Sinking of the Troop Ship Otranto 1918

Unit/ Formation: Memorial

Location: Isle of Islay

Period/ Conflict: World War I

Year: 1918

Date/s: 6 October 1918

Painting of the passenger ship Otranto

HMS Otranto was an armed merchant cruiser requisitioned by the British Admiralty when World War I began in 1914. Built before the war for the UK–Australia run as SS Otranto, she was primarily used in the war to search for German commerce raiders. She played small roles in the Battle of Coronelin November 1914 when the German East Asia Squadron destroyed the British squadron searching for it and in the Battle of the Falkland Islands the following month when a British squadron annihilated the Germans in turn.

Apart from brief refits in the UK, Canada and Australia, she remained on this duty until early 1918 when she became a troop ship.

During a severe storm off the Isle of Islay in late 1918, she accidentally collided with another troop ship, HMS Kashmir (1915) and was forced ashore by the storm, killing 470 passengers, mainly American soldiers, crewmen. [1] and 10 Royal Marines

HMS Otranto in WWI

About three hours after the collision, a large wave dropped Otranto onto "Old Women's Reef", about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) offshore, near the entrance to Machir Bay, missing a sandy beach just north of the reef. The action of the enormous waves quickly broke the ship in half and then ripped her bottom out.

Of the roughly 489 men aboard after Mounsey departed, only 21 (17 of these were American) were able to successfully swim ashore, although two of these, including one American, later died of their injuries.

The islanders were able to rescue some of these men by pulling them up the coastal cliffs or from rocks just offshore. By the following morning, the liner had been completely demolished by the heavy seas and the coastline was strewn with wreckage and hundreds of bodies in piles up to 15 feet (4.6 m) deep.

A total of 316 Americans were found and buried on Islay and the nearby island of Muck.

The following Royal Marines lost their lives;

BARRETT, Henry W, Private, RMLI, 10877 (Ch)

BATTERSBY, Thomas, Corporal, RMLI, 17267 (Ch)

HANINGTON, James, Colour Sergeant, RMLI, 9769 (Ch)

NOONE, Thomas, Private, RMLI, 20725 (Ch)

NUGENT, John J, Private, RMLI, 20772 (Ch)

PATTISON, Albert G, Private, RMLI, 20765 (Ch)

PRESCOTT, William C, Private, RMLI, 20784 (Ch)

SHULVER, Ernest, Private, RMLI, 20623 (Ch)

SMITH, Albert E, Private, RMLI, 20846 (Ch)

SNOW, James H, Private, RMLI, 20860 (Ch)

The American Monument and the Cliffs of the Mull of Oa

Read More/ Web Link:

• Wikipedia - HMS Otranto