Holyhead sailors' desert ordeal

The SS Hibernia was requisitioned for the war effort and renamed HMS Tara

Richard Burnell of the Holyhead Maritime Museum tells the story of some of the town's merchant seamen whose ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1914.

When people think about World War I they always think of the European theatre where thousands lost their lives in the trenches. But many sailors lost their lives, too.

Holyhead lost three ships, the first being the HMS Tara.

For the first year of the war, HMS Tara patrolled the northern Irish Sea for German subs.

Then she was sent down to patrol off north Africa where the U35 German sub spotted her. It was a beautiful, calm day when she got hit just under the bridge by a torpedo.

She went down in 10 minutes and 12 men in the engine room were killed straightaway. But 94 men survived, all Holyhead men, except for a couple of them.

They got into three lifeboats, some hanging onto the sides, and the U35, captained by Kophamel, surfaced.

In those days if a sub surfaced any sailor knew their chances were slim because the policy was to take no prisoners.

But Kophamel was educated in Cambridge and spoke perfect English. He got onto the conning tower of the sub and called for them to row over to the stern.

They hauled those hanging onto the lifeboat sides onto the sub's deck, tied up the three lifeboats and sailed into a port near Sullom (Egypt) where they were handed over to the Sanussi tribe.

The men were told they were going to an oasis, but they were marched for 12 days into the desert where there was nowhere to escape to.

Christmas Day dinner 1915 Boiled goat and snails, pudding made with flour and salt mixed into a paste, boiled in a cloth Diary of Quartermaster William Rowlands

One man died on the way. He'd injured his leg jumping off the ship and got really delirious when they stayed overnight in some caves. The ship's doctor tried to amputate, but he didn't have any anaesthetic, just some scissors, needle and cotton. The man died of shock.

When they arrived at their destination it was only a well where shepherds brought their sheep. They stayed there for 135 days.

Four of the Holyhead men died of malnutrition because they were living on a starvation diet. We've got a little cup the size of a sherry tumbler at the museum which they used to measure out how much rice they were each allowed each day.

The men weren't soldiers trained to survive in the desert and they really had to improvise. Many were just in their underclothes because they'd had to leave ship so quickly.

In the beginning all they were given was two goats each week to share between them all. They used the skins to make shoes and clothes, but some weeks into captivity, they were still sleeping in the open air.

Captain Watkin-Williams complained about how badly they were treated, and one day a camel train did bring eight tents, blankets and knives and forks.

They mainly ate snails and snakes. They had a ship's dog called Paddy, who was on a starvation diet with them.

Even though the ship had been over 20 miles out to sea, they'd found him in the water and brought him on board.

The sailors thought he'd come off an Arab vessel, because whenever he saw people in Arabic dress he would snarl. So perhaps he'd been mistreated by them, because he was fine with the British sailors.

Paddy the ship's mascot who survived the desert with the ship's crew

In a couple of the sailor's diaries, they talk about how close Paddy came to being put down, but even though the men were starving, they couldn't bring themselves to eat the dog. He'd survived this far with them.

They were finally rescued when the Duke of Westminster's Cheshire Yeomanry recaptured Sullom.

The Arabs who'd been holding them captive had given the men paper and pencils to write home and promised to give their letters to the Red Cross. But what they really did was give the letters to nomads on the camel trains, who'd throw them away in the desert.

A young officer from the Yeomanry saw paper scattered everywhere while on patrol. He picked up a piece and saw it was a letter by a chap from Upper Bangor saying, 'Don't worry about me mam, I'm alright, we're in the hands of the Senussi.'

On that evidence, he secured 44 vehicles to go out and find them. His commanding officer gave him just 24 hours to bring the men back.

Their guide was a young shepherd and he could remember going to a well, and said if the men were anywhere, it had to be there, at Bir-el Hakin.

They found them, brought them back to Sullom and they travelled on to Alexandria from where they all sailed home, except for one man who died in hospital.

Paddy made it, too. But he wasn't allowed to travel to Alexandria, so they gave him to the Cheshire Yeomanry.

It was policy to shoot all dogs on camp because of rabies. Paddy was exempt, but one day he was crossing the patrol ground when a young officer, who didn't recognise him, shot him and he died.

He was given a military funeral and has a gravestone out in Libya.

Only a week after the Tara was torpedoed, another Holyhead ship, the HMS Anglian, was bringing troops across The English Channel when she was hit by a mine.

HMS Leinster was torpedoed off Dun Laoghaire near the end of the war and 527 men died.