Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Naval Campaign is defined as to include all sea operations where attrition rates are in ones and twos and which do not fall within specific naval battles such as Jutland, Coronel, Falklands etc. This includes Merchant Navy losses.

Detail :

NUGENT, James Alfred, Chief Engineer, SS Romeo Cargo ship SS Romeo, 1,730grt, (Wilson Line) had been sailing to Liverpool from Scapa Flow in ballast. On the 3rd March 1918, 7 miles South from the Mull of Galloway the ship was intercepted and sunk by U-102. Also lost on the SS Romeo that day was Brother George BARGEWELL of ST AUBYN LODGE No 954.

See also Wrecksite EU: The Romeo, J Neile, master, left Scapa on 23 February 1918 bound for Liverpool. She was on Admiralty charter for carrying meat and provisions to the Fleet, but was returning to Liverpool in ballast after having called in at Stornoway, remaining there for six days. She was equipped with a twelve pound gun for defence against enemy submarines. On 3 March 1918 at 2.40 a.m. she was about 10 miles south of the Mull oif Galloway, steaming at 10 knots and zig-zagging. The weather was fine with occassional snow showers, the wind light and the sea smooth. The first officer was in charge on the bridge. There was a lookout on the forecastle head, another on the bridge and one on the gunner´s platform aft. All lights on the ship were carefully screened and no navigation lights were burning. Suddenly a green and red light appeared off her port bow. Fearful of a collision with another ship, the order was given to show the Romeo´s navigation lights at her bow. This was a fateful mistake as she had been tricked by the German submarine U102into giving away her exact position. Within a couple of minutes a torpedo slammed into the Romeo´s port side between the stoke hole and the engine room. The explosion was terrific and split the ship in two. At first she took a list to port, then righted herself before sinking like a stone in less than two minutes. There was no time for the crew to launch any of the lifeboats and the crew of 37 men was thrown into the water. The two gun crew managed to cling to a swamped boat and eventually bailed it out. Shortly afterwards they spotted a sailor in the water and hauled him out into the lifeboat, but he later died at about 10.00 a.m. At daylight the two gunners managed to get the mast and sail up before being picked up by the steamship Ardgarvel at 11.00 a.m. and were later landed at Greenock. The only other survivor was the wireless operator, Arthur Sneddon. He was picked up by a trawler and landed at Holyhead by the patrol boat Kilgobnet at 11.00 a.m. on 4 March. Allen Tony 26/06/2007 Romeo was a 1,730grt defensively-armed British merchant steamer. On the 3 March 1918 when 7 miles South from Mull of Galloway she was torpedoed without warning and sunk by a submarine. 29 lives lost including Master"

Masonic :

Passed and raised in Prince of Wales Lodge No. 1035.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley