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The story of RMS Olympic's dramatic rescue attempt
of HMS Audacious.
By mid September RMS Olympic had completed two voyages
out of Liverpool, but when she departed
from that port on 16th September it was to be for the last time.
Due to the lack of docking facilities
at Liverpool for vessels of her size, the White Star Line decided
to move her European terminal to Greenock, where she first arrived
on 3rd October. By this time, however, the decision had already
been taken for the ship to complete only one more round trip before
proceeding to Belfast to be
laid up. Olympic made her last scheduled departure from Greenock
at 10.50 p.m. on 9th October. Maintaining a high speed and following
a zigzag course for safety she arrived at New York seven days
later, before departing for the last time on 21st October. After
six days the voyage had followed a fairly
routine pattern with no unusual sightings or alerts, and by the
morning of Tuesday 27th October the
ship was off the north coast of Ireland when, less than a day
from safety, the voyage was suddenly interrupted.
Due to the Admiralty's concern at the inadequate U-boat defenses
of the Grand Fleet's main base at Scapa Flow, the British fleet
had actually spent the first few months of the war based at Lough
Swilly on the north Irish coast, until the base at Scapa Flow
could be secured. The Germans, of course, knew this, and it was
into these now hazardous waters that the Olympic steamed on the
last leg of her voyage home. In her path lay a German minefield
and the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet on manoeuvres.
Sure enough, at 8.50 a.m. that morning the brand new 23,000 ton
British battleship HMS Audacious struck a mine off Tory Island.
Fearing a possible torpedo attack on the other ships, Admiral
John Jellicoe ordered the fleet to leave the area and ordered
the light cruiser HMS Liverpool and a number of smaller vessels
to remain on the scene and assist the damaged battleship.
At 10.30 a.m. Olympic was sighted by the captain
of HMS Liverpool and ordered to assist in the evacuation of the
crew of the Audacious. Two hours later, all but 250 of the battleship's
crew had been taken off and with the boats safely recovered, arrangements
were made to try and tow the damaged ship to safety. The destroyer
HMS Fury succeeded in attaching a cable between the Audacious
and Olympic, and at 2.00 p.m. the tow started. The immediate progress
was encouraging and as the rescue party steamed westwards the
situation looked to be well in hand, but when the Olympic altered
course to SSE towards Lough Swilly the situation began to deteriorate.
By this time the steering gear on board the Audacious had failed,
and in the rising seas the ship became increasingly unmanageable,
eventually shearing off into the wind and parting the tow-line
at the same time.
The sinking of Audacious, Olympics boats are lowered to the
rescue. |
Another attempt was made at 3.30 p.m., this time by HMS
Liverpool. Fury once again succeeded in attaching another
cable, but after only fifteen minutes it became fouled in
the cruiser's propellers and it too parted. Not quick to accept
defeat, another attempt to tow the now fast foundering battleship
was made as HMS Fury took over a third cable to the collier
Thornhill at 4.00 p.m., but it too gave way just as it was
being tightened.Once again Olympic was ordered to stand by
and be ready to make another attempt, but time was running
out. |
By 5.00 p.m. the quarterdeck of the Audacious was
awash and the decision was taken to evacuate the majority of the
crew still remaining on board. As the evacuation continued it
was decided that due to the heavy weather and deteriorating conditions
aboard the Audacious the ship would be abandoned altogether until
the following morning. By 6.30 p.m. her entire crew had been taken
aboard either Olympic or HMS Liverpool.
It was a fortunate decision. At 8.55 p.m. there
was a massive explosion aboard the Audacious in the vicinity of
the forward magazines serving A and B turrets, and within moments
the battleship capsized and sank stern first.
That evening Olympic dropped anchor in Lough Swilly
to disembark the rescued crew of the Audacious, but for security
reasons the vessel was ordered to remain out of sight of the Grand
Fleet so that any passengers with any pro-German sympathies would
be able to observe any military activities. In fact there were
quite a number of German born Americans on board who had witnessed
the demise of the battleship, and it was clear that they could
not be relied upon to keep their silence. It was not possible
to arrest or intern them as they were now American citizens, but
if nothing else they could at least be detained for questioning
when the passengers were disembarked. Needless to say, the interrogations
were not rushed.
| In the meantime, Olympic's master, Captain Herbert J. Haddock,
was faced with the task of keeping his passengers occupied
while they were marooned on board with no communication with
the shore. Understandably reluctant to risk the safety of
their flagship, the White Star Line was in no hurry to move
her as she was due to be laid up anyway, but, equally, the
military authorities could not allow the passengers to disembark
at Lough Swilly. The only people permitted to leave the ship
were the rescued crew of the Audacious and Olympic's chief
surgeon Dr. John Beaumont who was being transferred to the
Celtic. The problem was eventually solved by the lack of time
remaining before the Olympic was due at Belfast. |
Saving the crew of Audacious a painting
by WL Wyllie |
At 3.28 p.m. on 2nd November the ship finally left
Lough Swilly to terminate her voyage, not at Greenock as originally
planned, but at Belfast, where she finally disembarked her passengers
the following day. In recognition of his outstanding services,
Captain Haddock was to stay on at Belfast, where he was appointed
by the Admiralty to command a squadron of merchant ships that
were being fitted out to resemble British warships in an effort
to mislead enemy intelligence.
Despite the Admiralty's best attempts at a cover
up, however, speculation into the sinking of the Audacious would
not die down. The authorities had gone out of their way to assist
in the deception by modifying the SS Mountclan to resemble the
lost battleship, but the large number of witnesses to the event
made the task of keeping the secret all but impossible. It was
difficult enough to persuade the neutral passengers who had been
aboard the Olympic during the abortive rescue mission to keep
silent, but even some of the crew who should have been more reliable,
were being something less than discreet. Matters came to a head
when the editor of the Daily Mail published a letter from one
of his readers complaining that a masseur from the Olympic named
Johnson had openly boasted to his barber that he had seen the
Audacious go down and that the authorities had ordered everyone
to say nothing. Before long the Admiralty was deluged with enquiries
from anxious relatives of the members of the Audacious' crew who
were understandably worried.
If the deception was to be maintained then the fears
of the families had to be laid to rest. As luck would have it
none of the crew of the Audacious had actually been lost during
the sinking, so whenever an enquiry was received the Admiralty
could reply with a reasonable degree of truth:
"According to the latest information, …
is well and serving with the fleet."
Amazingly, the only real casualty during the entire
incident had been Petty Officer William Burgess of HMS Liverpool,
who was killed while standing on the deck of his own ship when
he was hit by a 2 ft x 3 ft piece of armour plate when the Audacious
blew up. As the decks of the cruiser had been particularly crowded
at the time it was considered a miracle that no one else had been
killed, or even injured.
All enquiries about the ship itself were ignored
and in the meantime Captain Dampier of the Audacious assumed command
of the battleship HMS Superb, while his crew were transferred
to the newly commissioned battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Note: The mines that sank HMS Audacious were laid by the
converted German liner Berlin. After laying the mines Berlin attempted
to return to Germany, but in the end was forced to put in to Trondheim
where the ship was interned for the duration of the war. After
the war the vessel was purchased by the White Star Line and renamed
Arabic (the third company vessel to bear the name). She remained
in service (alternating between the White Star Line and the Red
Star Line) until 1931, when she was sold for scrapping at Genoa.
Excerpt from RMS Olympic File (SM):
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