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The Gascony (Wreck)

United Kingdom / England / Bognor Regis /
 First World War 1914-1918, shipwreck, interesting place, draw only border

Everyone at the Court of Enquiry into the sinking of the 3133 ton British steamer Gascony assumed that she had been mined. Everyone, that is, except for her master, William Melville, who persisted in saying that she had been torpedoed in her port side just behind the bridge.

Melville had heard a hiss just before the explosion, and to him it sounded like a torpedo run. The enquiry, however, concluded that the Gascony, which had been carrying guns on carriages, hay, charcoal and other Government stores from Southampton to Calais for the British Army in France, had hit a mine, and that in any case the captain should have been zig-zagging.

Later, it emerged that Captain Melville had been right. He had been torpedoed at 11.18 pm on 18 January, 1918, by Oberleutnant Johann Lohs in UC-75. A huge wall of water from the explosion crashed over the decks, the engines ground to a standstill, and the forward holds and engine room started filling.

Melville ordered his crew of 39 and the naval gunner of the big old stern gun into the boats and over to their patrol boat escort, HMS P-12.

But the 360ft Gascony refused to sink in the dark. She was well down by the head, but at dawn, when she seemed stable, the captain, the mate and four volunteers reboarded her and at 8am took lines from two tugs. She was pulled slowly towards the Sussex shore, but at 1.45pm she suddenly broke in two and sank like a stone.
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Coordinates:   50°39'31"N   -0°39'39"E
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This article was last modified 14 years ago