View source for HMHS Llandovery Castle

{{EngvarB|date=March 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
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{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image="HM Hospital Ship, Llandovery Castle".png
| Ship caption=HM Hospital Ship ''Llandovery Castle''
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{{Infobox ship career
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| Ship country=United Kingdom
| Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}}
| Ship name= RMS ''Llandovery Castle''
| Ship namesake= [[Llandovery Castle]]
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| Ship operator= [[File:Union-Castle Line house flag.svg|border|20px]] [[Union-Castle Line]]
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| Ship builder= [[Barclay Curle]], [[Glasgow]]
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| Ship yard number=504
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| Ship launched= 3 September 1913
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| Ship completed= January 1914
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| Ship fate= Requisitioned, 1916
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{{Infobox ship career
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| Ship country=Canada
| Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|Canada|naval-1911}}
| Ship name= ''Llandovery Castle''
| Ship acquired=
| Ship commissioned=26 July 1916
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| Ship fate= Sunk by {{Ship|SM|U-86}}, 27 June 1918
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| Ship type= [[Ocean liner]] / [[Hospital ship]]
| Ship tonnage= {{GRT|10639}}
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| Ship length= {{Convert|500|ft|1|in|abbr=on}}
| Ship beam= {{Convert|63|ft|3|in|abbr=on}}
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| Ship propulsion=*[[Quadruple expansion]] steam engines
*{{convert|6,500|ihp|kW|abbr=on}}
*Twin [[propeller]]s
| Ship speed= {{Convert|15|kn}}
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| Ship capacity=*As ocean liner:
*429 passengers (213 1st class, 116 2nd class, and 100 3rd class)
*As hospital ship:
*622 beds and 102 medical staff
| Ship complement= 258
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[[File:Major T. Lyon, Canadian Army Medical Corps, survivor of the sinking of the H.M.H.S. Llandovery Castle.jpg|thumb|Major Thomas Lyon, surgeon with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, was a survivor of the Llandovery Castle bombing and massacre on June 27, 1918.  Photo Credit: LAC]]
'''HMHS ''Llandovery Castle''''', built in 1914 in [[Glasgow]] as RMS ''Llandovery Castle'' for the [[Union-Castle Line]], was one of five Canadian [[hospital ship]]s that served in the First World War. On a voyage from [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]], [[Nova Scotia]] to [[Liverpool]], England, the ship was torpedoed off southern Ireland on 27 June 1918.  The sinking was the deadliest [[List of maritime disasters|Canadian naval disaster]] of the war. 234 doctors, nurses, members of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, soldiers and seamen died in the sinking and subsequent machine-gunning of lifeboats.  Twenty five people are known to have survived. 24 were the occupants on a single life-raft. The incident became infamous internationally and was considered, after the [[Armenian genocide]], as one of the war's worst atrocities. After the war, the case of ''Llandovery Castle'' was one of six alleged [[German war crimes]] prosecuted at the [[Leipzig War Crimes Trials|Leipzig trials]].

==Service history==
''Llandovery Castle'' was one of a pair of ships (her [[sister ship]] was {{SS|Llanstephan Castle}}) built for the Union Castle Line, following the company's acquisition by the [[Royal Mail Line]] in 1912. The ship was built by Barclay, Curle & Co. in Glasgow, launched on 3 September 1913, and completed in January 1914.<ref name="RedDuster">{{cite web |url=http://www.red-duster.co.uk/UNION16.htm |title=Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. |work=red-duster.co.uk |year=2010 |access-date=20 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030145541/http://www.red-duster.co.uk/UNION16.htm |archive-date=30 October 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Initially sailing between London and [[East Africa]], from August 1914 she sailed on routes between London and [[West Africa]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ssmaritime.com/Llan-Castle-Ships.htm |title=Union Castle: SS Llandovery Castle |first=Reuben |last=Goossens  |work=ssmaritime.com |year=2011 |access-date=20 January 2014}}</ref> She was commissioned as a hospital ship on 26 July 1916, and assigned to the Canadian Forces, equipped with 622 beds and a medical staff of 102.<ref name="RedDuster"/> Her first voyage as a Canadian hospital ship was in March 1918.

===Sinking===
Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Howard MacDonald of [[Nova Scotia]], HMHS ''Llandovery Castle'' was torpedoed and sunk by the German [[submarine]] {{SMU|U-86}} on 27 June 1918.<ref>{{cite book |first=M. Stuart |last=Hunt |title=Nova Scotia's part in the Great War |publisher=The Nova Scotia Veteran Publishing Co. Ltd. |location=Halifax, Nova Scotia |year=1920 |pages=409–410 |url=https://archive.org/stream/novascotia00huntuoft#page/408/mode/2up |quote=MacDonald went overseas January, 1915, unattached, with the rank of Major. He was first attached to the Canadian Convalescent Hospital at Bearwood Park. From there he went to Bath, thence to Moore Barracks Hospital, and was later appointed Medical Examiner of the Pension Board, London. He went to France as Medical Officer of a Labor Battalion. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and received the appointment of Commanding Officer of the medical personnel of the Hospital Ship Landovery Castle. Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonald was drowned. |access-date=20 January 2014}}</ref> Firing at a hospital ship was against international law and standing orders of the Imperial German Navy.  The captain of ''U-86'', [[Helmut Brümmer-Patzig]], sought to destroy the evidence of torpedoing the ship. When the crew, including nurses, took to the lifeboats, ''U-86'' surfaced, ran down all but one of the lifeboats and machine-gunned many of the survivors.

The [[destroyer]] {{HMS|Lysander|1913|6}} rescued 24 people in one lifeboat, 36 hours after the bombing. Among those lost were fourteen nursing sisters from Canada, including [[Rena McLean]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography – McLEAN, RENA MAUDE – Volume XIV (1911-1920) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mclean_rena_maude_14E.html |access-date=2022-06-14 |website=www.biographi.ca}}</ref> and the [[Matron]] Margaret Marjory (Pearl) Fraser, formerly of Nova Scotia (daughter of [[Duncan Cameron Fraser]] who served as [[Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia]], 1906-1910 ).<ref name="fraser">She was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. She was living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan when she signed up. There was great outrage in Moose Jaw about the manner of her death. (see below)</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/searches/soldierDetail.asp?ID=65682 |title=Matron Margaret Marjory Fraser  |work=Canadian Great War Project |year=2014 |access-date=20 January 2014}}; Edmonton Bulletin, 2 July 1918</ref>

Sergeant Arthur Knight was on board lifeboat #5 with the nurses. He reported:
<blockquote>
Our boat was quickly loaded and lowered to the surface of the water. Then the crew of eight men and myself faced the difficulty of getting free from the ropes holding us to the ship's side. I broke two axes trying to cut ourselves away, but was unsuccessful.

With the forward motion and choppy sea the boat all the time was pounding against the ship's side. To save the boat we tried to keep ourselves away by using the oars, and soon every one of the latter were broken.

Finally the ropes became loose at the top and we commenced to drift away. We were carried towards the stern of the ship, when suddenly the [[Poop deck|poop-deck]] seemed to break away and sink. The suction drew us quickly into the vacuum, the boat tipped over sideways, and every occupant went under.
[[File:Margaret Marjory (Pearl) Fraser.png|thumb|upright|Matron Margaret Marjory (Pearl) Fraser (daughter of Lt. Governor of Nova Scotia [[Duncan Cameron Fraser]]).]]
I estimate we were together in the boat about eight minutes. In that whole time I did not hear a complaint or murmur from one of the sisters. There was not a cry for help or any outward evidence of fear. In the entire time I overheard only one remark when the matron, Nursing Sister M.M. Fraser, turned to me as we drifted helplessly towards the stern of the ship and asked:
"Sergeant, do you think there is any hope for us?"

I replied, "No," seeing myself our helplessness without oars and the sinking condition of the stern of the ship.

A few seconds later we were drawn into the whirlpool of the submerged afterdeck, and the last I saw of the nursing sisters was as they were thrown over the side of the boat. All were wearing lifebelts, and of the fourteen two were in their nightdress, the others in uniform.

It was doubtful if any of them came to the surface again, although I myself sank and came up three times, finally clinging to a piece of wreckage and being eventually picked up by the captain's boat.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.gwpda.org/naval/lcastl11.htm |title=The Sinking of the Llandovery Castle |work=The Great War Primary Documents Archive |year=2012 |access-date=20 January 2014}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Afterward, {{HMS|Morea}} steamed through the wreckage. Captain [[Kenneth Cummins]], then an 18-yr old midshipman on his first voyage out, recalled the horror of coming across the nurses' floating corpses:
<blockquote>
We were in the Bristol Channel, quite well out to sea, and suddenly we began going through corpses. The Germans had sunk a British hospital ship, the ''Llandovery Castle'', and we were sailing through floating bodies. We were not allowed to stop - we just had to go straight through. It was quite horrific, and my reaction was to vomit over the edge. It was something we could never have imagined ... particularly the nurses: seeing these bodies of women and nurses, floating in the ocean, having been there some time. Huge aprons and skirts in billows, which looked almost like sails because they dried in the hot sun.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Obituary: Kenneth Cummins |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2083880.ece |work=[[The Independent]] |date=18 December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001002339/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2083880.ece |archive-date=1 October 2007 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

== War crimes trial ==

After the war, three officers from ''U-86'', [[Kapitänleutnant]] [[Helmut Brümmer-Patzig]], and [[Oberleutnant]]s Ludwig Dithmar and John Boldt, were charged with committing a [[war crime]] on the high seas. On 21 July 1921, Dithmar and Boldt were found guilty in one of the [[Leipzig War Crimes Trials]] and were both sentenced to four years in prison. The sentences of Dithmar and Boldt were later overturned on the grounds that they were [[Superior Orders|only following orders]] and that their [[commanding officer]] alone was responsible. Patzig, however, had fled to [[Gdańsk|Danzig]], then an [[Free City of Danzig|independent city]], and thus was never prosecuted as a result.<ref name="invision">{{cite web |url=http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64621 |title=Patzig's fate? Patzig's fate? |work=invisionzone.com |access-date=2011-01-15 |archive-date=28 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328111055/http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64621 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Outside of [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], the trials were seen as a travesty of justice because of the small number of cases tried and the perceived leniency of the court.<ref>Yarnall 2011, pp. 194–5.</ref> According to American historian [[Alfred-Maurice de Zayas|Alfred de Zayas]], however, "generally speaking, the German population took exception to these trials, especially because the Allies were not similarly bringing their own soldiers to justice."<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Zayas |first1=Alfred-Maurice |title=The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 |date=1989 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0-8032-9908-7 |page=5}}</ref> (See [[Victor's justice]].)

==Legacy==

<gallery>
File:SM U 86 at sea.jpg|SM ''U-86''
File:RMS Llandovery Castle.jpg|Postcard of ''Llandovery Castle''
File:LlandoveryCastleWilkinson, G.W., print (art), 27 June 1918.jpg|''Llandovery Castle'' by George Wilkinson
File:World War I; the German Navy attacking Allied nursing. Wellcome L0050314.jpg|Anti German cartoon by [[Louis Raemaekers]]
Victory bonds (Llandovery Castle).jpg|A 1918 Canadian [[propaganda]] poster used the sinking of ''Llandovery Castle'' as a focal point for selling [[War bond#Canada|Victory Bonds]]
</gallery>

The Canadian reaction was typified by Brigadier [[George Tuxford]], former homesteader from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and commanding officer of the [[3rd Infantry Brigade]], [[1st Canadian Division]]: "Amongst those murdered were two Moose Jaw nurses, Sister Fraser and Sister Gallagher. I gave instructions to the Brigade that the battle cry on the [[Battle of Amiens (1918)|8th of August]] should be "''Llandovery Castle''," and that that cry should be the last to ring in the ears of the Hun as the bayonet was driven home."<ref>{{Cite book |first1=James L. |last1=McWilliams |first2=R. James |last2=Steel |title=Amiens: Dawn of Victory |publisher=Dundurn Press |location=Toronto |year=2001 |page=31 |isbn=1-55002-342-X }}</ref>

There is a memorial plaque to Matron Margaret Fraser and the 13 other Canadian nurses sponsored by [[Hariot Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava|Lady Dufferin]] was placed at the Nurses House of the [[Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital|Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital]] in London, England.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nursing Sisters Who Died Overseas Have Memorial in London Hospital |work=[[The Montreal Gazette]] |date=17 September 1938 |page=6 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19380917&id=nIkxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bqgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6698,2212800 |access-date=20 January 2014}}</ref>

There are also memorial plaques to the ship at the Stadacona Hospital, [[CFB Halifax]], [[Nova Scotia]], Montreal General Hospital and the Children's Hospital in Halifax, the latter two monuments unveiled by [[Margaret C. MacDonald]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www3.sympatico.ca/mmsut.mtl/worldwar.htm |title=World War I Honor Roll |first=Margaret |last=Suttie |work=The Alumnae Association of the Montreal General Hospital School of Nursing |year=2008 |access-date=20 January 2014}}</ref>

An opera based on the sinking of the ship premiered in Toronto on the 100th anniversary of the sinking in June 2018.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/opera-to-focus-on-great-war-nurses-100-years-after-hospital-ship-sinking |title=Opera to focus on Great War nurses 100 years after hospital ship sinking |work=National Post |last=Szklarski |first=Cassandra |agency=The Canadian Press |date=8 November 2017 |access-date=20 April 2018}}</ref>  The opera is composed by [[Stephanie Martin (composer)|Stephanie Martin]] with a libretto by [[Paul Ciufo]],<ref>{{cite web |title=About |url=https://www.llandoverycastle.ca/about/ |website=llandoverycastle.ca |publisher=Bicycle Opera Group |access-date=27 June 2018}}</ref> and according to one reviewer "breaks the story down into nine scenes set on the ship and, at the end, in the lifeboats, before the chorus steps out of time to reflect on what we have seen and heard."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gilks |first1=John |title=Review: The Llandovery Castle brings "real emotional power" to premier performance in Toronto |url=https://operacanada.ca/review-llandovery-castle-toronto/ |website=Opera Canada |date=27 June 2018 |access-date=20 February 2019}}</ref>

==Nursing casualties==
[[File:Halifax Memorial, Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia.jpg|thumb|200px|Nursing casualties are listed on the Halifax Memorial, [[Point Pleasant Park]], [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]]]]
* Matron Margaret Marjory (Pearl) Fraser
* Carola Josephine Douglas.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1">{{cite web |url= http://www.canadaatwar.ca/memorial/world-war-i/date/1/19180627 |title=World War I Canadian Dead (27 June 1918) |page=1|work=Canada at War |access-date=19 December 2014}}</ref>
* Alexina Dussault.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Minnie Aenath Follette.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Margaret Jane Fortescue.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Minnie Katherine Gallaher.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Jessie Mabel McDiarmid.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Mary Agnes McKenzie.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://illumhistory.wordpress.com/page/2/ |title=Mary Agnes McKenzie, Lost on the Llandovery Castle |first=Vicki |last=Profitt |work=Illuminated History |date=6 July 2012 |access-date=20 January 2014}}</ref>
* Christina Campbell.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://camc.wordpress.com/category/surname-c/ |title=Nursing Sister Christina Campbell |work=camc.wordpress.com |date=22 January 2010 |access-date=20 January 2014}}</ref>
* Rena McLean.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Mary Belle Sampson.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Gladys Irene Sare.<ref name="canadaatwar.p1"/>
* Anna Irene Stamers.<ref name="canadaatwar.p2">{{cite web |url= http://www.canadaatwar.ca/memorial/world-war-i/date/2/19180627/ |title=World War I Canadian Dead (27 June 1918) |page=2|work=Canada at War |access-date=19 December 2014}}</ref>
* Jean Templeman.<ref name="canadaatwar.p2"/>
{{Clear}}

==See also==
* [[Atlantic U-boat Campaign (World War I)]]
* [[Military history of Nova Scotia]]
* [[List of maritime disasters]]
* [[Military history of Canada]]
* [[List of hospital ships sunk in World War I]]
* [[History of the Royal Canadian Navy]]
* [[Military history of Canada during World War I]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Dianne Dodd. Canadian Military Nurse Deaths in the First World War. ''Canadian Bulletin of Medical History.'' Vol. 34, No. 2. 2016.
* Cynthia Toman, "Sister Soldiers of the Great War: The Nurses of the Canadian Army Medical Corps." UBC Press. 2016.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{cite web |url= http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/transcripts/transcriptResults.asp?txtKeywords=Llandovery |first=Marc |last=Leroux |title=Newspapers Reaction to the sinking of the Llandovery Castle |work=Canadian Great War Project |year=2014 }}
* {{cite book |first=Claud |last=Mullins |title=The Leipzig Trials (excerpt) |publisher= H.F. & G. Witherby |location=London |year=1921 |url= http://www.gwpda.org/naval/lcastl12.htm }}
* {{Cite journal|jstor= 2187594|title=The Llandlovery Castle Case|journal=The American Journal of International Law}}
* {{cite web |url= http://uboat.net/history/wwi/part5.htm |title=The U-boat War in World War One |first=Guðmundur  |last=Helgason |work=uboat.net }}
* {{Cite book |first=Andrew |last=Macphail |author-link=Andrew Macphail |title=Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War 1914–1919 : The Medical Services (excerpt) |url= http://www.gwpda.org/naval/rcnmed00.htm }}

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{{June 1918 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Llandovery Castle}}
[[Category:Naval history of Canada]]
[[Category:World War I shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Ships of the Union-Castle Line]]
[[Category:Hospital ships in World War I]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1918]]
[[Category:Hospital ships of the Royal Navy]]
[[Category:1913 ships]]
[[Category:World War I crimes by Imperial Germany]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Canada]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1918]]
[[Category:Attacks on hospitals during World War I]]