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Auction: 14001 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 194

Four: Able Seaman W. Drew, Royal Navy, A 'Deck-Gunner' Who Sighted and Engaged an Enemy U-Boat, Survived, and Reported the Sinking of his Defensively Armed Merchant Ship Rosalind Following the 'Torpedo' Action, 6.4.1917
China 1900, no clasp (199811 W. Drew. Boy 1 Cl., H.M.S. Barfleur); 1914-15 Star (199811. W. Drew, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (199811. W. Drew, A.B., R.N.), the China Medal a Great War period official replacement, extremely fine, together with damaged named card boxes of issue for Great War Medals; the recipient's original vellum Certificate of Service; and a fascinating- and scarce for a rating from the lower decks- typescript, official detailed report of the loss of the Rosalind in a torpedo attack, this account jointly written by Leading Seaman Drew (4)

199811 Leading Seaman William Drew, born Poplar, London, January 1883; enlisted in the Royal Navy, June 1898; served during the Third China War in H.M.S. Barfleur, and during the Great War in the defensively armed Merchant Ship Rosalind; Drew's official report of her attack and sinking states: 'Homeward bound, loaded-On Friday 6th April 1917 while on watch about 3:15pm I sighted an enemy submarine about two points off the port bow. Gun would not bear, she fired a torpedo at about 800 yards range, the torpedo ran on the surface and struck the ship about 100 yards above the bridge, port side. The next I saw of him was about 100 yards on the port quarter, I trained my gun 'Deck-Gunner' (after loading it myself) but I was to late as she disappeared. My number three then came on the gun platform and then came number two, after having difficulty to come aft over the broken deck. I again sighted the submarine on the starboard quarter and opened fire at 600 yards shot going over, I came down 200 yards and fired again, dismantling her periscope. I then fired two more rounds rapidly but she disappeared again, in the meantime she fired another torpedo which struck the ship in exactly the same place on the starboard side, leaving the ship holding by the mid-ship fore and aft bulkhead, the remainder of my gun's crew then closed up. The Captain came aft and ordered us to our boat, which was the last to leave after picking up two men who were hanging by the foremost boat's fall, port side. We were just about 12 yards away from the ship when the submarine opened fire keeping well ahead. Her first shot fell just astern of our boat, she fired in all 75 rounds, so many on each side of the ship and from what I could see there were about ten hits on the port side. Then steaming round to the starboard beam on the surface, she fired a third torpedo, which I think must have struck the engine room, after that she steamed to the North as hard as she could, not troubling about the boats. It took the ship about three and a half hours to sink and one man was drowned.'

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Sold for
£400