Francis Goodhart and K.13

Francis H H Goodhart DSO AM (10 July 1884 – 30 January 1917)
© UK Photo And Social History Archive

After much delay, today I finally completed a draft of the last chapter of my next book. This will be a biography of Commander Francis Goodhart, told alongside that of the major warship which he sank, the armoured cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert.

By coincidence today is also the day of an annual service held at Faslane Cemetery to commemorate those lost on HMS K.13, which sank on her acceptance trials in the Gareloch on 29 January 1917. Goodhart lost his life the next day during a daring attempt to hasten aid for those trapped in the boat.

Goodhart had been appointed to command K.14, which was still under construction on the Clyde. He had been invited along to the trial as a guest by his friend, Godfrey Herbert, the captain of K.13.

The K class submarines were a technological marvel. Their design called for a submarine capable of a surface speed of 24 knots to operate in conjunction with the main battle fleet. Since contemporary diesel engines were not capable of these speeds, this meant using oil fired boilers to power steam turbine engines. The result was a submarine that doubled the size of those in service. A whole range of new systems were introduced. Two funnels and four large boiler room vents were needed to feed air to the boilers and take away the combustion products. On diving new hydraulic telemotor powered systems automatically retracted the funnels into the superstructure and covered the vents and funnel trunking.

The layout can be seen in this plate, taken from an Admiralty technical history published in 1921:

K Class Submarine – National Archives ADM275/19/21 Plate 8

It has been a fascinating task piecing together the events from the archive material, eyewitness accounts and memoirs that deal with them. Reconciling different accounts is not straightforward and it is important to understand each writer’s perspective, potential biases and the amount of time that elapsed before they recorded their account. It is also important to keep an open mind and not jump to conclusions. The tale will be told in full in the chapter I have just finished drafting, but the key events are summarised below.

The immediate cause of K.13 losing control and plunging to the bottom of the Gareloch on her final dive was without doubt the fact that the boiler room mushroom vents had not been closed, based on the testimony of survivors to the Court of Inquiry held shortly after the disaster. The position of the vents was also confirmed by the salvage divers. Many accounts incorrectly assume that the loss was related to the complexity of the funnel mechanism, but this played no part in the sinking and was a separate system.

The aft section of the boat flooded almost immediately; 31 men lost their lives. In the forward section 48 men were trapped. Poor communication meant that after nearly a day on the bottom there appeared to be little progress with rescue efforts from those at the surface.

Goodhart and Herbert hatched a plan to get to the surface to ensure that the salvage efforts above quickly focussed on the essential needs of the trapped men. This meant Goodhart attempting a highly dangerous ascent via the conning tower and the wheelhouse which surrounded it. Herbert would assist, after which he planned to return to the control room of K.13. Compressed air would be used to assist the ascent, from a depth of around 20m, without any form of escape apparatus.

Goodhart was caught in the stream of compressed air when he left the conning tower and was killed when his head struck the roof of the wheelhouse. Herbert was sucked out of the conning tower after him, but managed to get out of the wheelhouse and reach the surface. He played a key role in ensuring that the remaining 46 men were kept alive until they were rescued.

Goodhart’s sacrifice was recognised with the posthumous award of an Albert Medal in Gold; the highest award for bravery when not engaged in military action. It is equivalent to the modern George Cross.

Petty Officer Moth, one of those rescued, described Goodhart and Herbert as: ‘Two of the bravest men it is possible to meet.’

Goodhart died in the finest tradition of the Royal Navy, not hesitating to be the one to risk his life for his shipmates. As one of the outstanding allied submariners of the Great War, a biography is long overdue.

The crews of HMT Resono and HMS E.6 remembered

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the crews of Resono and E.6 are remembered.

At 7.35am on the 26 December 1915 submarine E.6 (pictured above) left her berth to head out for her next war patrol from Harwich. Most of her crew had already seen many months of arduous patrol service in the North Sea. Her captain, Lieutenant-Commander William J Foster, had taken over E.6 in February, having previously commanded D.8 on her war patrols since the previous September.

Nine days earlier the German minelaying submarine UC.5 had laid her cargo of 12 mines in two locations in the channel down which E.6 was proceeding. Just four of the mines had been laid south of the Sunk Light Vessel.

The four mines remained undiscovered until 8.35 that morning, when the armed trawler mineweeper Resono was blown up by one of them. The torpedo boat TB.11 was patrolling nearby and was able to rescue five survivors from the water.

Half an hour later E.6 was approaching the spot. The torpedo boat attempted to warn the crew of the recently discovered danger, but despite apparently acknowledging the signal, she failed to alter course.

E.6 then blew up and sank immediately with the loss of all hands when she hit another of the mines.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The 13 lost crew of HMT Resono

Howard J Arnold, Telegraphist, RNVR

Albert Barker, Engineman, RNR

Ernest J Beamish, Trimmer, RNR

William Beavan, Deck Hand, RNR

Henry Bowles, Trimmer, RNR

Peter Burgon, Temporary Skipper, RNR

Daniel R Cook, Engineman, RNR

John Cullen, 2nd Hand, RNR

John McIver, Seaman, RNR

John T Netherton, Deck Hand, RNR

Thomas Orme, Able Seaman RFR

Joseph W Petersen, Trimmer, RNR

Gilbert Robertson, Leading Seaman, RNR

The 31 lost crew of HMS E.6

Harry Adams, Acting Chief Stoker

 John Barry, Able Seaman

 Harold W Bellingham, Stoker 1st Class

 George J H Bowerman, Telegraphist

 George L Burnett, Acting Chief Engine Room Artificer 1st Class

 Richard G Cobb, Able Seaman

 William Coltart, Petty Officer 1st Class

 George Coyles, Stoker 1st Class

 Albert Davies, Acting Stoker Petty Officer

 William G Desborough, Leading Seaman

 William J Foster, Lieutenant-Commander

 Alfred Gledhill, Temporary Acting Lieutenant, RNR

 Stephen H Hammond, Able Seaman

 William G Horwood, Stoker 1st Class

 Arthur J Jackman, Able Seaman

 James E Jones, Stoker 1st Class

 Alfred C Kipp, Leading Seaman

 William Leaney, Able Seaman

 Arthur W Marrington, Petty Officer

 Frederick W Norton, Leading Signalman

 Charles G R Philpott, Lieutenant

 Leonard G Potts, Able Seaman

 James Rolland, Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class

 Ernest Slater, Acting Leading Stoker

 Ernest E Stevens, Chief Engine Room Artificer 1st Class

 Robert Stewart, Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class

 John Taylor, Leading Seaman

 Francis V Tuck, Stoker 1st Class

 William G Wallis, Stoker 1st Class

 John J Watts, Acting Leading Stoker

 Thomas Weatherston, Engine Room Artificer, RNR

When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.

Why Museums?

Control Room of submarine E.50, used under licence © Scotland’s People AAA03496

Today is International Museum Day.

We perhaps take museums for granted. The International Council of Museums see their purpose as: ‘an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples.’

E.50 joined the 9th Submarine Flotilla at Harwich on completion in January 1917. She failed to return from her last patrol and was assumed to have been lost on one of the mines that had proliferated in the North Sea on or around 31 January 1918.

The wreck was located in 2011 and lies 65 miles west of the Danish coast. The conning tower had become detached and damaged over the years by fishing gear. It was retrieved by the expedition which found it.

Retrieval of any material from the location of a war grave is always controversial. However, given the circumstances, permission was granted for the conning tower to be displayed as a museum exhibit. The brass construction is very obvious. This material was used to avoid interference with the magnetic compass housed within:

Sea War Museum Jutland – Click through to see the conning tower

The conning tower is a tangible reminder of the 31 men of E.50 lost on that day in 1918. It is also a reminder of the heavy losses suffered by the Royal Navy Submarine Service in the Great War. Those that survived hoped that the sacrifice of their comrades would lead to a lasting peace and truly be ‘a war to end all wars.’

The fact that it wasn’t means that Museums need to keep reminding us about the causes, cost and terrible reality of war.

The lost crew of E.50, still on patrol:

BIGSBY, Thomas J, Leading Seaman

BRETT, Frederick, Stoker Petty Officer

BROWN, Archibald E, Petty Officer

CAUDEVILLE, Thomas B, Stoker 1c

CURD, William F, Stoker 1c

CUTTING, Austin W, Able Seaman

DUNN, Archibald F, Engine Room Artificer 4c

ELLIOTT, George W, Lieutenant, RNR

EMERY, Stanley, Stoker 1c

GENT, Cecil, Stoker 1c

GIBSON, John R, Able Seaman

GILL, Albert, Leading Stoker

HAINES, Frederick C, Able Seaman

HARDS, William W J, Leading Stoker

HILL, Farrar, Able Seaman

HOLTHAM, Frank St  C, Leading Seaman

HOUNSOME, Norman G, Able Seaman

HUTCHINSON, John W, Leading Stoker

JEWELL, Alfred H, Petty Officer

LEE, Arthur S, Engine Room Artificer, RNR

MEEK, Walter H, Chief Engine Room Artificer 2c

METCALFE, William B, Lieutenant

MILLER, Albert J, Leading Telegraphist

MULHALL, John J, Signalman

POVER, Joseph, Telegraphist

ROBERTS, Jonathan T, Petty Officer

ROGERS, Wilford I, Stoker 1c

SNOOK, Ralph E, Lieutenant

TORDOFF, Norman, Engine Room Artificer

WHITE, Herbert, Stoker 1c

YOUNG, William F, Able Seaman

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications:

Harwich Flotilla and Kipling

Author Rudyard Kipling had an enduring interest in the Navy. He had a particular affinity for the Submarine Service and enjoyed a trip on E.5 with Lieutenant-Commander Benning. A tailored poem was provided for the first collated volume of the Harwich Flotilla’s Maidstone Magazine, published in 1916. It seems appropriate to share it on world poetry day.

By way of explanation ‘the Trade’ was the nickname within the Royal Navy for the Submarine Service. It had originally been intended as a disparaging term by the surface navy, but the Service embraced it as a badge of honour for their technical excellence:

Images © Mark Harris 2023, from my own copy of the book

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications:

Is that a fact?

Kontreadmiral Hopman in 1915
Image © Mark Harris 2023

I’m currently working on my next book. Central to the story will be the sinking of the armoured cruiser Prinz Adalbert by submarine E.8, captained by then Lieutenant-Commander Francis H.H. Goodhart.

Telling any story from military or naval history well means researching information from as many sources to the event as possible. Every participant in an event has a different perspective. Making sense of them means understanding both what facts were available to the writer and, just as importantly, why they were writing. Without consulting records from both sides of any action, it is impossible to gain an accurate view of events.

The commander of the German cruiser force in the Baltic at the time, Kontreadmiral Albert Hopman (Führer der Aufklärungsstreitkräfte der Ostsee or FdAdO), wrote his memoirs, which were published in 1925. Hopman was chosen for the role partly for his familiarity with the Russian Baltic Fleet commanders. It’s a useful source and gives a very direct human perspective on the loss of Prinz Adalbert, which had served as his flagship for most of 1915. Hopman had only shifted his flag back to the armoured cruiser Roon two days previous to Goodhart’s attack.

Only three crewmen were lucky enough to survive the sinking by being thrown clear of the devastating explosion that resulted from the torpedo hit by E.8. Their own stories were recorded at the time, and make a remarkable read. There is no doubt that Hopman would also have been lost along with all of the other officers if he had not transferred his flag. Such are the vagaries of war and it colours Hopman’s response to the event.

The devastating consequences on the comrades he had grown to know so well over the last year is therefore the main focus for Hopman’s account. This was the most important aspect of the event for him. He particularly laments the loss of her Captain, Wilhelm Bunnemann, who had served as his first officer prior to the war, when Hopman was captain of the battleship Rheinland. He also mentions Korvettenkapitän Günther Zerboni di Sposetti, Prinz Adalbert‘s first officer, whom Hopman had witnessed working tirelessly to save the ship when it had been torpedoed earlier in the year by submarine E.9 (which is another story that will feature in the book).

Hopman attibutes the loss to an attack by submarine E.1 under ‘Lieutenant Lawrence’. This is of course, incorrect, but Hopman was working from memory, 10 years after the event. He clearly had his official war diary as FdAdO to hand, which was completed on a daily basis for this command during the war. However, the attacker was not identified in the days following the attack, so this gave him almost no information about the attacker. In fact initially the sinking was even thought to potentially be the result of a mine, as E.8 had not been spotted by the escorts. The official Russian Baltic Fleet communique was the only concrete information. This simply identified that a ‘British submarine’ was responsible. Hopman’s memory had incorrectly filled in the gaps with the wrong Baltic Fleet submarine and commander.

The moral here is that relying on memoirs written at a distance from an event gives an insight into the thinking of the participants and their experience of the events, but they can be a very unreliable source of factual information!

If you can read German and can cope with Fraktur script I’d recommend Hopman’s memoirs if you can find a reasonably priced copy. As well as holding key commands in the Baltic, he served in a senior capacity in other roles at headquarters and in the Turkish theatre. They are available as Das Kriegstagebuch eines deutschen Seeoffiziers

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications:

The crew of E.3 remembered

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the crew of E.3 is remembered.

Lieutenant-Commander George F Cholmley, captain of H.M.S. E.3
© UK Photo and Social History Archive

On the 18 October 1914 E.3 was lying trimmed down in the water, with little more than her conning tower visible.

The lookouts were intent on observing the mouth of the Western Ems to the south of their position.

The German submarine U.27 had gone out that morning on a submerged patrol from the Ems in the hope of catching a British submarine on the surface. Her commander spotted what at first looked like a buoy. He soon realised it was a submarine conning tower.

After a stealthy approach, U.27 fired a single torpedo from less than 300 meters range. The crew of E.3 had no time to react.

The torpedo exploded seconds later and E.3 broke in two, sinking immediately.

All hands were lost.

E.3 was the first British submarine lost in action, as well as the first submarine ever to be sunk by another.

The 28 lost crew of HMS E.3

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Sub-Lieutenant John Gerald Barrow

Stoker 1st Class William Alexander Beal

Stoker 1st Class Percy Beckwith

Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class Charley Ellman Blake

Lieutenant-Commander George Francis Cholmley

Leading Seaman Stanley Vernon Coutanche

Stoker 1st Class Alfred John Douglas

Petty Officer LTO Frederick Wallace Edroff

Petty Officer LTO Herbert Joseph Harris

Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class Richard Saunders Hellon

Stoker 1st Class Alfred Ernest House

Able Seaman Albert Edward Hunt

Engine Room Artificer 1st Class Fred Hunt

Able Seaman Robert Jones

Able Seaman William George Lowman

Chief Petty Officer George Webster MacFarlane

Acting Chief Stoker Neil Matheson

Stoker Petty Officer Percy George Merritt

Signalman Alfred Lowe Morgan

Able Seaman Peter Querotret

Stoker 1st Class Edgar Scott

Lieutenant John Stuart Binny Scott

Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class Joseph Stothard

Acting Leading Stoker George Henry Tanner

Leading Seaman George William Taylor

Leading Seaman John William Westrope

Stoker 1st Class Jesse Whittington

Able Seaman William Young

When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications:

Harwich Submarine E.6 finds a minefield

Photos published in the London Illustrated News and The War Illustrated V2 used courtesy of © UK Photo And Social History Archive

On 25 September 1914 E.6 had one of the closest escapes from destruction of any British submarine during the First World War.

Here is the account taken from my recent book, Harwich Submarines in the Great War:

Williams-Freeman received a DSO (Distinguished Service Order) and Cremer a CGM (Conspicuous Gallantry Medal) for their actions, which undoubtedly saved E.6 from destruction. These are the highest awards below the Victoria Cross for officers and other ranks.

If you’d like to know more about the Royal Navy’s first submarine campaign, the book is widely available:

Where to buy Harwich submarines in the Great War

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications:

The first Royal Navy sub patrol: an unexpected moment

Francis H H Goodhart DSO AM © UK Photo And Social History Archive

I’ve been working on a draft for a new book. One of the key characters in it will be Francis H H Goodhart. Lieutenant-Commander Goodhart had taken command of the newly-commissioned submarine E.8, just over a month before war broke out in 1914.

On 5 August 1914 E.6 and E.8 left Harwich on the first wartime patrol of the Royal Navy, a reconnaissance of the Heligoland Bight. The two boats and their captains had been chosen for their proven reliability.

Both E.8 and Goodhart would see drama and a lot of action. Goodhart would make the single most devastating attack by any British submarine during the war. Neither would survive the conflict.

However, the sheer unpredictability of patrols was perhaps the hardest thing submarine crew had to deal with. The crew left Harwich keyed up and unsure of their return. Their commander, Commodore Keyes, regarded the patrol as a ‘hazardous experiment.’

Goodhart had very little sleep over the next three days, patrolling on the surface, with vigilant lookouts expecting to sight the enemy at any moment.

However, E.8 returned to Harwich from this first patrol without even having sighted the enemy.

As E.8 made its way into harbour to moor up, all of the crews on the ships there came up to cheer. This acclamation only made Goodhart feel ‘very wretched’.

Sometimes nothing happening can be the most surprising and unnerving outcome when the opposite was expected.

You can read more about the highs and lows of the first campaign of the Royal Navy in my book:

Harwich Submarines in the Great War

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications:

The crew of D.5 remembered

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the crew of D.5 is remembered.

The crew of HMS D.5. The officer leaning out is Lieutenant Brodie. Acting Chief ERA Smith is above him in the dark jacket and cap. Both were lost with D.5 on 3 November 1914 (Author’s Collection)

On 3 November 1914 elements of the German Hochseeflotte appeared off Gorleston harbour and carried out a short bombardment to cover the laying of a minefield by the cruiser Stralsund.

The Harwich based submarine, D.5, was in Yarmouth Harbour, awaiting orders to head out on patrol to the Heligoland Bight.

D.5 sortied and was then ordered to head out on patrol, following the route that the Germans had used in their approach.

At 10.25am there was a huge explosion aft. D.5 had struck a mine. She sank within less than a minute. Only five of her crew of 26 were rescued from the water by the local drifters Homeland and Faithful.

The lost crew of HMS D.5

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Petty Officer LTO Frederick Drury Blunsdon (aged 31)

Leading Seaman Wright Boardman (aged 24)

Acting Leading Stoker Frederick Bradley (aged 29)

Lieutenant Donald Francis O’Callaghan Brodie (aged 26)

ERA 2nd Class William John Copland (aged 31)

Leading Seaman George Crimp (aged 30)

Signalman William Richard Cass Dowsett (aged 20)

Able Seaman Joseph Dunne (aged 21)

ERA 3rd Class Edward Houlcroft (aged 26)

Stoker 1st Class Thomas Ingham (aged 22)

Telegraphist George Clarence King (aged 21)

Acting Leading Stoker John Robert Leake (aged 30)

Leading Seaman Albert Norris (aged 34)

Stoker 1st Class Richard Charles Penhaligon (aged 27)

Stoker 1st Class Sidney Charles Stanley Simmons (aged 24)

Acting Chief ERA 2c Arthur Cecil Smith DSM (aged 33)

Stoker Petty Officer Timothy Smith (aged 32)

ERA 3rd Class John Thomas Percival Tilley (aged 23)

Stoker 1st Class Harry Whiting (aged 22)

Able Seaman Ernest Wilcox (aged 29)

Stoker 1st Class Ernest Worth (aged 23)

When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications:

A Day in the Life of the 8th Submarine Flotilla – 12 October 1914

Submarine E.5 (Naval History and Heritage Command NH 54963)

I began this blog on 12 October 2021.

I wondered what the submarines of 8th Flotilla, the subject of my recent book, were doing that day in 1914.

Two boats were on the last day of their patrols in the northern part of the Heligoland Bight. E.5 had been off the Danish coast, with D.3 to the southwest of her. Benning of E.5 spent the morning chatting to the skippers of two Danish light vessels moored off the coast. He broke the ice by offering some tins of soup. Benning was rewarded with an intelligence haul of information about German warship movements in the area!

The E.2 and D.8 were in the middle of their three day patrol off the Dutch island of Terschelling. They had been sent there to intercept any attempt by the German Navy to send ships to the port of Antwerp, which had just been captured by the German Army.

Both the D.5 and Cochrane’s D.1 were winding up their patrols off the Ems. Cochrane had a particularly frustrating patrol and decided to attack an armed trawler moored in the shallows at the entrance to the Ems before leaving. His heart sank further when the torpedo failed to score a hit!

A day picked at random, but it illustrates three points nicely.

Firstly, it is a lot harder to hit a target with a torpedo than you might think. Torpedoes were temperamental and needed constant maintenance to keep their delicate mechanisms in order if they were to run straight to the target at the correct depth. World War One submarine captains in 1914 had almost no aids to help them line up a torpedo shot. Cochrane had to rely on his own estimates and judgements made through a periscope that gave him a less than perfect view of the target.

Secondly, submarine captains were singular individuals, who had to be able to think for themselves and come up with their own solutions to the situations they encountered. Benning needed to get some intelligence and came up with soup as his solution when other means failed!

Thirdly, and most importantly, it shows that on a random day six submarines were in enemy waters, nearly one third of the boats in the Flotilla. Unless the weather was too bad to patrol, this was typical. Unlike the surface vessels of the Fleet, submarines were constantly in enemy waters, pitting their wits against the enemy. Their patrols were spent gathering intelligence, hunting enemy warships and being hunted themselves.

In writing the book I wanted to give a complete picture of the Flotilla’s work. I chose to structure it around an account of every patrol, wherever possible through the eyes of those recording the events at the time, or immediately afterwards. The increasing impact of the patrols on the enemy and on wider British plans is also explored in full using archive material. I like to think I’m widely read about the naval side of the First World War. However, the research for the book answered many questions about the way Britain conducted the naval war in the North Sea in 1914, but more than that, it revealed an important, eventful and little known piece of naval history.

Click the link to find out more about the campaign in my book Harwich Submarines in the Great War

Enter your e-mail to receive post notifications: