RMS ''Leinster'' was an Irish ship operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. She served as the

Kingstown Kingstown is the capital, chief port, and main commercial centre of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. With a population of 12,909 (2012), Kingstown is the most populous settlement in the country. It is the island's agricultural industry centr ...

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the list of Anglesey towns by population, largest town and a Community (Wales), community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Ho ...

mailboat until she was

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

ed and sunk by the German submarine , which was under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Robert Ramm, on 10 October 1918, while bound for Holyhead. She sank just outside

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

Bay at a point east of the Kish light. The exact number of dead is unknown but researchers from the National Maritime Museum believe it was at least 564; this would make it the largest single loss of life in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

Design

In 1895, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company ordered four steamers for Royal Mail service, named for four provinces of Ireland: RMS ''Leinster'', RMS , RMS ''Munster'', and RMS ''Ulster''. The ''Leinster'' was a 3,069-ton packet

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

with a service speed of . The vessel, which was built at Laird's in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; Historic counties of England, historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the R ...

, England, was driven by two independent four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, the twin-propellered ship was armed with one 12 pounder and two signal guns.

Sinking

The ship's log states that she carried 77 crew and 694 passengers on her final voyage. The ship had previously been attacked in the

but the torpedoes missed their target. Those on board included more than 100 British civilians, 22 postal sorters (working in the mail room) and almost 500 military personnel from the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

and Royal Air Force. Also aboard were nurses from Great Britain, Ireland, Australia,

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and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Just before 10 a.m. as it was sailing east of the Kish Bank in a heavy swell, passengers saw a torpedo approach from the port side and pass in front of the bow. A second torpedo followed shortly afterwards, and struck the ship forward on the port side in the vicinity of the mail room. The ship made a U-turn in an attempt to return to Kingstown as it began to settle slowly by the bow; however, it sank rapidly after a third torpedo struck her, causing a huge explosion. Leinster anchor

Despite the heavy seas, the crew managed to launch several lifeboats and some passengers clung to life-rafts. The survivors were rescued by , and . Among the civilian passengers lost in the sinking were socially prominent people such as Lady Phyllis Hamilton, daughter of the Duke of Abercorn, Robert Jocelyn Alexander, son of Irish composer Cecil Frances Alexander, Rev. John Bartley, the Presbyterian minister of Tralee who was travelling to visit his mortally wounded son in hospital, Thomas Foley and his wife Charlotte Foley (née Barrett) who was the brother-in-law of the world-famous Irish

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors i ...

John McCormack who adopted their eldest son. The first member of the Women's Royal Naval Service to die on active duty, Josephine Carr, was among those who died, as were two prominent officials of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, James McCarron and Patrick Lynch. Several of the military personnel who died are buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery. Survivors were brought to Kingstown harbour. Among them were Michael Joyce, an Irish Parliamentary Party MP for Limerick City, and Captain Hutchinson Ingham Cone of the United States Navy, the former commander of the . One of the rescue ships was the armed yacht and former fishery protection vessel HMY ''Helga''. Stationed in Kingstown harbour at the time of the sinking, she had shelled Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin two years earlier. She was later bought and renamed the ''Muirchú'' by the Irish Free State government as one of its first fishery protection vessels. Leinster90

The last act

On October 18, 1918 at 9.10 a.m. , outbound from Germany under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Werner Vater, picked up a radio message requesting advice on the best way to get through the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

minefield A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...

. The sender was Oberleutnant zur See Robert Ramm aboard . Extra mines had been added to the minefield since ''UB-123'' had made her outward voyage from Germany. As ''UB-125'' had just come through the minefield, Vater radioed back with a suggested route. ''UB-123'' acknowledged the message and was never heard from again. The following day, ten days after the sinking of the ''RMS Leinster'', ''UB-123'' detonated a mine while trying to cross the

and return to base in Imperial Germany. There were no survivors.

Anchor

In 1991, the anchor of the ''RMS Leinster'' was raised by local divers. It was placed near Carlisle Pier and officially dedicated on 28 January 1996. RMSLeinsterAnchorPlaques

Commemorations

2008 Commemoration

In 2008, 90 years after its sinking, a commemorative stamp was issued by An Post, recalling particularly the Post Office's 21 staff who died in the tragedy. The sinking of the vessel is further recalled in the postal museum of the General Post Office, in Dublin's O'Connell Street.

2018 Centenary Commemoration

On 10 October 2018 an official commemoration took place in Dún Laoghaire attended by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan T.D. in which she confirmed that ''Leinster'' is now under the protection of the National Monuments Acts, which covers all shipwrecks over 100 years old.

References

External links

RMS Leinster "Home Site"

video of 90th anniversary

List of Casualties
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leinster Steamships Ships built on the River Mersey World War I passenger ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in Ireland Maritime incidents in 1918 1918 disasters in the United Kingdom 1918 in Ireland World War I shipwrecks in the Irish Sea Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I 1896 ships Shipwrecks of Ireland