HM Armed Smack Inverlyon
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HM Armed Smack Inverlyon |
| In service | 2 August 1915[1] |
| Out of service | by 1916[1] |
| Homeport | Lowestoft |
| Fate | Unknown |
| Service record | |
| Commanders: | Gunner Ernest Jehan |
| Victories: | German submarine SM UB-4, 15 August 1915 |
| Awards: | Admiralty submarine bounty (cash award to crew) |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | smack |
| Tons burthen | 59[1] |
| Propulsion | none |
| Sail plan | two mast, fore-and-aft rigged |
| Complement | 7 |
| Armament | 1 × 3-pounder (47 mm) gun |
His Majesty's or HM Armed Smack Inverlyon was a fishing smack that was converted to a Q ship during the First World War. Q ships served as a decoys to lure German submarines near enough so that concealed weapons could be brought to bear and sink the submarines. On 15 August 1915, Inverlyon succeeded in so luring German submarine UB-4 and sinking her with nine shots from her 3-pounder (47 mm) gun. The Royal Navy Gunner in command of the vessel received the Distinguished Service Cross and members of Inverlyon's crew shared bounties offered for German submarines. After Inverlyon's Q ship career ended, she returned to fishing, but her ultimate fate is unknown
Career
Inverlyon was a fishing smack of 59 tons burthen that was a part of the fishing fleet at Lowestoft on the Suffolk coast.[1][2] The wooden boat had a flush deck, two masts, and no engine.[2] Inverlyon's sails were fore-and-aft rigged and may have been red ochre in colour, the traditional sail color for British smacks.[2][3]
In February 1915, Germany began its first submarine offensive of the First World War. During this campaign, enemy vessels in the German-defined war zone (German: Kriegsgebiet), which encompassed all waters around the United Kingdom, were to be sunk,[4] and the British fishing fleet was not exempt.[5] In mid-June, for example, the German submarine UB-2 had sunk six smacks off Lowestoft in a two-day period.[5][6]
One method devised to deal with U-boat attacks was the decoy or Q ship, designed to lure submarines that were targeting merchant shipping close enough so that concealed guns or other weapons could sink them.[2] Inverlyon was selected to become a Q ship, was outfitted with a 3-pounder (47 mm) gun, and entered the service of the Royal Navy on 2 August 1915.[1][2] Inverlyon's fishing crew and skipper were all temporarily inducted into the Trawler section of the Royal Naval Reserve. Regular Royal Navy Gunner Ernest Martin Jehan and three other gunners from HMS Dryad—a former torpedo boat operating as a minesweeper out of Lowestoft—were assigned to Inverlyon, with Jehan in command.[2]
On 14 August, the 59-ton smack Bona Fide was stopped by a U-boat, boarded, and sunk with explosives 35 nautical miles (65 km) east-northeast from Lowestoft.[5] According to the website Uboat.net, this attack was likely by UB-4, because she was operating in that area on her fourteenth patrol.[7] Regardless of the identity of Bona Fide's attacker, UB-4 did approach a group of smacks in the vicinity the next day. Unbeknownst to UB-4's commander, Oberleutnant zur See Karl Gross,[Note 1] one of the fishing vessels was the disguised Inverlyon.[2][Note 2]
Around 20:20, UB-4 surfaced near Inverlyon, and Gross, on the conning tower of UB-4, began shouting out commands to Inverlyon's crew in German. Jehan, after waiting until UB-4 closed to within 30 yards (27 m) of Inverlyon, ordered the White Ensign raised and gave the command to open fire. A burst of three rounds from the 3-pounder scored hits on the conning tower, the second shot destroying part of the bridge and sending Gross into the water. UB-4, with no one at the helm, drifted behind Inverlyon, and when clear, the 3-pounder fired another six shots into the hull of UB-4 at point-blank range. All the while, small arms fire from Inverlyon's crew peppered the submarine. The U-boat began going down by the bow, becoming nearly vertical before disappearing below the surface. Inverlyon's fishing skipper, a man named Phillips, dove in to attempt the rescue of a crewman from UB-4, but was unable to reach him before he went under, meeting the same fate as the U-boat's other thirteen crewmen.[2]
As UB-4 went down, her hulk fouled the Inverlyon's nets—which had been deployed to keep up the appearance of a real fishing boat—essentially anchoring Inverlyon in place. The Q ship's crew, not having a wireless set on board, sent word of the encounter with another smack, and followed up by releasing messenger pigeons the following morning, requesting instructions on what to do with UB-4. The thought of salvaging the snagged U-boat was rejected, so the nets were cut, freeing UB-4 to sink to the bottom.[2] UB-4's wreck lies at position 52°43′N 2°18′E / 52.717°N 2.300°E.[8] On 19 November 1915 Jehan was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for the sinking of UB-4,[9] and the crewmen of Inverlyon split the submarine bounty paid by the Admiralty.[2][Note 3]
About three weeks after she sank UB-4, Inverlyon had the opportunity to sink another U-boat, but was unsuccessful.[10] The U-boat encountered may have been either UB-2 or UB-16, which both sank fishing vessels in the area on 7 and 8 September.[11] By 1916,[1] Inverlyon had ended her short-lived Q ship career and returned to being a fishing boat.[10] Inverlyon's ultimate fate is unknown. Jehan, in addition to his DSC, was subsequently specially promoted to lieutenant on 4 January 1916 for his war service;[12] he retired from the Royal Navy on 29 October 1920.[13]
Notes
- ^ Karl Gross' name is also spelled as Karl Groß in some sources.
- ^ Perkins reports the date of the encounter as Sunday, 16 August 1915, but 16 August 1915 was actually a Monday. Messimer (p. 129), Gibson and Prendergast (pp. 50–51), and Uboat.net (WWI U-boats: UB-4) all report the date of the encounter as 15 August 1915.
- ^ There is no mention of the amount of the bounty for sinking UB-4, but the Admiralty bounties were typically £5 per crewman on the submarine, or £70 in the case of UB-4. See: Messimer, pp. 158, 170, 222, for examples of the £5 per capita bounty.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Colledge.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Perkins, Hugh (2008). "The gunner and the U-boat". Sea Classics. Canoga Park, California: Challenge Publications. OCLC 60621086. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Penwith District Council (2009). "Boat Types". Penzance: Penwith District Council. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) - ^ Tarrant, p. 14.
- ^ a b c "British fishing vessels lost at sea due to enemy action: 1914, 1915, 1916 in date order". World War 1 at Sea. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) The information on the website is extracted from British Vessels Lost at Sea: 1914–1918. His Majesty's Stationary Office. 1919. - ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. Ships hit during WWI: Britannia, Edward, Laurestina, Quivive, Welfare, Intrepid. U-Boat War in World War I. Uboat.net. Retrieved on 6 March 2009.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Bona Fide". U-Boat War in World War I. Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) - ^ Messimer, p. 129
- ^ "No. 29374". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=(help)). 19 November 1915. - ^ a b Perkins, J. David (1999). "The gunner and the U-boat". The World War I Document archive: The War at Sea. Great War Primary Documents Archive. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) See additional note no. 2. - ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. Ships hit during WWI: Ships hit by UB 2, Ships hit by UB 16. U-Boat War in World War I. Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
- ^ "No. 29431". The London Gazette. 7 January 1916.
- ^ "No. 32114". The London Gazette. 5 November 1920.
Bibliography
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- Gibson, R. H.; Maurice Prendergast (2003) [1931]. The German Submarine War, 1914–1918. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781591143147. OCLC 52924732.
- Messimer, Dwight R. (2002). Verschollen: World War I U-boat losses. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781557504753. OCLC 231973419.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1989). The U-Boat Offensive: 1914–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9780870217647. OCLC 20338385.