July 31, 1917.

[Peter Connelly]

July 31, 1917.


Off the lifeboats and in line,
You watch your shipmates watch them
Break the boats and order all
To cast away their life-belts.

They take your captain below.

Slow movement, then you hear metal take in water.
See, now, how eyes speak fear
Across your last expanse of conscious sea,
Until the Unterseeboot slips from under your feet...

You, yourself, came six weeks later to the slate shore
Of a Scottish island a whole ocean away from
Newport News, and you lie there now
Still son of the words of
Your mother’s love and hate,
In a green graveyard,
Sheltered from the brute sea’s view.

[canUsmellthat]

Did you write this poem yourself P, it's very good, can you explain it to us please???

[Peter Connelly]

Thankyou, canU. I did. Afraid I’m no Eliot or Neruda, but indeed an explanation seems in order.

The 'poem' relates to the grave in Old Kilbrandon churchyard at Balvicar, of Chief Officer Neil McDougall Morton, of the SS Belgian Prince. On 31st July 1917 The Belgian Prince, heading for Newport News, Virginia, from Liverpool, was torpedoed by U-55, about 200 miles N.W. of Tory Island. The crew, forced to abandon ship, were assembled on the deck of the U-boat and watched as the U-Boat crew, under the command of the notorious Wilhelm Werner, removed the life-jackets of the crew, and smashed up their life-boats. Captain Hassan of The Prince was taken below deck of the U-boat, presumably as a prisoner-of-war. The U-boat then moved off to a distance of two miles from the disabled Belgian Prince, and, with the crew of The Prince still standing on the deck, proceeded to submerge. Out of the 41 survivors, only three survived. Neil Morton was not among them. On the 23rd of September his body was washed up at Cuan, and he was buried at Kilbrandon. The gravestone, erected by his mother, is a powerful admixture of love for her son and hatred for those who ‘cruelly murdered’ him.

[Peter Connelly]

When I say out of the 41 survivors only 3 survived, I meant out of the 41 survivors of the initial attack on The Belgian Prince only 3 survived the subsequent event. Sorry.

[canUsmellthat]

I got this from the internet, it's (reportedly) what the inscription on his grave reads:

"IN
SACRED AND LOVING MEMORY
OF
NEIL McDougall MORTON
OF SUNDERLAND
AGED 27 YEARS
CHIEF Officer OF BELGIAN PRINCE
TORPEDOED AND CRUELLY
MURDERED BY THE HUNS
ON 31 JULY 1917
(BODY WASHED ASHORE AT CUAN FERRY
ON 23RD SEPT)
HE GAVE HIS LIFE THAT
WE MIGHT NOT STARVE
ERECTED
BY HIS MOTHER"

[shygirl78]

Hey

don't put yourself down Peter. Your poem is great. Look forward to seeing more!

M

[Peter Connelly]

Cheers M, much appreciated : )

[Eric the Viking]

http://www.maritimequest.com/freighters ... l%20_m.htm

[Peter Connelly]

Yes, Eric. I also see that uboat.net mentions the affair in relation to the claim that it was Paul Wagenführ of U44, and not Wilhelm Werner of U55 that was responsible for the Belgian Prince affair. This confusion seems to stem from ‘intelligence studies of U-boat signals’ as Robert McQueen Grant explains in his book U-Boat Hunters, pp. 129-130 (it’s on the Google Books link if you Google ‘SS Belgian Prince’, about 6 results down).

[Eric the Viking]

At the risk of appearing morbid - It's not the first time a seaman shipwrecked of Tory Island has been washed up in Argyll.

There is a particularly lonely grave in Fionnphort:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meg/3574603690/