Humpday History Highlight

The sinking of the T.S.S. California ocean liner - February 7, 1917

The California commenced her last Glasgow to New York voyage on January 12, 1917. She began her return voyage on January 29, 1917 with a crew of 184 and 31 passengers on board. On February 3, 1917, as the California sailed on her return trip towards Scotland, German U-boats attacked and sank the USS Housatonic, an act which led to the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany.

On the morning of February 7, 1917 when homeward bound and approaching Ireland under full steam, she was set upon by two German Mittel-U class submarines in a surprise attack. One of the German submarines, Unterseeboot 85 (U-85), under the command of Kapitanleutenant (a.k.a. Lieutenant) Willy Petz, fired two torpedoes at the California; one struck the ship squarely on the port quarter near the Number 4 hatch. Five people were killed instantly in the explosion; thirty-six people drowned either as the ship went down or when one filled lifeboat was swamped in the wake of the burning vessel, which plowed ahead losing little headway as she went down. She sank in nine minutes, 38 miles W by S of Fastnet Rock (also commonly known as Fastnet Island), Ireland with a loss of 41 lives. Though Captain John L. Henderson did indeed stay on the bridge through the entire incident, and subsequently went down with the ship, he miraculously managed to make his way back to the surface and was rescued.

On March 12, 1917 the British Q-ship HMS Privet avenged the sinking of the California and sealed the fate of the crew of the U-85. Posing as an unarmed merchant vessel, the crew of the Privet lured the U-85 to the surface after sustaining heavy damage in an unprovoked attack by the submarine. As the Privet’s highly trained crew feigned abandoning ship, they uncovered the ship’s massive hidden machine guns and opened fire on the submarine at extremely close range. Perforating the submarine from bow to stern in an unrelenting hail of bullets, they sent U-85, Captain Petz and his crew of 37 men to the bottom of the English Channel; there were no survivors. (H/T - Wikipedia)

You always hear about the sinking of the Lusitania, but the sinking of the California was news to me. Knowledge is power, folks!