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 Titanic, Britannic Survivor: Arthur Jewel-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

While looking up stuff about Arthur John Priest, I came across this man's name.  The Wikipedia article said that besides Priest, there were two others who survived both the Titanic and Britannic's sinkings, Violet Jessup and Arthur Jewel.

And, there was one more ship he was on, the SS Donegal, a hospital ship that was sunk by a German U-boat, but this one he did not survive.

He started working for the White Star Line in 1904 at the age of 16 and was a seaman on the Oceanic for eight years.  On April 6, 1912, he was transferred to the RMS Titanic as one of six lookouts along with George Symons.  They were in the lookout station in the crows next right before the collision with the iceberg but had been relieved by Reginald Lee and Frederick Fleet.

He survived by being put in command of Lifeboat 7.

He was working on the HMHS Britannic  and survived its sinking on  21 November 1916, along with  stewardess Violet Jessup and stoke Arthur John Priest.

--DaCoot

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

'Miss Unsinkable' Violet Jessup-- Part 2: Survived Sinkings of Titanic and Brittanic

Then, Violet Jessup made the move to the Titanic in time for that "Unsinkable" ship's famous maiden voyage in April 1912 when it sailed for New York City across the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic.  She later wrote in her memoirs of the  unforgettable night of April 14-15, when the ship hit an iceberg and san, taking some 1,500 people with her.

Jessop helped other women and children into lifeboats before climbing into one herself; one of the ship's officers placed a bundled up baby on her lap.  After eight hours on the lifeboat, a ship called the Carpathia rescued Jessop and the others, and a frantic woman (whom Jessup assumed was the baby's mother) snatched the infant from her arms.

She was also on the third of the three sisters, the Britannic.  After World War I broke out, the Britannic was requisitioned by the British government and turned into a hospital ship.  By then, Miss Jessup was a nurse working for the British Red Cross.

In November 1916, the Britannic hit a mine set by a German U-boat in the Aegean Sea.  The explosion caused significant damage and the ship sank less than an hour later, only 30 people died.  More than 1,000  were saved, including "Miss Unsinkable."

Jessup continued working on cruise ships after the war and had a 42-year career at sea before her retirement.  She died in 1971.

I Don't Think I'd Get On a Ship That This Woman Was On.  --DaCoot

First Americans Killed Overseas in World War I-- Part 7: Ex- President Theordore Roosevelt's Response to the Attack

Lt. Fitzsimons was not the only American soldier to lose his life that night.

Privates Oscar Tugo, Private Rudolph Rubino and Private Leslie Woods were also killed in the raid.

There is no doubt that the raid was deliberate.  The German fliers even dropped German coins to show the Americans who had bombed them.

On a page one editorial in the Kansas City Star on September 17, 1917, former President Theodore Roosevelt blasted Germany for Fitzsimons' death saying that they had demonstrated "calculated brutality" and "carried on a systematic campaign of murder against hospitals and hospital ships."

After the war, the U.S. government had a program to enable parents and family to visit the graves of their family overseas.  On July 5, 1930, Lt. Fitzsimons' mother, Catherine Fitzsimons, visited his grave at the Somme American Cemetery and Memorial in Picardie, France.

--Cooter

USS Solace AH-5

The previous article mentioned that Ralph Laedtke had been on the USS Solace at Pearl Harbor. I have never heard of this ship so went to good old Wikipedia.

The USS Solace, AH-5, was the second hospital ship to carry that name. It was built as the passenger liner SS Iroquois at Newport News, Va., and was bought by the US Navy July 22, 1940, and converted into a hospital ship.

It was at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, and immediately sent launches to the stricken Arizona, rescuing wounded men from the ship and pulling those in the oil-covered and burning water to safety. Boats also assisted the West Virginia and Oklahoma.

Stats: 409 feet long, 62 feet beam, 18 knots, could handle 418 patients at a time and had a crew of 466.

It participated in the battles of the Pacific and handles over 25,000 patients, 70% of them wounded, possibly a record for a hospital ship.

When the war ended, it took part in Operation Magic Carpet to bring the troops back home.

The Day of Infamy.