Pembroke Dock built HMS Amphion and four seamen's deaths

During the First World War, one of the first Royal Navy casualties of the conflict came from Pembroke and we will look at the story of what happened.

HMS Amphion was commissioned in 1911 and built in Pembroke Dock. The steel light cruiser had four Parsons steam turbines as engines, along with 12 Yarrow boilers, four shafts and four screws.

It was armed with 10 four-inch 50calB1 MkVIII guns, four 3dpr guns and two 18-inchtorpedo tubes.

The ship was entered into service in 1914 and at the outbreak of the war, was assigned to the Harwich Force. It was the lead ship in the Third Destroyer Flotilla, led by Commander Cecil H. Fox.

She had a good start to the war, as on August 5 – the first full day of the war – she was patrolling the North Sea and along with the rest of the destroyers, chased and sunk the German minelayer SMS Königin Luise.

The flotilla was alerted to the ship by a fishing trawler which had seen a ship that looked suspicious and people throwing things overboard near the Thames Estuary. This was shortly after 10am.

The German ship was disguised in the colours of the Great Eastern Railway. HMS Amphion fired a warning shot at the ship but the ship pulled away at speed in an effort to escape.

HMS Amphion was built in Pembroke Dock and had four Pembrokeshire seamen on board who were killed.

Captain Fox sent out four destroyers. They caught up with the ship around midday and four shots were fired from the British vessels, one hit the bridge, the second missed, and the third and fourth hit the stern which was ripped away.

50 of the 130-man crew, including the captain Commander Bierman, were taken prisoner and distributed among the flotilla, with many put on HMS Amphion.

The ships reported the dangers and approximate locations of the mines to the authorities and warned other ships about them.

However, the victory was not to be celebrated for long as just a day later, the ship would be consigned to the bottom of the sea – in a cruel twist of fate, by the hands of the ship she helped sink a day earlier.

HMS Amphion was on patrol the following morning and passed too close to where the German boat had been working and at 6.30am on August 6, 1914, the ship hit a mine.

Immediately the bridge was on fire and the captain had been knocked senseless, despite falling onto the fore-and-aft bridge, he quickly recovered and moved to stop the engine.

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This was not possible however, as the fire had engulfed the bridge, making it inaccessible. There was extensive damage to the ship’s stern and the ammunition could not be made safe as it wasn’t possible to flood the magazine.

The barrel of one of the guns of HMS Amphion in the North Sea

An official report published on August 14 of the same year stated: “The men fell in with this purpose with the same composure that had marked their behaviour throughout.

"All was done without hurry or confusion, and twenty minutes after the mine was struck the men, officers, and captain left the ship.”

Just three minutes after the exit from the ship, a second explosion rang out as the hull had struck the cable between two mines.

The blast from this is believed to have lit the magazine alight, causing another, more violent explosion which sent one of thee guns 20-feet into the air.

Debris rained down on the rescue boats and the destroyers in the flotilla. Some hit the ship Lark and killed two crew and one of the German prisoners.

130 crew, the paymaster and 20 German prisoners were killed in the first blast, with Captain Fox, 16 officers and 135 crew were saved.

In The History of the Great European War: Volume II, written by W Stanley Macbean Knight, is a letter written by one of the survivors to his family after arriving back at the safety of the barracks on land.

Part of the letter said: “When it (the explosion) happened I really thought my number had gone up, there to stay, but through the care of the good God above, I have been spared a most terrible death. It is the nearest I have been to the end, and the experience will last me a lifetime.

‘It is too terrible to relate. I lost both my chums in the disaster. One was in the wireless room decoding with the Paymaster, who also lost his life, and the other asleep in the mess. It must have been a sudden death for both of them, which is indeed a mercy for the dear chaps.”

Four of the casualties from the explosion were from Pembrokeshire – they are: David Craig, Albert Martin, Alfred Ernest Simmonds and James Henry Skyrme.

David Craig was a Leading Seaman on the ship and prior to the war, the Glasgow-born man was living with his wife in St Dogmaels.

Albert Martin was a Stoker, First Class on the ship. He was born to Richard Edward and Ellen Martin on March 29, 1888, at Hakinville, Milford Haven, and was 26 when he was killed on board HMS Amphion. He is buried in Shotley Churchyard in Ipswich.

Alfred Ernest Simmonds was a Petty Officer Stoker on board HMS Amphion. His mother, Martha White had lived at Manchester House, Pembroke Ferry, Pembroke Dock. His father was Daniel Simmonds of Devonport. He was 39 at the time of his death.

James Henry Skyrmes was a Stoker, First Class, on the ship. The 33-year-old was the son of William and Jane Skyrmes of Llangwm, Haverfordwest and was born in 1882.

All who died are commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.