War Instructions for British Merchant Ships was a WW1 Admiralty manual, issued to Masters and Captains of merchant ships. Each copy was marked ‘Confidential’ and individually numbered. This is Copy No. 1093, issued to the Master of the S.S. Tanfield, a British Steamer which was torpedoed by the German U-Boat UB-74 in the English Channel in April 1918. This book is an extremely rare survivor of such an attack - all War Instructions manuals were lead weighted and intended to be thrown overboard when the ship came under enemy attack. Along with other secret documents, they were kept in a special weighted bag, and as stated on page 16: ‘In the event of the vessel being attacked, all confidential and secret papers are to be completely destroyed. Weighted papers may be thrown overboard in deep water’. No doubt in the confusion and chaos of the torpedoing of the Tanfield, there simply wasn’t time to carry out these instructions.
An official Admiralty pasted-in label on the front endpapers stated that the book was ‘Presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Captain Pottinger, Master of S.S. Tanfield for his retention as a memento of War Service’ The label is stamped and dated 20th October 1919. A further C.B. 415 ‘Addenda’ label dated January 1918 is pasted onto the front cover, with the ship’s name ’Tanfield’ written on it in red ink.
S.S. Tanfield was a 4,538 ton British steamer, built in Newcastle by the Northumberland Ship Building Company Ltd in 1916. Originally named Corsham, the ship was purchased by the British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd of Glasgow in 1916 and renamed Tanfield. It was intended to a be a temporary wartime acquisition by the British India company to replace wartime losses. Described as a ‘Dry Cargo Vessel’, Tanfield undertook several hazardous journeys during WW1, and in September 1917 was transporting coal from Newcastle to Port Said, via Gibraltar and various ports on the North African coast. Nearing the end of the voyage, Tanfield collided with SS Kaiping north of Alexandria, sustaining serious damage and only just making it to Alexandria. The ship remained in Alexandria for four months for repairs. Tanfield’s 3rd Engineer, John Henry Colley, later wrote about the incident: ‘We quite expected our ship to sink, so we spent the night in the lifeboats in a very rough sea. Fortunately our ship did not sink, so we went back to her and got her here after a struggle. I shall never forget it I assure you.’
The Tanfield’s (and Colley’s) next voyage also nearly ended in disaster. On 15 April 1918, whilst sailing from Hull to India with a cargo of armoured cars, ammunition, and aircraft parts, S.S. Tanfield was torpedoed in the English Channel by a German U-boat, UB-74. Colley and the other engine room officers, along with the W/T operator and two gunners, courageously stayed on board what they thought was a sinking ship in an effort to try to save it. In the event, the ship did not sink, and made it back to Plymouth for repairs.
UB-74 was not quite so fortunate. Soon after the encounter with the Tanfield, her luck ran out. Just a few weeks later she was depth charged by HMS Lorna and sunk with the loss of all her crew in Lyme Bay on 26 May 1918. UB-74 had been built by AG Vulcan of Hamburg and launched on 12 September 1917. Armed with 10 torpedoes and an 8.8 cm deck gun, the U-boat had a crew of 3 officers and 31 men, and a cruising range of 8,420 nautical miles. Under the command of Kpt Lt. Karl Neureuther, UB-74 had considerable success from February to May 1918, destroying seven merchant ships and damaging another three, one of which was the Tanfield.
War Instructions for British Merchant Ships included a wide range of advice that would have been of vital importance to the crews of merchant vessels operating in wartime conditions - particularly the actions to be taken to avoid submarine attack. Subjects covered included precautions to be taken in submarine areas, typical convoy Zig-Zag movements, mines, and defensive armament. There were also silhouettes and photographs of German sumarines, British vessels, torpedoes and mines. The manual was considered to be of great value to the enemy if captured. Heavily weighted with lead inside the rear board, in the event of imminent capture it was to be thrown overboard. A note on the front endpapers states: ‘This book is weighted with lead, and if thrown overboard will sink’.
Although clearly not a lucky ship, Tanfield somehow survived until the end of the war, and continued to sail until the 1950’s. Tanfield was sold to an Italian shipping line in 1948 and renamed the Stabia, before finally being scrapped in 1958.
