As part of their Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War’ project, the Maritime Archaeology Trust have been working with dive skipper and historian Dave Wendes to bring the story of the SS War Knight to public attention and commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The remains of War Knight lie at a depth of approximately 13m in Freshwater Bay and constitute an ‘underwater memorial’ to the crew. The Heritage Lottery Funded Forgotten Wrecks project has enabled diving on the wreck to record what remains before it is lost forever. Now, for the first time, non-divers can virtually explore the site via an online 3D model and everyone can find out more about how it came to be there. The project has also enabled the recording of material that was recovered from the site in the past, so this can be seen by the general public.
Towards the end of March 1918, 34 men died in tragic circumstances on the SS War Knight, just south of the Isle of Wight. The vessel collided with another ship in the convoy that was devised to protect ships from U-boat attacks. War Knight hit O.B. Jennings, the world’s largest oil tanker. Its highly flammable cargo of naptha flowed across the deck of War Knight and ignited. Both ships and the surrounding water became a blazing inferno. Two of the War Knight’s crew were awarded posthumous awards for bravery during the disaster, yet only three are commemorated on south coast naval memorials and at least one of the crew that was killed lies in an unmarked grave in Gosport. War Knight’s loss was considered a marine risk rather than a war risk, so the contribution and sacrifice made by the majority of the ship’s crew is not formally recognised.
To commemorate the crew, the Maritime Archaeology Trust has been working with the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War (LoFWW) digital memorial by creating a ‘community’ comprising people who were on board for War Knight’s final voyage. Over recent weeks, a volunteer from the LoFWW project has managed to identify or create Life Story pages for each crew member. Photographs of eight of the crew, identified by Dave Wendes in Southampton City Archives and through contact with family members, have been added to the individuals’ pages and the Maritime Archaeology Trust now hopes that genealogy enthusiasts and interested individuals world-wide, will help develop the Life Story pages for War Knight’s crew to enhance their digital memorial.
More information can be found here.
Illustration: Mike Greaves ASGFA
