RMS leinster torpedoed off Dun laoghaire

fergal.b

In 1918 the Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead mailboat 'RMS Leinster' was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat just outside of Dublin Bay. The sinking has largely been forgotten but was the worst ever Irish Sea disaster. Research to date has revealed the names of 529 casualties making it the greatest ever loss of life in the Irish sea and the highest ever casualty rate on an Irish owned ship.

Shortly before 9 am on 10 October 1918 the RMS Leinster left Carlisle Pier, Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), Dublin. Bound for Holyhead, Wales the ship carried 771 passengers and crew. The ship was commanded by Captain William Birch (61), a Dubliner who had settled with his family in Holyhead. Apart from Birch, the Leinster had a crew of 76, drawn from the ports of Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) and Holyhead. Also on board were 22 postal sorters from Dublin Post Office, working in the ship's onboard postal sorting room. There were 180 civilian passengers, men, women and children, most of them from Ireland and Britain.

The greatest number of passengers on board the Leinster were military personnel. Many of them were going on leave or returning from leave. They came from Ireland, Britain, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia. On the Western Front the German Army was being pushed back by the relentless assaults of the Allied armies. On 4 October Germany had asked US President Woodrow Wilson for peace terms.

As the Leinster set sail the weather was fine, but the sea was rough following recent storms. Earlier that morning a number of Royal Navy ships at sea off Holyhead were forced to return to port due to the stormy conditions.

Shortly before 10am just 16 miles from Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) a few people on the deck of the Leinster saw a torpedo approaching the port (left) side of the ship. It missed the Leinster, passing in front of her. Soon afterwards another torpedo struck the port side where the postal sorting room was located. Postal Sorter John Higgins said that the torpedo exploded, blowing a hole in the port side. The explosion traveled across the ship, also blowing a whole in the starboard side.

In an attempt to return to Dún Laoghaire port, the Leinster turned 180 degrees, until it faced the direction from which it had come. With speed reduced and slowly sinking, the ship had sustained few casualties. Lifeboats were being launched. At this point a torpedo struck the ship on the starboard (right) side, practically blowing it to pieces. The Leinster sank soon afterwards, bow first.

Many of those on board were killed in the sinking. In lifeboats or clinging to rafts and flotsam, the survivors now began a grim struggle for survival in the rough sea. Many died while awaiting rescue. Eventually a number of destroyers and other ships arrived. The survivors were landed at Victoria Wharf, Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire), where the ferry terminal now stands.

Doctors, nurses, rescue workers and a fleet of 200 ambulances rushed to Victoria Wharf. Those needing medical care were brought to St. Michael's Hospital in Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) and several Dublin Hospitals. Those not requiring medical treatment were brought to local hotels and guest houses.

In the days that followed bodies were recovered from the sea. Funerals took place in many parts of Ireland. Some bodies were brought to Britain, Canada and the United States for burial. One hundred and forty four military casualties were buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin. R.I.P.




The crew one of which was a relation of mine.

wrecks1971

Hi Fergal, I have dived that ship wreck a good few times this summer and found it a great dive with the vizability good and plenty of life around the wreck.

fergal.b

I'd say it was amazing alright, You might find this a bit interesting if you can get to Galway in an hour http://www.galwaydiving.com/?p=719

pedroeibar1

Not sure it is fair to say that the sinking has largely been forgotton. When I was growing up anyone who messed around in boats in Dun Laoghaire knew of it, knew the big rusty anchor on the seafront and also the monument with bronze plaque (until stolen by the usual suspects:mad:) opposite Link Road in Glasthule. I remember seeing wreaths laid there.

The Harbour Company has a few pages with links on it here http://www.dlharbour.ie/content/history/rms_leinster/rms_leinster.php

Talent

The Leinster sinking is commemorated in the Merchant Shipping WW1 memorial in London.

Talent

There was quite a bit of German submarine activity in the Irish Sea. In 1916 a UBoat caused much alarm by sinking trawlers between Skerries and Howth. Met a guy in Howth once who was aboard a trawler sunk by a Uboat between Roackabill and Lambay. He was only 14 or 15 then. The sub surfaced and ordered them into their dinghy and sank the trawler with its deck gun. In Fermoy later met a German who survived the sinking of the liner Wilhelm Gustlof by a Russian sub in 1945. The ship was packed with something like 10,000 German servicemen and civilians fleeing the Russian advance. Some 9000 perished making it the worst single marine disaster ever. The German I met had trained as a submariner but there was a shortage of Uboats and he was ordered home. He reckoned he owed his life to the fact that he was a trained sailor as he was put in charge of a lifeboat to evacuate civilians from the sinking ship.

See http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/sinking.htm

Talent

Interesting contrast between the Leinster and the trawler sinkings I mentioned above. Early in the war, if there were no armed escorts, the Uboats used surface and order passengers and/or crew off before sinking with either torpedoes or the deck gun. The British countered the submarine menace with Q Ships where an apparently unarmed freighter had a false deckhouse, the sides of which collapsed to reveal a gun which was used to sink the U-Boat. Wasn't long before the Germans stopped doing the decent thing of surfacing for a "humane" sinking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship

fergal.b

I remember hearing stories "not sure if it's true" of sub being repaired on rockabill lighthouse, they positioned it between the rock and the bill and when the tide went out they were able to work on it.




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Talent

Almost certainly untrue. If you've ever watched the tide go out there you see rocks that would rip the bottom out of any sub. A bit like the old wartime tales from Clare Island lighthouse keepers who said they could smell the German tobacco when the U-boats surfaced to recharge their batteries. Ignores the fact that the Clare island lighthouse was 300 feet above sea level.

fergal.b

This might be where the story came from and the fishermen added their own bits on over the years as they do

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/150-years-since-the-decision-made-for-a-rockabill-lighthouse-787614.html




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Talent

Could be the origin of the story all right. The telephone reference reminded me of another tale I heard about Rockabill. Local people who had lighthouse relatives on the rock used to communicate by semaphore from REd Island where the keepers could catch up on local news via a telescope. A boatman in SSC finished his service on the Rock and I was amazed to discover that he and I had connections going way back WHen a young lighthouseman he and a local schoolteacher on Valentia were rivals for the hand of a local lighthouse keeper's daughter. She turned out to be the mother of my best schooldays pal who also was best man at my wedding. ANd the schoolteacher (who also lived in Skerries) and I subsequentlly worked together for a while. SMall world.

fergal.b

Thats funny my father in law was just talking about semaphore at the weekend as we were going through some old photos of Skerries he remembers it well in front of a row of houses that the lighthouse keepers used to live in on red island.

One of his photos.

Talent

I think the row of cottages your father remembered were, in fact, coastguard cottages and there was a coastguard station there just as there had been in Balbriggan. I'm not 100% sure but I think the large building to the left of your photo was the old coastguard station (long demolished) while the buildings beyond it are the coastguard cottages (still standing). Which is not to say they were not used for lighthouse keepers - I just don't know.