The sinking of the Canadian Hospital Ship

One of the more controversial events during the Great War was the sinking of the Canadian Hospital Ship Llandovery Castle by a German submarine, U-86, on 27 June, 1918. The ship was returning to England after having brought Canadian casualties back to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Being a Hospital Ship, it was clearly identified as such with a brightly illuminated Red Cross, was unarmed and running with full lights. On board, the crew consisted of one hundred and sixty-four men, eighty officers and men of the Canadian Medical Corps, and fourteen nurses, a total of two hundred and fifty-eight persons.

According to the Hague Convention, an enemy vessel had the right to stop and search a Hospital Ship, but not to sink it. U-86 made no attempt to search the ship, but rather torpedoed it
Even though the Llandovery Castle sank within ten minutes, a number of boats were lowered successfully and the ship was abandoned in a calm and efficient manner. Three boats ultimately survived the sinking of the vessel undamaged and proceeded to rescue survivors from the water. They were interrupted by Patzig, who intercepted the boats and started interrogating crew members to obtain proof of the misuse of the hospital ship as an ammunition carrier. When no proof could be obtained, Patzig gave the command to make clear for diving and ordered the crew below deck.
Patzig, two officers (Ludwig Dithmar and John Boldt) and the boatswain’s mate Meissner stayed on deck. The U-boat did not dive, but started firing at and sinking the life boats to kill all witnesses and cover up what had happened. To conceal this event, Patzig extracted promises of secrecy from the crew, and faked the course of U-86 in the logbook so that nothing would connect U-86 with the sinking of the Llandovery Castle.
Only one lifeboat survived the attack. It was picked up by the destroyer Lysander on the morning of 29 June, 36 hours after the attack Twenty four people survived the attack on the lifeboats, including six members of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. All 14 Nursing Sisters on board lost their lives.

After the war, the British initiated a War Crimes trial against the officers of U-86. The commander, Helmut Patzig could not be found and was never brought to trial. The two other officers, Ludwig Dithmar and John Boldt were tried and convicted. The men were sentenced to 4 years of hard labour, but escaped while underway to the prison. It is unclear if they were ever recaptured, but it is certain that they never served more than 4 months.

Extracts from the official report, as printed in Our Bit : Memories of War Service By a Canadian Nursing Sister, by N.S. Mabel B. Clint can be found here.

The Canadian Survivors

The six Canadians that survived, along with 18 of the Llandovery Castle crewmen.

Major T. Lyon
528654 Sergeant A. Knight
536288 Private G. R. Hickman
69 Private W. Pilot
522907 Private F. W. W. Cooper
536437 Private S. A. Taylor

The Canadians who lost their lives

The Canadian Army Medical Corps personnel who lost their lives in the attack on the Llandovery Castle are as follows:

If anyone knows of any inaccuracies in this list, please let me know

Links to more information on the Llandovery Castle

Newspaper Transcripts

Sinking of the Llandovery Castle

The Sinking of the Llandovery Castle

uboat.net

The War Time Trial - Llandovery Castle

The sinking of the Canadian Hospital Ship

The Canadian Survivors

The Canadians who lost their lives

Officers

Nursing Sisters

Enlisted Men

Links to more information on the Llandovery Castle

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