Captured and Sunk - the Story

The following information has been used as the basis of the "Heroism & Heartbreak - Captured and Sunk" talking history. The photographs used in this 'history', were all taken from an album compiled by a German submariner who sailed on the UC-21.

The UC-21 was one of the most successful German submarines of the First World War. From her first patrol in November 1916 until she went missing in September 1917, she sank no less than 98 ships totalling over 130,000 tons. Most of these successes were scored by her first commander, Reinhold Saltzwedel.

In the early part of the war, German U-boats would generally surface to attack enemy merchant ships which at this stage were largely un-armed. The ship’s crew would be given time to get into their lifeboats and pull away from the ship before it was sunk, either by gunfire or explosive charges laid by a boarding party. These boarding parties often took the opportunity to ‘requisition’ fresh food and other useful items before the ship went down.

This situation drastically changed on the first of February, 1917, when the German Government authorised a policy of Unrestricted Submarine warfare. This allowed its U-boat commanders to attack and sink – without warning – any ships carrying cargoes destined for Britain and her allies – including ships from neutral countries such as the United States. Not surprisingly, merchant shipping losses increased dramatically.

URIBITARTE – sunk on December 2^nd, 1916
This 1,700 ton steamship was built in 1888 at the Raylton Dixon shipyard in Middlesbrough and launched as the Fulford. Her original owners, J.M. Lennard & Sons, sold her in 1899 to the Spanish Aznar & Co. based in Bilbao. Although she was a neutral ship, she was nevertheless stopped and sunk by UC-21 on the 2^nd of December 1916, while on a voyage from Bilbao to Cardiff with a cargo of iron ore. There was no loss of life.

LONGSCAR – sunk on February 14^th, 1917
The Longscar was a 2,700 ton steamship built at the William Gray shipyard in West Hartlepool in 1903 for Thomas W. Willis, a well-known West Hartlepool shipowner. On the 14^th of February, 1917, on passage from Nantes to Bilbao in ballast, she was stopped and sunk by UC-21 off the west coast of France, fortunately with no casualties.

ILLINOIS – sunk on March 18^th, 1917
At around 8 o’clock on the morning of Sunday, 18^th of March, 1917, the UC-21 stopped the 5,000 ton American tanker Illinois while she was on passage, in ballast, from London to Port Arthur in Texas. This was an almost brand-new ship, having been launched just four years earlier from the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. in Virginia, and owned by The Texas Company of New York, better known today as Texaco.

As America was still neutral at this time, her crew had painted a large American flag and their ship’s name and country of origin on the sides of the hull, but all to no avail.

Once the crew had safely abandoned ship, a German boarding party laid explosive charges, sending the Illinois to the bottom.

URNA – sunk on May 28^th, 1917
The Urna was a 2,600 ton Norwegian steamship, originally built as the Carnmuir by Russell’s of Port Glasgow in 1903. Her original owners, the Dundee Steam Navigation Company sold her in 1911 to the Scandinavian Shipping Company Ltd. They in turn sold her, in 1913, to Swedish shipowner Otto Banck, who changed her name to Urna. She kept this name when she was sold to her final owners, the Aalesunds Shipping Company, in 1916.

She was stopped and sunk by UC-21 on May 28^th, 1917, when some 10 miles off the north-east coast of Spain, on passage from the Moroccan port of Melilla to Barrow in Furness with a cargo of iron ore.

MARIE – Danish steel schooner sunk on December 6^th, 1916
The Marie was a small Danish steel-hulled schooner built in 1903 on the Danish island of  Bornholm. On December the 6^th, 1916, on a voyage from Liverpool to Tonnay Charente in France with a cargo of pitch, she was stopped and sunk by UB-29, some 10 miles west of the Scilly Isles. There were no lives lost.

RUFUS – sunk by UB-37 on August 11^th, 1916
Built in Norway in 1871 the Rufus was a small wooden brig, captured and sunk by UB-37 in the North Sea on the 11^th of August, 1916. This 44 year-old ship was on a voyage from Norway to Sunderland with a cargo of pit-props when she was captured and sunk.

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