Description
Object description
Photocopy of a transcribed ts account (42pp), probably written in the 1920s, by the Master of the SS SHELDRAKE describing how his unarmed merchant ship was stopped and sunk by gunfire by U34 in the Mediterranean on 9 November 1916 and how he and his Chief Engineer were taken prisoner on board the German submarine and interrogated before being put ashore at Cattaro from where they were moved as prisoners of war to the nearby fortress of Castel Nouevo before being transferred to camps in Austria at Gratz (December 1916) and Salzerbad (January - July 1917) and then to camps in Germany at Karlsruhe (July - October 1917), Strohen (October 1917 - January 1918), Furstenberg (January - June 1918), Aachen where, contrary to their expectations, they were not exchanged into the Netherlands (June - August 1918) and Stralsund (August - December 1918), and how they were repatriated via Denmark after the Armistice (December 1918). The narrative includes much useful detail about the contrasts between conditions in the different camps in which he was imprisoned and about his journeys between camps in Austria and Germany, some of which were quite demanding for a man aged fifty seven at the time of his capture, as well as references to other Merchant Navy officers whom he met during his captivity.
Content description
Photocopy of a transcribed ts account (42pp), probably written in the 1920s, by the Master of the SS SHELDRAKE describing how his unarmed merchant ship was stopped and sunk by gunfire by U34 in the Mediterranean on 9 November 1916 and how he and his Chief Engineer were taken prisoner on board the German submarine and interrogated before being put ashore at Cattaro from where they were moved as prisoners of war to the nearby fortress of Castel Nouevo before being transferred to camps in Austria at Gratz (December 1916) and Salzerbad (January - July 1917) and then to camps in Germany at Karlsruhe (July - October 1917), Strohen (October 1917 - January 1918), Furstenberg (January - June 1918), Aachen where, contrary to their expectations, they were not exchanged into the Netherlands (June - August 1918) and Stralsund (August - December 1918), and how they were repatriated via Denmark after the Armistice (December 1918). The narrative includes much useful detail about the contrasts between conditions in the different camps in which he was imprisoned and about his journeys between camps in Austria and Germany, some of which were quite demanding for a man aged fifty seven at the time of his capture, as well as references to other Merchant Navy officers whom he met during his captivity.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 2005-03