Dorset History Centre has been working with the recent Voices from 1918 project which has been utilising sources within our collections to tell the tales of the people in the last year of the Great War and its aftermath.
—
Sometimes we can use an account of an event recorded in a diary and do more research to build a fuller picture of what happened. In 1918, Lady Mary Monkswell, age 68 is the widow of a former Liberal politician living in Beaminster. Her husband had been Minister for War years earlier and she had a keen interest in what was happening in the war.
On June 8th 1918 she writes in her diary
“Came here fortnight today [Chideock] Watched an air-ship pass close, Lorna waved to it. It hung over Bay all PM. Sea planes came up from both sides, also destroyers, Great firing about 11pm. Did they get a U-boat? I think so.”
We know that something happened in the sea off Chideock but what exactly?
If we look at records of U-boat losses and U-boat sinkings in Lyme Bay we can see a fuller picture.
Three hours after Lady Monkswell saw “great firing” First Mate William Dreve was on the bridge of the steamer Moidart in Lyme Bay. His ship was loaded with coal from Barry in Wales.
At 2am he spotted a U-boat 400 metres away – which had not been seen by his lookouts. Within a minute, before they could react and launch her lifeboats, the ship was hit by a torpedo and sunk.
Six crew were rescued, 15 drowned. The sinking was attributed to a German U-boat UC77. Three days earlier the same U-boat torpedoed and sank the British steamer Huntsland 23 miles NW of Le Havre – this time with no casualties.
A few weeks later on July 14th 1918, the records tell us that UC77 herself was sunk by a mine off Flanders with the loss of all 30 hands. Over the course of the war German U-boats sank 2188 allied ships at a cost of 202 U-boats lost.
—
You can find out more about Lady Monkswell’s experiences of the last year of the war, as well as those of other people, by listening to some of the podcasts created by the Voices of 1918 project. You are also welcome to view the diaries themselves in our searchroom here at Dorset History Centre.