On Tower Hill Memorial, London is the name of Third Engineer Richard Thornton serving on SS Belgian Prince with the Merchant Marine who died 31/07/1917.

The son of Joseph Potts Thornton and Clarissa Thornton (nee Sanderson), of 164, Street, Vincent Street, South Shields. He was born at South Shields.

Richard was born in 1893, at 47 Corbridge Road, South Shields, the son of Joseph Potts Thornton, born 1850, died 21st November 1919, a fish curer, and Clarissa ‘Clara’ Thornton [nee Sanderson], born 1855, died 1918, they were married at St Hilda’s Church, South Shields on the 21st May 1873. They had eleven children, but two had died by 1911.
The other nine children were Richard,
Frank Septimus, born 4th May 1898, born 174 Eglesfield Road, South Shields, died 5th August 1961, In 1911 he was residing at  172 Eglesfield Road, South Shields with his brother Richard and his sister Edith Jane Thornton. He served in the Mercantile Marine in WW1, and then in the Merchant Navy in WW2. He was awarded an O.B.E. He passed his 2nd Mate certificate on the 21st October 1918, 1st Mate on the 24th May 1923 and Master on the 13th July 1926. He was employed by the Princes Line, Furness Whithy and Co. Frank returned to the UK from the USA onboard the London Exchange, ship number 145884 on the 23rd January 1926 as a passenger. By 1926, he was residing at 164 St Vincents Street, South Shields. He married  Phylis Joell, born 2nd November 1901, died 29th November 1989, in 1938. By 1939 they were residing at Whitley Bay at 8 Plessey Crescent. [Phylis was a stewardess on one of the ships that her husband was Master of, Chinese Prince, ship number 148782, departing New York on the 20th January 1949 and arriving at Los Angeles on the 23rd January 1949].
Peter Thornton, born 1874 died 5th June 1886 at Lancashire,
Edith Jane Thornton, born 11th April 1888, died 15th June 1957, she married John William Waugh, born 11th January 1888 in Hebburn, died in 1957, he served in WW1 in the 3rd Battalion Durham Light Infantry, prior to this he had volunteered into the Militia on the 27th January 1906 into the 4th Battalion Durham Light Infantry Volunteers at Sunderland with the service number 9123,
Margaret Isabella Thornton, born 31st December 1881, died 25th November 1955,
Mary Elizabeth Thornton, born 1885, died 1966, she had 2 children John Thornton, born 29th June 1909, died 1985 and Kathleen Thornton, born 7th August 1914, died 22nd December 1992. She had married in 1907 at Weardale to Herbert William Thornton, born 1881 and he  worked for the North Eastern Railway. In 1911 they were residing at 101 Nortcote Street, South Shields,
Thomas Sanderson Thornton, born 1875, died 1937,
Joseph Potts Thornton, born 23rd October 1877, died 10th April 1956, married  Dorothy Geddes nee Muir, born 31st January 1879, died 22nd July 1963, in  1912 and went on to have two children, in 1939 they were residing at 64 Sycamore Avenue, South Shields  Frank Oswald Muir Thornton who served in WW2, and  Dorothy Thornton who was a sweet shop assistant,
Clara Thornton born 21st January 1880, died 6th February 1992, she married John Horn on the 30th September 1901, at South Shields, and had four children, in 1939 they were residing at 84 Hepscott Terrace, South Shields and
Reverend Peter Thornton born June 1890, died 27th June 1944, he was also a Freemason in the Lord Barnard Lodge from the 18th June 1918. he was a Timber clerk in 1911.

Richard Thornton was an apprentice Marine Engineer working at the Middle Dock and Engineering Company at South Shields, in 1911 he was residing at 172 Eglisfield Road, South Shields with his two brothers, Frank and Peter and his sister Edith Jane Thornton.  After this date his parents moved to 164, St. Vincent Street, South Shields.  He was a well known footballer having played for South Shields and at one time was an assistant scoutmaster.

He joined the vessel Belgian Prince, taking the place of his brother, [this could have been his brother Frank Septimus Thornton], who came ashore to sit for his ticket. He was aged 23. Richard was the officer who ordered the survivor [Silenski] who was endeavoring to try to save him by dragging him to the ship to abandon him because he – his would-be rescuer – wouldn’t make it otherwise.

The S.S. Belgian Prince. ship number 111307, [The ship was built as the Mohawk in Sunderland by Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd. in 1901 for the Megnatic Steamship Company of Bristol, she was sold twice and finally ended up with the Furness Withy Company (she had been bought by the Prince Line Ltd. in 1912 but in 1916 the line was bought by Furness). In 1915 she was renamed Belgian Prince]. During a voyage from Liverpool to Newport Mews, Virginia, with a cargo of Blue Tray, the SS Belgian Prince was torpedoed by an U Boat U-55, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Wilhelm Werner at 19:50 when they were about 175 miles from Tory Island, Ireland, on the port side between the engine room and the no 5 hold. The engines soon were disabled along with the dynamo, this kept the ship from sending a distress signal. The ship took on a list and the crew abandoned her in three lifeboats. During this time the U-55 surfaced and began to shell the ship with the intention of disabling the wireless,  Kapitanleutnant Wilhelm Werner, the commanding officer of the U-55 of course had no way of knowing the wireless could not be used, so this action is understandable. For an unknown reason the U-55 moved around to the starboard side and fired her machine gun at the ship. Werner then approached the three lifeboats which held the entire forty-two man crew. They were all ordered to get out of the boats and taken on board the casing of the U-55. The Master, Harry Hassan was taken below while the men on deck were searched. They were asked if they had any weapons and handled quite roughly by the German crew, according to the survivors.

What happened next can only be described as deliberate murder. The crew of the U-55, under orders from Werner, took the lifebelts from most of the survivors and threw them overboard. They then got into the lifeboats, took what they wanted and tossed the rest into the sea, removed the corks and further damaged them with axes to be sure they would sink. One small boat was kept intact and boarded by five of the Germans who took her to the damaged drifting hulk.  According to Chief Engineer Thomas A. Bowman, one of the three survivors; ‘When they boarded her they signalled to the submarine with a flash lamp, and then the submarine cast the damaged lifeboats adrift and steamed away from the ship for about two miles, after which he stopped.’

If the crew were taken aboard the U-55 to be returned to Germany as POW’s getting the men on board and destroying the lifeboats would be understandable, a U-boat captain did not want to leave any evidence floating in the water that would indicate that a ship had been sunk lest his boat be discovered, and drifting lifeboats were the best evidence. However at this time the Belgian Prince had not sunk and Werner even had some of his own men on the ship. The U-55 crew then went below and closed the hatch and the boat got underway on the surface. Werner sailed about two miles then submerged the U-55 with the forty-one survivors still on the casing of the boat. Chief Engineer Bowman stated; ‘About 10 p.m. the submarine dived and threw everybody in the water without any means of saving themselves, as the majority of them had had their lifebelts taken off them.’ Having taken their lifebelts and destroyed their lifeboats he now decided to just drown the entire crew, a clear act of cruelty and outright wilful murder, and this was not the first time he had done this. There were three survivors.

Able Seaman George Silenski swam back to the Belgium Prince and reboarded her, he was on board when the U-boat came alongside of the ship the early the next morning. He said several Germans boarded the stricken ship and looted her, lucky for him the Germans did not see him and he jumped off the ship and got into a small boat which was nearby. The third survivor was an American negro, 2nd Cook William Snell of Jacksonville Florida, he survived by hiding his lifebelt under his clothes. After the U-55 went under he also headed for the only place he could, the Belgian Prince. He got within a mile when he saw the Belgian Prince explode and sink. Silenski stated the U-boat fired two shots from her deck gun and the Belgian Prince sank stern first at about 07:00am on the 1st August 1917. Thirty-nine crewmen died in the North Atlantic, courtesy of Wilhelm Werner and the crew of the U-55, but what happened to the ship’s master? It is unclear if Harry Hassan was brought back on deck or kept as a POW, but he ‘was never seen or heard from again by his family.’ Bringing the total lives lost to forty.

The KTB (Kriegstagebuch, in English War Diary) of U-55 mentions little of the event;
‘July 31: Unterwasserangriff. Heckschu, G-Torpedo. Scheneidewinkel 80, 600 m, Treffer Mitte. Englischer bewaffneter Viermastendampfer, 4800ts, in Ballast auslaufend. Vor Bewacher getaucht.’ (Attack submerged. stern tube, G-torpedo. Edge angle 80, 600 m, hit at center. Armed British four masted steamer, 4,800 tons, leaking out of ballast tanks. Dive in front of escort ship.)

‘Aug. 1: Dampfer mit Sprengpatrone versenkt; vor Foxglove bis 9 h vm getaucht.’
(Steamer sunk with scuttling charges, dive at 9 a.m. in front of Foxglove)

Werner makes no mention of the name of the ship, or the fate of the crew. He also makes no mention of taking the captain prisoner, a clearly evasive entry in the log of the boat to keep this crime a secret.

[The U-55 was commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Wilhelm Werner but was promoted to Kapitanleutnant on the 24th April 1916. He was born on the 6th June 1888, at Apola. He was charged with War Crimes after the war, for sinking without warning the Clearfield, Artist, Trevone, Torrington, Toro and attacking the hospital ships Rewa and Guildford Castle.  In the course of time this was reduced to a single charge of sinking the SS Torrington, ship number  119969, and murdering the whole crew except the captain who was taken prisoner. He never appeared at the Leipzig trials, he fled Germany to work on a coffee plantation in Brazil. After some years he returned to Germany and even became a National Socialist member of the Reichstag. [He eventually joined the SS and rose to the rank of SS Brigadefuhrer serving on the Reichsfuhrer, SS Heinrich Himmler’s personal staff. He died 14th May 1945].

The Shields Gazette at the time had the Headlines of:-
Cold Blooded Murder
Admiralty and the Drowning of the Crew of a Tyne Steamer
The Secretary of the Admiralty yesterday made he following announcement:- As already reported unofficially an the Press, the British steamship Belgian Prince was torpedoed by a German submarine on July 31st. The crew abandoned the ship in two boats, and were ordered on the upper deck of the submarine. Under his direction the boats were then smashed with axes and the crew of the Belgian Prince deprived of their lifebelts.
The master [Harry Hassan] was taken below and the hatch closed. The submarine submerged without warning with 43 men standing on her deck. This was the entire crew of the Belgian Prince with the exception of three. All these were drowned. The three survivors had contrived to retain their lifebelts without the knowledge of the enemy. They were picked up after having been in the water for 11 hours.
The details of this atrocious outrage are supported by the separate affidavits of the three survivors. The cold-blooded murder of these men equals, if it does not transcend, the worst crimes which our enemies have committed against humanity.

The three survivors [George Silenski, Thomas A. Bowman and William Snell], were taken to the Sailors’ Rest in Londonderry, where they were tended to by the maritime charity now known as the Sailors’ Society. George Silenski was saved by fellow crew member Richard Thornton who gave his life for George.
You can read the 3 survivors accounts here.  At 8:00 a.m., the sloop Gladiolus that had rushed up was able to take the three surviving sailors on board and rescue them.

There is no evidence to support the theory that Hassan was taken to a Prisoner of War Camp.

The Shields Gazette at the time had the Headlines of:-
COLD-BLOODED MURDER
Admiralty and the Drowning of the Crew of a Tyne Steamer
The Secretary of the Admiralty yesterday made he following announcement:- As already reported unofficially an the Press, the British steamship Belgian Prince was torpedoed by a German submarine on July 31st.

The crew abandoned the ship in two boats, and were ordered on the upper deck of the submarine. Under his direction the boats were then smashed with axes and the crew of the Belgian Prince deprived of their lifebelts. The master [Harry Hassan] was taken below and the hatch closed. The submarine submerged without warning with 43 men standing on her deck. This was the entire crew of the Belgian Prince with the exception of three. All these were drowned. The three survivors had contrived to retain their lifebelts without the knowledge of the enemy. They were picked up after having been in the water for 11 hours.

The details of this atrocious outrage are supported by the separate affidavits of the three survivors. The cold-blooded murder of these men equals, if it does not transcend, the worst crimes which our enemies have committed against humanity.

Cyril Joseph Hoey (17), the only son of Mr and Mrs S. Hoey, master and matron of Morpeth Workhouse, was one of the victims of the Belgian Prince. He was serving his apprenticeship on the vessel, also  an apprentice Ralph Henderson Robinson (18),  whose widowed mother lives in Chester le Street. He was an only child. He had been away from for less than a fortnight when he was drowned, and had been at home as a consequence of having been torpedoed previously. A month ago he gave an exhibition of high diving at a local swimming gala, and won one of the prizes.”

Acknowledgments: James Hoy Archive/Sailors Maritime Society/U Boat net/James Pasby.

Richard Thornton is remembered at South Shields on S86.051 and in S86.086 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.