30th October 1914

[JohnS]

Late in October 1914, HMHS Rohilla left Leith painted in the all-over white with green stripe and red crosses of a hospital ship and made her way down the coast, heading for Dunkirk to pick up wounded soldiers. A terrible gale was blowing as she passed the treacherous North Yorkshire coast. Blackout conditions ensued and at 0400 hours on 29 October the ship ran aground six hundred yards from shore on the Saltwick Nab. Carrying 229 persons, the Rohilla rammed the rocks at enough speed to throw the officers from the bridge on to the deck and to break her back, making salvage impossible.

Over the ensuing days eighty-five people were to die only 1/3 of a mile from safety, buffeted by high seas and blown about by the storm-force winds.

Lifeboats from the surrounding forty miles converged on the wreck and pulled many of the nurses and crew from the disintegrating vessel.

George Brain, the ship's carpenter and my great-uncle, drowned whilst trying to reach the shore.

There will a Remembrance Service at Whitby on 31st October.

[Guest Pete Wood]

Wishing you, and all other interested parties, the very best for the rememberance service.

I found the following items in The Times about the Rohilla

[Guest Pete Wood]

Also this

[Guest Pete Wood]

this is the second part of the above

[Guest Pete Wood]

The inquest, where a mine is blamed as the cause....

[Guest Pete Wood]

The law was also tested as a result of the sinking....

[michaeldr]

I hope that someone at P & O is keeping a watch on this and the other thread on the Rohilla; the information supplied by the Pals is sorely needed to bring their history up to strength. After doing some work for them in the late ’80s I received a lovely book about the company; ‘The Story of P & O’ by David and Stephen Howarth, published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in 1986. It is beautifully illustrated and well produced, but a little skew in it’s information.

The Rohilla was part of the fleet of the British India Company which merged with P & O in early 1914. It was BI’s second loss in the war, the first being the Chilkana which was a victim of the Emden on 19 October ’14. The loss of life in this case is given a ‘none’ and the Emden’s Captain Muller is described as ‘a seaman of the old tradition.’

Describing the Rohilla however they twice give the information that only two lives were lost; perhaps it is time for P & O to publish a revised history

[JohnS]

Racing Teapots,

All of that is SO interesting. Thank you for putting it on.

John

[weejock]

Hello to you all.

I have just found out that my g/g/grandfather John Bleakley was the storeman aboard this ship and was among those 85 that drowned, I would be oblidged if you could email me the items that are downloaded on this topic as I cant seem to view them. ANY info I can get on this would be helpful as I'm putting together my family history and have spent 3 years searching for my g/g/grandfather John Bleakley death cert and only now have found out today why he disapeared from trace

Thanks in advance

John

Glasgow

no1toddy@aol.com