More information : Wreck Site and Archaeological Remains:
[NB: Inserted here since positions are either not given, or are unspecific.]
A brass name plate recovered from this wreck off Sussex. (Droit A/2415) (6)
2 portholes and 2 telegraph bases recovered from this wreck, position 50 11N 000 13W. (Droit A/2606A) (6) [This position based on the details given in (4) below.]
2 plates and a fork recovered from this wreck, 30 miles out of Littlehampton. (Droit A/2739) (6)
A wheel recovered from this wreck, 38 miles S of Brighton. (Droit A/3288) (6)
A hat pin with fleur-de-lys design, an Australian penny, 3 unidentifiable coins, a Canadian button, a cap badge with horn design, and a small decorative brass object recovered from this wreck, south of Brighton. (Droit A/4096) (6)
A brass porthole, lacking glass, was recovered from this wreck in the vicinity of the keel. (Droit 069/05) (7)
Wreck Event and Documentary Evidence:
Source (2) gives position of loss as 50 11.00N 00 13.00W, torpedoed en route Le Havre for Southampton.
Source (3) gives place of loss as 32 miles SSW from Owers Light Vessel, 7 lives lost.
Torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel 32 miles SSW of the Owers Light Vessel, 7 miles SE of Selsey Bill, in position 50 11N 00 13W by the German submarine UC-40, while bound from Le Havre to Southampton. Lost whilst on Government service in use as a hospital ship. (4) [NB: A position 7 miles SE of Selsey Bill is incompatible with the quoted co-ordinates 50 11N 00 13W. This seems likely to be a transcription error, with the initial digit being omitted, since 50 11N 00 13W is approximately 37 miles SE of Selsey Bill. (9)]
Employed on British Government service as an ambulance transport, was torpedoed level with the bulkhead between the engine room and No.4 hold by the German submarine UC-49 at 1.30am whilst under escort. The submarine had been sighted on the surface and the WARILDA then tried to ram the enemy vessel but failed. She was then struck by the torpedo. 101 patients were killed in the explosion in No.1 ward which was sited in No.4 hold, whilst the 3rd engineer and one greaser were killed in the engine room. Whilst the vessel was being abandoned, two boats capsized and a number of crew, patients and staff drowned. Those lost included seven crew, two military officers, one Queen Mary's AAC, 112 British troops, and one American soldier. The survivors were picked up by escort vessels. The W/T code books and confidential papers were saved by the master. The ship sank at 4.10am. (5)
Taken over for government service as a troopship in the First World War, then fitted out as a hospital ship for the regular Southampton-Le Havre run. On 03-AUG-1918, returning with about 700 wounded, she was torpedoed and sunk with a very heavy loss of life. The weather was thick but the white hull and red crosses on the ship were fairly discernible.
The vessel remained afloat for about two hours, then sank with 123 persons, 678 being saved, including the commander, Captain Sim, later decorated by King George V. (8)
'WOUNDED DROWN AT NIGHT. Corporal Buckman, American, among the Warilda's dead. LIFEBOATS ARE SMASHED. Torpedo Wrecks a Large Ward and Wounded Are Cut Off. Attack In English Channel. Vessel Was on First Trip on Which She Did Not Carry German Wounded.
'London, Aug. 5. London was shocked today by the news of the torpedoing in the Channel of the ambulance transport WARILDA, with the loss of 123 lives.
'The WARILDA had on board about 800 wounded soldiers...The vessel was attacked in the blackness of night in the middle of the Channel, and it was only by the greatest of good luck that the damaged ship was kept afloat for a sufficient period to enable the great majority of the wounded men to be transferred to lifeboats and afterwards to destroyers...
'That so many wounded heroes lost their lives is attributed to the fact that one of the wards on the ship was wiped out by the torpedo...The torpedo which hit the WARILDA severed the ladder or gangway...the penetration of the torpedo allowed a tremendous rush of water to enter the bowels of the ship, which took a very serious list.
'It is difficult to ascertain the total number of persons on board. In addition to the hundreds of wounded there were a full medical complement and a number of members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps,* as well as the crew of nearly 120 men...' (11)
[*: for Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps or QMAAC]
'A British Port, Aug. 3 (Associated Press)...The number of dead is variously estimated from 105 to 130 and upward, and includes several women nurses.
'The ship carried 600 sick and wounded. Among them were seven Americans...There were aboard 89 nurses and members of the Voluntary Aid Department, and the crew comprised about 200 men.
'The torpedo struck the afterpart of the engine room, killing the third engineer and two other members of the engine room force. The dynamo was destroyed, plunging the vessel into darkness.
'Just over the dynamo was the wardroom, which contained more than 100 patients. Most of these were killed outright by the explosion, and the others, many of whom had been freshly injured by the torpedo, found themselves trapped...This part of the ship quickly settled and water flooded the wardroom...
'The ship remained afloat more than two hours, but for a great part of the time continued under headway, because the engines could not be stopped. This condition greatly hampered the rescue work...
'The WARILDA had been in the Channel service two years, and this was her first crossing from France in which she did not carry a number of German wounded prisoners. Members of the crew remarked over this fact and some expressed the opinion that it was of sinister significance...
'All accounts agree that it was a torpedo which sank the ship. Two escorting British destroyers dropped a number of depth bombs immediately after the attack.' (11)
One of the dead was Mrs Violet Long, Chief Controller of the British Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, who was crushed between the lifeboat and the side of the vessel after getting her feet entangled in some ropes. When her feet were freed she fell into the sea and drowned. (12)
Claire Elise Tisdall, VAD Ambulance Nurse, The Ambulance Column, London District, however, stated in her recollections that among the survivors she met at Paddington were wounded German prisoners of war who had been aboard WARILDA and plucked from the water. (13)
Built: 1907(5); 1912 (4)(8)
Builder: W Beardmore & Co. Ltd. (5)(8)
Where Built: Glasgow (5)
Propulsion: Screw driven, quadruple expansion engine (5)(8)
HP: 762 (5)
Boilers: 4 (5)
Armament: 1 x 4in gun (5)
Master: J Sim (5); Sim (8)
Crew: 117 (5)
Crew Lost: 7 (3)(5)(8)
Passengers: 684 (5)
Passengers Lost: 116 (5)(8)
Owner: Adelaide SS Co. Ltd. (4)(5)(8)
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss
Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles:
PRO.Kew.ADM.137/2964; LR 1915-16 No.166(W) |