Daily Event for May 23, 2016

On Mar. 28, 1903 the passenger/cargo ship Moldavia was launched at Caird & Company Ltd. in Greenock, Scotland. She was 520' long with a beam of 58', her twin screws could drive her 9,500 tons at just over 17 knots. She sailed the U.K. to Australia route for P&O until the Great War.

She was requisitioned by the Admiralty on Nov. 27, 1915 and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Old passenger ships however made poor AMC's, but the Admiralty was desperate for ships early on in the war. The Admiralty purchased the ship in Jan. 1916 and she came into commission on Feb. 1, 1916.

On Feb. 9, 1917 she approached the Italian freighter Famiglia, which had been captured by SMS UB-57 on Jan. 31. She was being sailed to Germany with a prize crew when she was intercepted by Moldavia west of the Hebrides. The Germans set charges, abandoned the ship and she went down.

By Mid 1918 Moldavia was being used as a troopship and on May 23, 1918 she was carrying 480 members of the U.S. 58th Infantry Division when she was torpedoed by a German submarine. Around 0240 SMS UB-57 got one torpedo past the destroyer screen and hit the ship on the port side just forward of the engine room. She began to list, but soon righted herself and Captain Smyth continued to sail forward so as not to give the German the chance to send a second torpedo into his ship. The escorting destroyers dropped several depth bombs against the unseen target, but observed no results. Oberleutnant zur See Johannes Lohs and his u-boat escaped.

Some fifteen minutes after being hit Smyth learned that the water was coming up in his stricken ship and her loss was unavoidable. The rest of the convoy and all but two of the destroyers continued onward. Those on Moldavia began to abandon her. HM destroyers Scourge and Grasshopper remained with the ship and took on the survivors. The explosion had instantly killed or quickly drowned fifty-one soldiers below decks. Two others, brothers who had been on watch, jumped ship and were never seen again. These 53 men were the first casualties inflicted on the 58th ID by the enemy in the Great War. The remaining 427 soldiers and the entire crew of Moldavia were rescued and landed at Dover.

The decisive action of the captain and crew of Moldavia kept the ship afloat long enough to disembark all those left alive. The destroyers along with good discipline displayed by the soldiers kept this from becoming a great disaster.

Moldavia slipped beneath the surface of the English Channel about 40 miles southeast of Portsmouth and is now a dive site. Lohs and UB-57 were lost three months later in the North Sea, the apparent victim of a mine, none of the boat's crew survived.
© 2016 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com


Moldavia seen in merchant service.



Roll of Honor
In memory of those who lost their lives in
HMS Moldavia
"As long as we embrace them in our memory, their spirit will always be with us"

Name
Rank
Notes
Armstrong, Oscar O.
Private
U.S. Army
Blackwell, Andrew
Private
U.S. Army
Boosalis, George D.
Private
U.S. Army
Bosh, Emil J.
Private
U.S. Army
*
Bosley, Clyde E.
Private
U.S. Army
*
Bosley, Erwin W.
Private
U.S. Army
Bracken, Leslie C.
Private
U.S. Army
Bracken, Walter G.
Private
U.S. Army
Brown, William A.
Private
U.S. Army
Buchanan, George N.
Private
U.S. Army
Bucher, Emil
Private
U.S. Army
Callan, Joseph P.
Private
U.S. Army
Canwell, Fred D.
Private
U.S. Army
Castro, Louis V.
Private
U.S. Army
Chappell, Fred
Corporal
U.S. Army
Clausing, Edwin L.
Private
U.S. Army
Cook, Virgil C.
Private
U.S. Army
Croatt, William J.
Private
U.S. Army
Diehl, Herman
Private
U.S. Army
Dierks, Herman W.
Private
U.S. Army
Eckel, Conrad
Private
U.S. Army
Gerhardt, Fred
Private
U.S. Army
Gerl, Edward L.
Private
U.S. Army
Gottenberg, Redwald
Private
U.S. Army
Graci, Guiseppi
Private
U.S. Army
Hackler, Charles F.
Private
U.S. Army
Hodges, Thaddius
Private
U.S. Army
Johnson, Clem
Private
U.S. Army
Kneip, Isador M.
Private
U.S. Army
Kobus, John
Private
U.S. Army
Lading, Henry C.
Private
U.S. Army
Larsen, John S.
Private
U.S. Army
Lewandoski, Frank
Private
U.S. Army
Lindsey, Clyde B.
Private
U.S. Army
Lundell, Anton W.
Private
U.S. Army
Malone, Jesse
Private
U.S. Army
Mars, Jesse
Private
U.S. Army
McCarthy, James G.
Private
U.S. Army
McKinney, Frank
Private
U.S. Army
Mikle, Rudolph
Private
U.S. Army
Odell, Frank
Private
U.S. Army
Reaser, Lee
Private
U.S. Army
Roux, Frank
Private
U.S. Army
Sautter, Walter G.
Private
U.S. Army
Schuh, John
Private
U.S. Army
Shenk, Roy H.
Corporal
U.S. Army
Sherman, Joseph
Private
U.S. Army
Spies, Lewis P.
Private
U.S. Army
Swartz, Ray
Private
U.S. Army
Sweetland, Maurice G.
Private
U.S. Army
Trapp, Willow
Private
U.S. Army
Weber, Edward N.
Private
U.S. Army
Williams, Barney B.
Private
U.S. Army
       
*
Brothers
    


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