-3 had only one.
The submarine crew
threw off the line, and she slipped off into the darkness; the ship's boats all
around, the bombs exploded in turn and one by one ship's lights went out, the
only sound was the lapping on the sides of the boats in the darkness.
The Captain of the
MENADO, from the ship's boat, saw what he thought was the submarine at around
2am; he kept hopes of his ship not being lost, as the ship's lights were still
seen to be on. The fear of getting shot and killed prevented them from re-boarding
her. Then the wind changed to a stiff breeze at around 4am and the sea became
rough. They were forced to set off for
land.
GAASTERLAND's,
NOORDERDIJK's and ZAANDIJK's boats remained in a group until 5 and, because of the
weather change, rowed towards land.
JACATRA's boats had
found their way to land.
EEMLAND's boats
stayed around their ship until 9 and saw the ship had sunk, and then set off
for land.
BANDOENG's crew saw
their ship disappear at 9.30, then set off for land.
BANDOENG, EEMLAND, GAASTERLAND,
JACATRA, NOORDERDIJK and ZAANDIJK
had all sunk.
MENADO was quite severely damaged.
Position of the Loss
30 miles West from Bishop Rock
49.52 N : 7.00 W
After witnessing the
sinking of their ships, they set course for The Bishop, which was just visible
from the boats. Up until 4 am the weather was calm and visibility clear; but
then a stiff breeze whipped up and the sea became rougher, making it more
difficult to make headway and see where they were heading. It became harder to
row, the closer they got to land.
Because of the high
swell and strong northerly wind, they altered course for St Mary's Bay, Isles
of Scilly. The St Mary's lifeboat had seen the distress rocket launched from
Bishop Rock Lighthouse and had set out to meet them, and led them all safely
into harbour. The crews were welcomed with open arms by the whole island, who
offered and gave them every assistance and comfort possible.
All the ships' boats
had reached the Isles of Scilly.
The following day,
the 24th, they were all taken to Penzance, all 300 of them, where they placed
their stories and complaints before the Netherlands Consul in his office there.
Mr. H. H. Beezach, the Consul, listened to each and everyone's statements, and listened
carefully to their needs. His reply was to thoroughly immerse himself, with
diligence and cheerfulness, in dealing with their hardships and needs. He
placed the 300 exhausted men in accommodation.
It was not until
shortly afterwards that they heard news of the MENADO.
On the 23rd February,
she had been seen and picked up by a Royal Navy Trawler patrolling the area,
and towed in to Falmouth. Apparently the bombs had very little effect, two of them had opened a hole of about three
feet in diameter, the others had not gone off at all.
On 25th February, the
crews were delighted to see her again, but disheartened by the knowledge of the
amount of plundering the Germans had undertaken, including the ship's safe, the
uniforms provided by the King's Netherlands Marine, and even photographs of
loved ones. The captain and first officer boarded her on the 26th. Some of the
lower areas of the ship were full of water. Watertight doors were holding and
intact, machines were undamaged; they got the water pumped out.
After divers checked
her out, the captain, wanted to get his ship under way and back to the
Netherlands. But he was advised that immediate emergency repairs had to be
made. With a lot of hard work, these were completed on the 13th May. They got
the ship under way on the 15th May and arrived at Rotterdam on the 19th May.
The Dutch were happy to see all their men safely home, and the return of their
ship; and they were grateful for the kind work made by Falmouth docks. The ship
went in dock at Rotterdam for full repairs and these were completed on 1st July
1917.
Updates on the Attack &
Rescue
Added 21st January 2008
===================
This account based on the reports made to the
Vice Consul of The Netherlands, in Penzance,
and to the Netherlands Consul General, in London.
And on what I can remember of the story my
Grandfather used to tell.
Raymond Forward