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Battle or Action:
SS Falaba, Sinking of
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Detail : |
Falaba was a 5,000 ton British passenger-cargo ship under the command of Captain Davies and was carrying 95 crew and 147 passengers destined for Sierra Leone. It was sunk on 28 March 1915 by the German submarine U-28, which was commanded by Baron Forstner.
Falaba was beyond the mouth of the Bristol Channel off the southern Irish coast when U-28 surfaced and stopped the British ship. Forstner had allowed for evacuation before sinking the ship, but when Falaba started sending wireless messages and distress rockets for help, Forstner cut short the time to evacuate the ship. The Germans claimed that they allowed 23 minutes for evacuation; the British claimed that they were only given 7.
U-28 fired a single torpedo into Falaba, resulting in at least 100 deaths Both the Hull Daily Mail and Gloucester Echo of the 30th May, report 112 and 111 fatalities respectively. The Germans also claimed that Falaba's cargo contained rifle cartridges that exploded, hastening the sinking.
The American press denounced the sinking as a "massacre" and an act of piracy, but the US Wilson Administration took no action on the matter. At home, there were many newspaper articles. An eyewitness account had been reported in the Motherwell Times (2nd April 1915), Beverley and East Riding Recorder (3 April 1915) and the Manchester Evening News (8th July 1915) shows a judgement and conclusions by Lord Mersey.
The Verdict by the jury was returned: "...that the people died from exposure consequent upon the ship being struck by a torpedo from a German submarine." |
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