National Museums Liverpool Blog - First World War

I came across this story while reading about the conflict at sea during the First World War and was filled with gloom.

This liner seemed to have been earmarked for destruction from the start and was sunk even when under the protection of warships. Her brief life had been blighted by the misfortunes of other great ships.

The 32,234-ton Justicia was built for the Dutch Holland America Line at Belfast’s famous Harland & Wolff shipyard and launched just weeks before war broke out.

She was bought by the British Government but because of war shortages she was not completed until 1917 and named Justicia.

She was originally destined to be a replacement for the Lusitania (pictured) which had been torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat submarine in May 1915 with the loss of 1,200 lives.

Cunard was experiencing manning problems so Justicia went to the White Star Line as a troopship because it had a crew available from the Britannic, Titanic’s sister ship sunk by a German mine.

Justicia was painted in camouflage paint, in common with other troopships, and worked successfully for a time in this role.  

In July 1918 she was travelling unladen from Belfast to New York escorted by destroyers. Justicia was torpedoed by the German submarine UB-64 23 miles south of Skerryvore lighthouse, Scotland.

Her watertight doors were closed, preventing her from sinking, and she was taken in tow by the tug HMS Sonia. It was intended to beach her in shallow water.

However, another submarine – the UB-124 – caught up and fired two more torpedoes which struck her side. Justicia sank surrounded by 30 Royal Naval and other vessels. Most of the crew had been taken off but 16 engine room personnel died. The UB-124 was sunk by gunfire from three Royal Navy warships.  

The Lusitania was eventually replaced by the Imperator, known as the German Titanic. She was handed over as part of war reparations and became the Cunard flagship, later renamed Berengaria.

There are contrasting models of the Berengaria and Lusitania in the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

The Lusitania waterline model is just three feet long and was made by James McKee, the ship’s carpenter from 1908 to 1915. He used a piece of damaged teak handrail from the ship to make the model’s hull.

McKee did not sail on the Lusitania’s final voyage. He left the model unfinished and it was completed for the museum by his son John in 1982.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1 p&p UK).

HM Rescue Tug Storm King in March 1943, from the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

I was surprised to discover that tugs sailed with convoys of merchant ships bringing vital supplies to Britain during the Second World War.

The role of the tugs was to assist stricken vessels after they were damaged by enemy attacks. Their vital work boosted the war effort by saving hundreds of warships and their crews,

The Royal Navy’s Rescue Tug Section was set up at the beginning of the war to provide suitable ocean-going tugs to save torpedoed ships. This was dangerous work requiring the greatest skills to ensure that ships were brought to safe havens despite bad weather, the presence of U-boat submarines and enemy aircraft.

At the start there were only four Royal Navy tugs and eight civilian requisitions available for deep-sea work. However, these inadequacies were remedied by concerted action. By the end of the war, due to newly-built additions from British and US shipyards, this number had grown to more than 80.

The rescue tugs were largely manned by Merchant Navy crews serving under Royal Navy orders. From 1941 they were based at Campbeltown, Scotland, and from 1943 a rescue tug was attached to every transatlantic convoy.

By the end of the war the 'Campbeltown Navy' had helped to save more than three million tons of Allied shipping, over 250 warships and hundreds of Allied seamen, mostly in the North Atlantic. Twenty rescue tugs were lost on active service.

A photograph in the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery shows HM Rescue Tug Storm King in March 1943 (pictured).

When the war started, the Royal Navy with the help of Canadian, French and other Allied navies took on the job of defending British and Allied merchant ships from German attacks.

As in the later stages of the First World War (the years 1917 – 18) the main method of defence against such attacks was the convoy system. This involved groups of merchant ships sailing in close formation under the protection of one or more escort warships.

On display is a silver salver presented to Pay Lieutenant Commander Richard Rankin RNR by the commodores of the North Atlantic convoys about 1942. The square salver is engraved with about 50 facsimile signatures. Rankin, an officer of the Naval Control Service, was based throughout the war in Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building. His main job was liaising with convoy commodores – a key role which he fulfilled with great success.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1 p&p UK).

Soldiers often send things to their loved ones at home. During the First World War they often sent embroidered postcards, some of which are now in National Museums Liverpool's collection. The postcards, known as 'World War One Silks', were mostly produced by French and Belgian women refugees and became extremely popular with British and American servicemen on duty in France. Further information about them is on this web page about Silks.

Some of the remembrance postcards that have already been made for our banner

This Saturday you are invited to make your own postcard in remembrance of those that gave their lives during the First and Second World Wars in a free drop-in workshop, 1-4pm in the Learning base in the basement of Merseyside Maritime Museum. If you leave your postcard with us we will include it in a banner which we hope to display in the The Liverpool Pals and the First World War exhibition in the Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2011. At the workshop this weekend you will also have the chance to find out about life in the trenches and how to trace your family’s history through military records.

The Liverpool Pals and the First World War exhibition will tell the story of the First World War as experienced by the ordinary people of Liverpool, either through participation in the fighting - focussing on the story of the Liverpool Pals – or through involvement on the Home Front. The main emphasis of the exhibition will be the particular Liverpool aspects of the story, set in a national and international context.

Lord Derby recruited one of the first Pals battalions in England from Liverpool in August 1914 when he suggested that men would volunteer if they could remain with work colleagues, family or neighbours. In effect the social structure of Liverpool was transferred to the front line. This exhibition will confront the realities of the loss of 16,700 Liverpool men, how it happened, and how it impacted on – and in some cases devastated - Liverpool communities.

Details of all events this weekend are on the Merseyside Maritime Museum's events and activities page, including this workshop and a new roleplayer performance on Sunday, 'Never at sea - the Wren's story'.