“Every Man For Himself”: Georgia & the Loss of the H.M.S. Otranto
September Monthly Meeting
Monday, September 25, 2023
Pittman Park UMC Fellowship Hall - 11:30 a.m.
Presenter: Dr. Brent W. Tharp
Dr. Brent Tharp is Director of the Georgia Southern University Museum, Adjunct Assistant Professor Department of History, Historian, and Vice President of the Bulloch County Historical Society, and those are just a few of his many accolades!
His excellent presentation on the H.M.S. Otranto was not only ‘Fascinating and Factual’, but it also kept the attendees full attention. It best describes in ‘full detail’ the history of the H.M.S. Otranto, including its final voyage and the impact it had in Georgia.
Prior to Dr. Tharp's presentation, there was time for socializing and friendly exchange with approximately 75 members and guests in attendance for the monthly meeting. A delicious Dinner/Luncheon of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, yeast rolls & butter and banana puddin' with water, sweet and unsweetened Tea was served.
Dr.Tharp began his presentation with a few slides of the H.M.S Otranto and her brief background history. Prior to World War 1, the Otranto made two round trips to Australia by January 1910 and then made its 17-day cruise in the Mediterranean.
H.M.S. Otranto was an armed merchant cruiser requisitioned by the British Admiralty when World War 1 began in 1914. Built before the war for the UK-Australia, as SS Otranto, she was primarily used during the war to search for German commerce raiders. Apart from brief refits in the UK, Canada, and Australia, she remained on this duty until early 1918 when she became a ‘troopship.’
On September 25th, 1918, the British 'troopship’ H.M.S. Otranto left New York carrying more than 1,000 US soldiers and crewmen as part of an Allied Force Convoy sailing to fight during World War I. Most of the soldiers on H.M.S. Otranto had trained at Fort Screven on Tybee Island, Georgia.
After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the convoy entered the Irish Sea. On October 6, while still a day from port, a storm developed with gale-force (hurricane type) winds. During the storm, a large wave struck the H.M.S. Kashmir, another troop ship in the convoy, causing it to ram at full stream into the Otranto.
The Otranto sustained a gaping hole in his husk and lost all electrical power, the latter of which caused it to drift towards the cliffs of the Scottish island of Islay. One of the convoy’s escort destroyers, H.M.S. Mounsey, sailed alongside the much larger Otranto four times to attempt a rescue. Mounsey’s captain Lieutenant Francis Craven positioned his ship on Otranto’s lee side to allow the men aboard the liner to jump aboard. Despite the weight of the rescued man and the damage sustained in the rescue, Mouncey was able to reach Belfast safely, although she was too badly damaged to return to their own home Port.
In all, Mounsey was able to rescue nearly 600 men, 300 of which were Americans. Within 3 hours, the Otrano crashed on the island’s Rocky Shore, and approximately 470 soldiers and crew died including 130 from Georgia. Nearly every county in the state including Bulloch lost at least one man when the ship went down off the coast of Scotland. It was the single greatest loss of life in troop transport during the war. Nearly a third of the soldiers from Georgia who lost their lives on the Otranto were from Screven and Berrien Counties. Many of the troops were from rural Georgia, Berrien County, and paid a terrible toll that day - 25 of its’ Sons were lost and at least three others survived. Bulloch County lost 4 - Carswell Deal, John M Sheffield, James Warren Williams and Brook Beasley.
After the war, most of the American bodies were interred at Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial is Surrey, England, or repatriated to the United States. In 2017, a 80 ft Stone Tower was built on Mall of Oa by the American Red Cross to commemorate the men lost aboard the H.M.S. Otranto. The Georgia Historical Society, Georgia World War 1 Centennial Commission, and the VFW Post erected markers. There are several other markers to commemorate this tragic event like the one on Tybee Island (lighthouse in the background) and Sylvania in Screven County.
This was an amazing presentation. Several in attendance remembered or heard stories of family or friends that were on the H.M.S. Otranto.
Dr. Brent Tharp suggested a book ‘Many Were Held’ by R.Neil Scott.
For more information, contact [email protected], or 912-478-5444
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