HM Armed Smack Inverlyon

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History
United Kingdom
NameInverlyon
In service2 August 1915[1]
Out of service1916
HomeportLowestoft
FateSunk, 1 February 1917[2]
Service record
Commanders:
Gunner Ernest Martin Jehan
Victories: German submarine UB-4
Awards:
Admiralty
submarine bounty (cash award to crew)
General characteristics
TypeSmack
Tons burthen59[1]
PropulsionNone
Sail planTwo
masts, fore-and-aft rigged[3]
Complement7
Armament1 × 3-pounder (47 mm) or 6-pounder (57 mm) gun[Note 1]

His Majesty's or HM Armed Smack Inverlyon was a fishing

Gunner in command of the vessel, Ernest Martin Jehan, received the Distinguished Service Cross and members of Inverlyon's crew shared the bounty offered for German submarines. After Inverlyon's Q-ship career ended, she returned to fishing, but was sunk by U-55
on 1 February 1917.

Career

Action of 15 August 1915
Part of World War I
Atlantic U-boat Campaign
Date15 August 1915
Location
Off the coast of Great Yarmouth
, England
Result British victory
Belligerents
 Imperial German Navy  Royal Navy
Commanders and leaders
Karl Gross † Ernest Martin Jehan
Strength
UB-4, 14 crewmembers Inverlyon, unknown number of crew
Casualties and losses
14 KIA, UB-4 sunk none

Inverlyon was a fishing

red ochre in colour, the traditional sail colour for British smacks.[3][4]

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,[5] and the British fishing fleet was not exempt.[6] In mid-June, for example, the German submarine UB-2 had sunk six smacks off Lowestoft in a two-day period.[6][7]

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 that concealed guns or other weapons could sink them.

minesweeper from Lowestoft—were assigned to Inverlyon, with Jehan in command.[3]

On 14 August, the 59-ton smack Bona Fide was stopped by a U-boat, boarded, and sunk with explosives 35 nautical miles (40 mi; 65 km)

east-northeast from Lowestoft.[6] This attack was probably by UB-4, because she was operating in that area on her fourteenth patrol.[8] Regardless of the identity of Bona Fide's attacker, UB-4 did approach a group of smacks in the vicinity the next day. Unknown to UB-4's commander, Oberleutnant zur See Karl Gross,[Note 2] one of the fishing vessels was the disguised Inverlyon.[3][Note 3]

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 Inverlyon's weapon 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, Inverlyon's gunner unleashed 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, dived in to attempt the rescue of a crewman from UB-4. Phillips was unable to reach him before the crewman went under and met same fate as Gross and UB-4's twelve other crewmen.[3]

A smack similar to Inverlyon.

As UB-4 went down she fouled 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

Admiralty.[3][Note 4]

About three weeks after she sank UB-4, Inverlyon had the opportunity to sink another U-boat, but was unsuccessful.[11] 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.[12] By 1916,[1] Inverlyon had ended her short-lived Q-ship career and returned to being a fishing boat.[11] Jehan, in addition to his DSC, was subsequently specially promoted to lieutenant on 4 January 1916 for his war service;[13] he retired from the Royal Navy on 29 October 1920.[14]

On 1 February 1917, the German submarine U-55 shelled and sank Inverlyon 15 nautical miles (28 km) from Trevose Head at position 50°47′N 5°5′W / 50.783°N 5.083°W / 50.783; -5.083; there were no reported casualties.[2][15]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Hugh Perkins and J. David Perkins, whose works are substantially the same, identify Inverlyon's weapon as a 3-pounder (47 mm), while J. J. Colledge, in volume 2 of Ships of the Royal Navy, identifies it as a 6-pounder (57 mm) gun.
  2. ^ Karl Gross' name is also spelled as Karl Groß in some sources.
  3. ^ Both of the Perkins works report 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 (Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boats: UB 4". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net.) all report the date of the encounter as 15 August 1915.
  4. ^ 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, which would have been £70 in the case of UB-4. See: Messimer, pp. 158, 170, 222, for examples of the £5 per capita bounty.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Colledge, p. 176.
  2. ^ a b Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Inverlyon". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
  3. ^
    OCLC 60621086. Retrieved 5 March 2009. [dead link
    ]
  4. Penwith District Council (2009). "Boat Types". Penzance: Penwith District Council. Archived from the original
    on 27 May 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  5. ^ Tarrant, p. 14.
  6. ^
    His Majesty's Stationery Office
    . 1919.
  7. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Britannia". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009., Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Edward". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009., Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Laurestina". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009., Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Quivive". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009., Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Welfare". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009., Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Intrepid". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  8. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Bona Fide". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
  9. ^ Messimer, p. 129
  10. ^ "No. 29374". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 November 1915. p. 11558.
  11. ^ 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. See additional note no. 2.
  12. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by UB 2". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net., Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boats: UB 16". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  13. ^ "No. 29431". The London Gazette. 7 January 1916. p. 340.
  14. ^ "No. 32114". The London Gazette. 5 November 1920. p. 10754.
  15. His Majesty's Stationery Office
    . 1919.

Bibliography

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