Another Titanic, Britannic Survivor, Archie Jewel-- Part 2: Not So Lucky On the Donegal

In 1916, Jewel left the White Star Line and was hired onto the SS Donegal, a passenger  ship put into service in 1904.

It was converted into a hospital ship during World War I which transported wounded soldiers between France and England.

On 1 March 1917, one of these voyage encountered a German U-boat and the Donegal was torpedoed.  Badly damaged, the Donegal was able to get away, but was not repaired.  On 17 April 1917, another German submarine torpedoed the Donegal without warning and the ship sank 19 nautical miles  south of Dean.

Twelve crew members and  29 British soldiers died.  Archie Jewel was one of the dead crew members.  he was only 28 years old.  His body was never recovered.  

John Priest was also on board the Donegal, but survived.

--Cooter

Another White Star Line Triple Survivor, Arthur John Priest-- Part 2: Also on the Titanic and Britannic (and Two Others)

The following year, 1912, Mr. Priest was on the Olympic's sister ship, the newly launched Titanic on her maiden run into history.  A massive layoff among  stokers caused many of his comrades to lose their jobs, but Priest was "lucky" enough to get a position deep in the bowels of the ill-fated ship.

He was one of the few lucky crew members to survive.

But, this wasn't the last time he nearly died on a shipwreck.

His World War I service saw him aboard the ocean liner turned armed merchant ship RMS Alcantara which was sunk by the German merchant raider Grief.  He survived that as well.  He later served aboard the sister ship of the Titanic and Olympic, the Britannica which had been turned into a hospital ship.  She hit a mine and sank in November 1916.

The following year, the luckiest unlucky sailor in history was  serving aboard the SS Donegal, a converted ferry that had become an ambulance ship.  She was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the English Channel.

He survived that one too, but that was his last ship.  After this one, he lived out his life on dry land, saying that "no one wished to sail with him after these disasters."  (I don't blame them.)  He also had the title "The Unsinkable Stoker."

I Would Figure.  --Cooter

Here Is Another Triple White Star Survivor, John Arthur Priest (Olympic, Titanic and Britannic)

From the March 23, 2021, ListVerse  "Top 10 luckiest unlucky  people whose luck nearly killed them.

The subject of the last two posts, Violet Jessup is also in this list.  But, this is a different person who also survived the Titanic and the Britannic sinkings.  And, he was on the Olympic as well.  Plus, he had two other ships sink while he was on it.  A true "unsinkable" as it were.

His name was Arthur John Priest.

Arthur John Priest worked as a stoker, or "fireman," whose job it was  to keep the boilers of a ship constantly steaming  by shoveling coal into them.    As such, they were well below the waterline and near the bottom of one of those massive triple sisters of the White Star Line.

While serving on the Olympic in 1911,  he survived when the ship was struck and holed by the HMS Hawke below the waterline, but did not sink.

The following year, he got a job on the Olympic's sister ship, the you-know-what.

--Cooter