The Tangistan, Tuesday 9 March 1915
The 3,738 ton Tangistan was based and crewed at the south Wales port of Swansea. She had left there with a cargo of patent fuel and coal for Béni Saf, Algieria, there she took on 6,000 tons iron ore for Middlesborough. The sole survivor, Joseph O’Toole, a 26 year old Irishman, a native of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, who had moved to Swansea and where had joined the ship some five weeks earlier. He said that Tangistan was early for the tide at Middlesborough and thus had reduced speed. He had been relieved from his watch around midnight and had gone to his bunk. The Tangistan was around nine miles north of Flamborough Head at around half past midnight, he was awoke by an explosion amidships. O’Toole raced onto the deck, where he put on a lifebelt and made for a lifeboat on the port side. As he and two other crewmen were lowering the boat, the ship gave a heave and sank rapidly.
‘None of the boats could have got away and must have been drawn under’, he told the South Wales Daily Post. O’Toole said he was still holding on to a line and was being dragged down by the ship. He let go and popped to the surface where he clung to a nearby box. Several Arab crewmen were calling for help, but they didn’t understand O’Toole’s pleas for them to grab hold of large pieces of floating wreckage. About 3am, after two hours in the water, O’Toole saw the North Shields steamer Woodville appear, he repeatedly shouted ‘steamer ahoy’. He was picked up, shivering with the cold, by a lifeboat from the Woodville. Apparently the first thing he said when he was hauled aboard was ‘has anyone got a fag?’ The boat searched for other survivors, but as the combination of a heavy sea and the large amount of wreckage put the boat in peril, they returned to the Woodville. O’Toole was later landed at West Hartlepool, he had lost all his belongings in the sinking and was looked after by the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society, exactly a week after the loss O’Toole was back home in Swansea. At the time it wasn’t known whether the ship had been torpedoed or had struck a mine. Post-war the sinking was attributed to the submarine U.12. But, subsequent research has discovered that the attack by U.12 was on the SS Aberdon off St Abbs Head and thus the Tangistan is now thought to have struck a mine laid by the Kolberg.
The day after the sinking Bridlington fisherman Frank Shaw, was about six miles S.W. by W. off Flamborough Head in the coble The Grace, when he discovered the body of a man in amongst a lot of floating wreckage. He was thought to be about thirty-five years of age and was 5’ 7”. He had a dark complexion, a slight moustache and long black hair, he had a ship’s belt with the name Tangistan, Swansea on it and was wearing a blue dungaree jacket. The fisherman also found another lifebelt with the ship’s name on it. The body was landed at Bridlington and the police conveyed the deceased to the mortuary where all efforts were made to identify the body. At the inquest it was concluded that the man was one of the engine room crew who had been signed on at Aden. Despite communications with the police at London and Swansea it had proven impossible to identify the body.
The wreck of the Tangistan is described as being ‘fairly large’, sitting upright and on an even keel. Her cargo of iron ore is still in evidence being stacked up to the gunnels. The triple expansion engine and boilers are located amidships with the boilers still partly decked over. A plate with the name and emblem of the ship’s owners, The Strick Line has been recovered. Some wreckage and debris is lying on the seabed on the starboard side just forward of the boilers and there is some damage to the hull around that area.
Crewmen killed on Tangistan
Muhammad Abdullah, fireman
Obaid Abdullah, fireman
Ali Yahya Ahmad, fireman
All Ahmad, fireman
Hasan Ahmad, donkeyman
Nasir Ali, fireman
Saleh Ali, fireman
Reginald William Conroy (31), second mate, Southampton
A. De Sa, steward
J. M. D. De Souza, chief cook
David Edmunds (44), captain, Burry Port
Joshua Emmett (45), first mate, Leith
S. Gomes, second cook
Saleh Haji, boy
Muhammad Hamza, fireman
Ahmad Husain, fireman
William Kavanagh (56), boatswain, Dublin
Walter Lewis Jenkins (32), third engineer, Swansea
Muhammad Muhsin, donkeyman
Said Munazir, greaser
Ali Nagi, fireman
Ahmad Nagi, greaser
John Brustad Nielsen (59), ship’s carpenter, born Norway, lived Swansea
Nils Christian Olsen (46), able seaman, Drammen, Norway
Charles Tom Parker (22), third mate, Hull
Erik Johan Paulsson (24), sailor, Aland, Finland
Frederick Peters (38), sailor, Bristol
Martin Philips, chief steward, Madras
Henry Podesta (56), able seaman, Exeter
James Porter (33), second engineer, Glasgow
David John Rosser (40), chief engineer, Skewen, Glamorgan
Muhammad Said, fireman and trimmer
Abdullah Saleh, Serang
James Richard Simmonds (14), deck boy, The Strand
Frederick Walter Sparkes (22), fourth engineer officer, West Ham, London
William George Taylor (25), sailor, Shoreditch, London
Ali Yahya, fireman
The men in the engine room had been ‘obtained at Aden’.
