Porthmadog Marine in WW1

Extracts from the book by M.D. Matthews, "Wales, The Mercantile Marine and the First World War":

The Normal Run of Business

Page 13,

"While the Jersey-registered ketch Lucy (76350) of 58 net tons (1879), owned by Hugh Williams of Llanegan, which with an all Welsh crew was trading between Porthmadog, Cardiff, Wexford and Dublin.

Page 14

"Small steamers such as the Liverpool-registered Dora (113396) 296 GRT (1900) were engaged in trading along the Welsh coast. Owned by the Aberdovey and Barmouth Steamship Company, the Dora was 130 feet long, with a beam of 23 feet and a draft of 9 feet. In 1915, aged forty-nine, David Williams of Morfa Nefyn had been master of the Dora for six years. Born in 1866, he had gained his master's certificate at the age of thirty-two in 1898. Throughout 1915, in addition to the master, the crew comprised a mate, an engineer, a fireman and a couple of deckhands, all of whom hailed from coastal areas of north-west Wales, places such as Aberdovey, Aberystwyth, Edern and Barmouth. The Dora sailed regularly from Liverpool for Aberdovey every Friday, loading at a berth on the east side of Trafalgar Lock, and would take cargo up to 6 pm on the day of sailing. Leaving Liverpool, the Dora would call at Porthdinlllaen on the north coast of the Llyn Peninsula before proceeding to Barmouth or Aberdovey in Cardigan Bay. On occasions the ship would also stop in Porthmadog. Carrying groceries, animal feed, cement and other such supplies on the outward trip, the Dora returned to Liverpool with livestock, wool, timber and also manganese ore from the mines of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire."

The schedule of stops on route was very much determined by the tides. The small print on the posters used to advertise the services provided by the Dora give some flavour of the vagaries of small small coastal traders, noting that sailings were subject to weather and other circumstances permitting, with liberty to call at any ports in any order, and to sail without pilot and to tow and assist vessels in distress, and to deviate for the purposes of saving life and property. The Dora carried passengers as well as cargo provided a convenient means for people to reach Llyn especially those arriving in Liverpool on larger vessels from overseas. The Dora made a last visit to Porthdinllaen in October 1915 and was then requisitioned by the Admiralty and assigned to the Liverpool to Belfast crossing in November 1915."

"The second main type of agreement was for vessels in the 'home trade only' (home trade limits being from Brest to the river Elbe), which were also half-yearly accounts. Some of the vessels so engaged were of modest size. All crew who worked on the Liverpool-registered but Welsh-owned Rebecca, 301 GRT in 1915, were from Porthmadog, Penrhyn or Edern. The Rebecca had been built in 1895 in Scotland at a cost of £6,00, and was a small steamship trading in general merchandise between Porthmadog, Pwllheli and Liverpool."

Page 17 - 18.

"The third main class of crew agreement was that for foreign-going vessels. These had the term of voyage (crew would sign on for up to three years) and initial destination and the geographical limits for ports of call stated on the front page. Some of these foreign-going vessels were also of modest size, for example, schooners such as those registered at Caernarvon that were at sea when war broke out. Among them were Jenny Jones (92213), 157 GRT (1893), leaving Plymouth on 4 July 1914 to newfoundland and any ports between 70 degrees North and 40 degrees South. Four of the crew were Welsh; the master was from Harlech, the mate from Barmouth and a cook/seaman and an ordinary seaman were from Porthmadog. Three of the crew who had signed on were German, and they were taken as prisoners of war on arrival at Carbonear, Newfoundland, in October. After returning to Bristol in February 1915 the Jenny Jones changed ownership and continued for the rest of the year in the home and coasting trade."

"Another example of such craft was the three-masted schooner Mary Annie, 154 GRT, built in 1893 and owned by John Jones of Porthmadog. Between June 1914 and march 1915 the crew signed on tosail from Poole to Seville then Newfoundland or Barbados, and also in the Mediterranean trade in any rotation between 60 degrees North and 60 degrees for a period of not exceeding two years. Out of the seven men who signed on in Poole, the six had joined from other ships, with only the bosun, Daniel Jones (aged thirty-five), who was from Porthmadog staying on. Out of seven men who signed on at Poole. He was joined four other Porthmadog men for this agreement: the master G. Jones (aged forty-one); the mate Griffith Jones (aged seventy one); Robert Roberts (aged sixty-eight); a cook and able seaman; and Victor Williams (aged twenty), a seaman. During the course of this agreement the mate was taken ill and left the ship at Cadiz in July 1914. A third example of such foreign-going sailing vessels is that of the John Prichard , 118GRT (1906), one of Pritchard Brothers' Caernarfon-registered schooners, which in June 1914 sailed from Porthmadog initially for Copenhagen. The master was from Pentrefelin, Caernarfon, and among the other crew were two seamen, Christmas Owens (aged twenty-five) and Robert Jones (aged twenty-one), from Porthmadog, both of whom left by mutual consent at Copenhagen in October. The cook/seaman aboard, William Jones, from Maentwrog, was fourteen years old and on his first ship. However, the experience of the majority working in mercantile marine was not of being under sail of any size, or of sailing in the home and coasting trades but of signing on to foreign-going steamers.

Page 20.

In October 1914 a telegram had reached Porthmadog announcing the death in Deal Hospital of Thomas Jones the mate of the Ocean Ranger 280 GRT brigantine built Appledore in 1875, Fowey-registered and owned by Pritchard Brothers of Porthmadog, was outward bound from Grimsby to Bermuda and had put into Deal to land Jones, who had been taken suddenly ill and who died a few hours later. the newspaper report further noted that the deceased had a wife and three children and that he had been shipwrecked on three occasions during the past three years. There were three other Welshmen aboard who had signed on at Grimsby: the master David Davies of Caernarfon; the cook John Williams from Harlech; and Lewis Williams an ordinary seaman from Porthmadog. the crew, now reduced to seven men, proceeded to Bermuda without signing on another mate, though it was noted on the bottom of the agreement that one of the men signed on as seamen had previously sailed in that capacity, but had lost his mate's certificate due to a shipwreck. The Ocean Ranger returned to Liverpool in March 1915; the only additional crew member was a Barbados cook/steward who joined at Jamaica.

Page 28.

Among the Welsh crew aboard the Glamorgan, 3,538 GRT (1906) were: the master, from Aberporth; the bosun, from Portmadog; seven sailors, five from Cardigan, one from Blaenyrogof, Llandysul, and one from Glamorgan; the second engineer, from Cardiff; the third engineer, from Llandaff; the fourth engineer, from Penarth; and the donkeyman, from Cardiff.

Pay and Conditions

Pages 34 and 35.

Another example, of a Welsh crew under sail at this time is provided by the three-masted steel barque Conway Castle, 1,694 GRT (1883) , owned by R. Thomas & Company of Liverpool and Criccieth. Signing on for Hamburg to Santos, Brazil on 23 February 1914, six of the crew were from wales. John Williams, master, aged forty-six of Porthmadog; G. Griffiths, second mate, aged fifty-six, of Criccieth; William Jones. steward, aged forty-nine, of Pembroke, Robert Jones, carpenter, aged twenty-six, and W.G. Jones, sailor aged 19, from Chwilog. The master, second mate and steward had all shipped on the Conway Castle previously, while the two Welsh seamen joined from other sailing vessels; W Williams from the much smaller Porthmadog-owned schooner David Morris, 161 GRT (1897) and W. G. Jones from the three-masted barque Penrhyn Castle 1,349 net tons (1890), also owned by R. Thomas & Company.......

.....Variations in the wage rates for able seamen were also found on the smaller sailing vessels. In July 1914 two of the able seamen signing on the Caernarfon-registered three-masted schooner the William Prichard (109740) 170 GRT (1903), for a voyage from Barry to Newfoundland via Cadiz, were to receive £4 per month. In all, five of the crew were Welsh but one of the seamen, from Llangennech near Llanelli, was let go at Indian Harbour Newfoundland in October on account of his being a reservist. In April 1915, two of the able-seamen who joined the crew of the Liverpool-registered but Porthmadog-owned Elizabeth Bennett, 161 GRT (1884) were paid £6 per month.

Page 36

An example of a sailing vessel engaged in the home-trade with a Welsh crew was the Caernerfon-registered Cadwalader Jones; a schooner of 183 GRT built 1878. Two of the Welsh able seamen signing on at Runcorn in July 1915 received £3 5s, for the run to Porthmadog. Added to this agreement (and frequently added to those of other sailing vessels) were the terms that no crew member should seek discharge at either wind bound or ballast ports.

The Outbreak of War

Page 60

There were a number of Welshmen aboard these vessels: the master of the Emily Millington was from Porthmadog; on the Meyric, the master was from Amlwch, the mate was from Cardigan and the cook from Anglesey; aboard the Kate (63917), the master was from Port Dinorwic and the mate from Moelfre.

Page 63

...On 29 October 1914, the Ortega was back in Liverpool and ready to leave again for Callao. There were six Welsh crew on this trip including two stewardesses: Kate Jones, aged thirty-six, from Porthmadog: and Alice Maguire, aged thirty-seven, from Wrexham. The other welsh crew were William John, aged fifty-two, a fireman and trimmer from Cardiff, aged thirty, a steward from Holyhead; Griffith T. Williams, aged eighteen, an ordinary seaman from Edern; and Thomas Williams, aged twenty-six, an able seaman from Benllech.

Page 65

On 16 November 1914, the Newcastle-registered North Wales, 3,691 GRT (1905), belonging to the North Shipping Company (Hugh Roberts & Sons), was under Admiralty charter at the Falkland Islands, Carrying coal in support of the naval squadron operating in the southern Atlantic, the North Wales was seized and sunk by the SMS Dresden. The crew were put aboard the Kosmos liner Rhokotis (then in company with the Dresden) and were later landed at Callao. The North Wales was captained by Griffith Owen, aged 43, of Erw Goch, Morfa Nefyn, Llyn, and the majoity of the captured crew men were Welsh. They comprised the mate, Thomas Evans, aged fifty-two, the first engineer David Roberts, aged forty, and the second engineer, Morris Owen, aged twenty-nine, all from Porthmadog;....

Page 70

Among the larger ships requisitioned was the 12,552 GRT White Star Lines Cymric, which had transported troops to France in 1914. In September 1915 this liner was responsible for the delivery of 17,000 tons of ammunition brought from the United States, one of the largest shipments up to that date. There were a number of Welsh among the crew: a deck steward from Cardigan; three stewards, one each from Pwlheli, Denbigh, and Rhudlan; the third baker was from Mold; the chief butcher from Bangor; the carpenter from Porthmadog and the carpenter's mate from Anglesey; a storekeeper/able seaman from Anglesey; a quartermaster/able seaman from Porthmadog; two able seamen from Amlwch; an ordinary seaman from Penmaenmawr; the second engineer from Menai Bridge; and two firemen, one from Swansea and one from Cardiff. In may 1916 the Cymric was torpedoed and sunk 140 miles west-north-west of of Fastnet by SM U-20.

Page 72

....the LNWR's Holyhead steamers, the Anglia and the Cambria, were pressed into service as hospital ships. From August 1915 the HMHS Cambria was in use on the Dover to France service. There were forty-one Welshmen listed as serving among the crew of the Cambria for the half-year to 31 December 1915ː W. Jones, aged fifty seven, from Anglesey, a leading stoker, had been with the since company since 1880; out of eight firemen, five were from Holyhead. Three of the stewards and a cook were from Holyhead, and out of eight firemen, five were from Holyhead, two from Anglesey and one from Caernarfon. Out of eight trimmers, seven were from Holyhead and one from Amlwch, one of the cabin boys was from Llanfechan and another from Holyhead. Three of the stewards and a cook from Holyhead, as were the purser, quartermaster, bosun and the first, third and fourth engineers. The second engineer and a deck boy were from Porthmadog. Of the two carpenters, one was from Amlwch, the other from Menai Bridge.....

Page 75

Another LNWR ship requisitioned and used as a hospital ship in the war was the Anglia. On 17 November while sailing from Boulogne to Folkeston she struck a mine a mile off Folkeston carrying 390 wounded from the Weston Front and immediately began to sink.

"...among the other surviving crew were Owen Roberts, a leading stoker, a firemen (sic) Robert John Jones, Rowland Griffiths a coal trimmer, and Hugh Thomas, a steward, all from Holyhead; three seamen, Richard Jones from Holyhead, Robert Roberts from Caernarfon and John Roberts from Menai Bridge; John Thomas Hughes, a steward from Bangor; Robert Thomas, a cabin boy from Anglesey; Owen Price, a third mate from Aberffraw; Howell Pierce, a second engineer from Porthmadog; Hugh Williams fourth engineer from Anglesey......."

Page 100

"On the eve of the First World War, there were 51,616 men classified as lascars in the mercantile marine (16̤̤̤̤ per cent of the total crew) and 31,396 as classified as 'Foreign', many of whom would have been Black undocumented British subjects. Elder Dempster frequently employed firemen and trimmers from West Africa on their fleet. Crew members from Wales such as W. Morris, fourth engineer from Porthmadog, W. Jones, carpenter from Pwllheli and T. L. Hughes, second mate from Anglesey who were aboard the Benue, 3,123 GRT (1905) between November 1914 and December 1915 would have found the vast majority of the 'black gang' were from Sierra Leone, though others revealed the track of the company's trade along the coast of West Africa. ...."

Page 103

"Following the outbreak of the war, reports concerning the insubordinatio nature of Asiatic crews tended to reinforce existing prejudices. Noe such news story concerning the U-boat attack on the Liverpool steamer Delmira 3,459 GRT (1905), off Barfleur in 1915, on which D.R. Solomon of Porthmadog was the chief engineer, included the claim by members of the crew that the captain's attempt to escape from the submarine SM U-37 would have succeeded had it not been for the refusal of the Chinese crew to work in the stoke hole.

Mines, U-boats and close calls

Page 115

"Mine-laying by U-boats commenced in mid-1915, and as a result the number of merchant shipping losses began to increase. As the following examples show, some ships were luckier than others and while sustaining damage, either made it to port or were beached. On 31 July in the Dover Straits, a passenger and cargo steamship Galicia 5,920 GRT (1901), belonging to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, Liverpool, was sailing London for Liverpool with general cargo. Two miles from the North Goodwin Light Vessel, Galicia hit a mine that had been laid by SM UC-1 (Egon von Werner), but was successfully beached at Deal, and later re-floated. Among those aboard at the time were the bosun who was from Holyhead, an able seaman from Porthmadog, another able seaman from Port Dinorwic, a leading fireman from Holyhead and a sixteen-year-old cadet also from Holyhead."

Page 121

"We then took three boats in tow, and ascertained that they were the crew of the Delmira, a steamer of 3,459 tons belonging to the Bristol and Chilean Steamship, Liverpool which left Boulogne on Wednesday and was torpedoed in the Bristol Channel on the following day. The crew of the Delmira (who were rescued from their boats ) who state that they were most courteously treated by the Germans, comprised eight British officers and 25 Chinese. They state that they were offered whisky by the pirates, who offered to take them in the direction that they wished to go. After we had taken them in tow for some distance a British destroyer made her appearance and the crew of the Delmira were transferred to her." The chief engineer of the Delmira was D R Solomon from Porthmadog(see above).

Captured by U-boats and sunk

Page 129

"On 30 January 1915 Lord Penrhyn's newest steamer, the Beaumaris-registered Linda Blanche, 530 GRT (1914), with ten Welsh crew, was sailing from Manchester for Belfast with general cargo including glazed roofing/floor tiles when stopped 18 miles north-west of Liverpool Bar Light Vessel by SM U-21. The ship's papers were ordered to be carried across and the crew given ten minutes to get into the boats with the ship then being sunk by bombs placed below decks. The crew, after rowing for an hour and a half through rough seas were picked up by the trawler Niblick and landed at Fleetwood. They comprised John Ellis, master from Bangor; Robert D Morris, mate from Barmouth; four able seamen, William Williams from Anglesey, Peter Cob and Thomas Lillie both from Port Dinorwic, and John D Hughes from Porthmadog; Thomas J Hughes the first engineer from Holyhead; William Paxton the second engineer who was from Newport; and two firemen from Bangor, Alfred Thomas and John Hughes.

Page 152

"U-boat attacks continued throughout the summer. On 21 August two days after the first of the notorious Baralong Q-ship incidents (where the surviving crew from SM U-27 were shot in cold blood as revenge for the sinking of the Arabic and Lusitania), the crew of the Cardiff registered Ruel, 4,029 GRT (1913), belonging to Turnbull Brother Shipping Company, were - in the words of one commentator - 'singled out for a demonstration by the enemy of the brutal methods he was prepared to adopt in the hope of breaking the spirit of the British merchant seamen'. The Ruel was sailing Malta for Barry Roads in ballast and, after being chased and shelled was captured by SM U-38 (Max Valentiner) and sunk by gunfire 45 miles south-west of Bishop Rock, Scillies. the men having taken to the boats were then subjected to small-arms fire. Among the crew who endured this apalling treatment were the mate E Roberts from Ffestiniog; the bosun J Jones from Porthmadog; and the fourth engineer A. Hardy, the mess room steward W. Griffiths, and an apprentice L. Smith, all from Cardiff. One man was killed, and eight others were wounded. In a subsequent statement made under oath by the master, the second mate and Lieutenant D Blair, R.N.R. (who was at that time in charge of the Royal Navy Reserve base at Penzance), it was stated thatː

"when in the act of abandoning the steamer Ruel in a sinking condition due to attack by a German submarine, we were fired on while alongside and pulling away from the above vessel, the wounds of those injured showing that both shrapnel and rifle bullets were usedː ...the submarine was distant about 150 yards, and close enough for the crew to observe that we and the remainder of the crew of the steamer Ruel were abandoning the ship and had given up any further attempts to escape.

Page 146

"The following report appeared in the Cambria Daily Leader when some of the crew returned to Britain later that yearː

Men of the crew of the Liverpool steamer Elsinore, whose whereabouts had been a complete mystery to their friends, made their appearance today, telling a tale suffering at the hands of the Germans. Two months ago the Elsinore was found by the German cruiser Leipzig in the Gulf of California, and since then it has been uncertain where the crew had been landed. The men have had an adventure which they will never forget. Two lieutenants with an armed force from the Leipzig boarded the Elsinore taking the master (Captain Roberts) with them to the German cruiser, and upon returning to the Elsinore Captain Roberts informed his crew that the vessel was going to be sunk. They must get the lifeboats provisioned. The commander of the Leipzig then sent the Elsinore to the bottom ...the crew were ...put on board a German depot the Marie, and they do not say they were at all well treated there. They were made to work hard, filling bags of coal for transhipment to the Leipzig. Captain Roberts advised them to do as they were told, and for three days they carried on this laborious work. They were on the Marie eight days and nights receiving very scanty food and shocking accommodation, sleeping on the bare iron decks, with a sentry standing over them ...They were at last put ashore at Chatham Island - one of the Equatorial group of Galapagos or Tortoise Islands off the coast of Equador ...There the crew of 29 hands were left by the German commander telling them that they must not leave for fourteen days. Two days later, however, a small sailing ship arrived to load sugar and took Captain Roberts and part of the crew to Guayaquil, in Ecuador. The remainder of the crew were imprisoned on the island for 20 days. They were badly housed in a building which one of the South American Governments had formerly used for a convict settlement ...The castaways were on friendly terms with the natives, who are engaged on a sugar plantation; but they suffered very much from want of proper food, only getting rice and jam and what fish they were able to catch. At the end of three weeks another vessel came and rescued the remainder of the marooned men, taking them also to Guayaquil.

R.G. Evans of Porthmadog was the mate of the Elsinore and both he and Roberts (who was from Widnes) later sailed together on another tanker, the Camillo, 5,315 GRT (1908) in April 1915.

Page 164.

Sinking of the Lusitaniaː

"Fellow survivor second cabin passenger Ernest S. Cowper wrote about the disaster a year later in the New York Times. In his account he especially praised Davies and his effortsː

"But the bravest of all that brave assembly was rugged old John Davies, the boatswain. Many there are on both sides of the Atlantic today who owe their lives to him. He stuck to his job until the ocean took him off his feet. He worked the forward falls on the lifeboats which got away from the starboard side, and smoked as he did it. He was assisted by two boyish-looking well groomed wireless operators, who, catching John Davies' spirit perhaps, pulled out their cigarettes and smoked as they worked the afterfalls with him. They were drowned.

Davies never received any recognition from his company or his country. Having been landed at Queenstown, he made his way back to Liverpool and without any footwear he walked from the Pierhead to Bootle, a distance of some 5 miles, without complaint. John Idwal Lewis, aged twenty-nine, was the senior third officer aboard. He was born on 29 August 1885, and was a native of Porthmadog. His first ship was a three masted barque. In 1912, he left sail and entered the world of steamships, working on the Moss Line and Blue Funnel Line. In 1913, he earned his master's certificate. He had served aboard Lusitania since October 1914. Lewis was in charge of lifeboats 1-11 on the starboard side. During the sinking, he assisted the first officer Arthur Roland Jones in filling and lowering the lifeboats, although very few lifeboats from his section of the ship got away. Lewis went down with the ship but resurfaced and then clung onto an overturned collapsible boat to stay afloat. He was rescued by a trawler. William Williams, the Lusitania's master at arms, responsible for security on board, had been born at Tremadog in 1869, but by 1915 his family home was in Everton. He had joined the Lusitania at Liverpool on 12 April 1915 at a monthly rate of pay of £5 10s. After the ship had gone down, Williams was in the sea for some time and eventually came across the Lusitania's captain clinging to some wreckage. He was able to help the captain to stay afloat until they were both rescued by one of the ship's boats, after which they were picked up by a small steamer and eventually landed at Queenstown.

Commentary

The first World War was catastrophic for the port of Porthmadog. In the previous year the last sizable ship to be built there, the Gestiana was launched. It seems likely that ship building had run its course with the period of flowering in the production of the ʽWestern Ocean Yachtsʼ having run it course. The war affected ships trading from Porthmadog in many ways. Some were in enemy ports at the declaration of war and were impounded. The trade in slate from Porthmadog to continental Europe, and especially Germany via Hamburg had always been an important destination for laden slate traders. This flow of trade was halted overnight on the outbreak of war. Ships in the coastal trade around Britain were vulnerable to attack by U-boats. The railways provided an alternative route for slate movements around Great Britain, which was not vulnerable to the perils of wartime sea passages. U-boats could sink ships by forcing them to stop and placing bombs below decks, or the attack could be by mines placed by specialist mine-laying U-boats or by torpedo. Ships could be commandeered by the Royal Navy to act as 'Q' ships.

As the slate trade from Porthmadog dried up there were plenty of roles for Porthmadog's sailors on other sailing vessels and steamships working hard to keep more distant trade flowing and to move imports and exports and keep the country fed. The slate wharves of Porthmadog lost their bustle, emptied of slate stacks and became quiet nurseries for hardy weeds.