Photo : Furness Whithy and Co

Photo : Sailors Society {Two of the 3 survivors }

SS-Standartenführer Wilhelm Werner

Sunderland Echo Tuesday 24/06/1919

Shields Daily News Tuesday 27/08/1918

Henry 'Harry' Hassan was born on the 8th June 1872 at Bangor, Ireland, to Alexander and Eliza "Lizzie" [nee Harrison] Hassan, who were married on the 11th September 1871 at the First Bangor Presbyterian Church. Henry was the eldest of eight children, John born 14th March 1874, Jane born 14th March 1876, Alexander born 21st March 1878, Lena born 8th September 1881, Hugh born 9th December 1885, William born 27th March 1889 and James born 30th January 1892. The last three were born at Brunswick Road.

Alexander in 1939 was residing at 73 Richard Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with his wife Mary A. born 27th October 1882 with one child. Alexander was a Fire Brigade officer.

The family resided at Main Street then 1 Brunswick Road, Bangor. Alexander senior Hassan worked as a Jobbing Mason and in August 1916, he suffered a near fatal accident in his own garden by stepping on a wasps nest. His life was put in danger due to the great number of stings received. Alexander eventually recovered.

Henry Hassan married Elizabeth [nee Donnan], she was born on the 28th September 1865 (in Crossgar, County Down), and were residing at 3 Park Road Hebburn. They moved after 1911 to 9 Clervan Terrace, Jarrow.

Henry Hassan worked for the Princes Line company, Furness Whithy and Co.
Harry achieved his certificates as second and first mate in Belfast on the 13th Septembr 1897, and the 5th May 1900 respectively. He then passed his Masters certificate (No. 032301) in 1904 in South Shields. As a mate, the ships he was appointed to were, the Persian Prince, ship number 96128, the Merchant Prince,ship number 105229, the Norse Prince, ship number 125433, the Indian Prince, ship number 129755 and the <>Roman Prince ship number 133549.

His first ship as master was the Indian Prince ship number 129755, on its voyage of the 4th June 1912 to the USA and South America. Other ships to which he was appointed as master were, the Kaffir Prince, ship number 97984 and the Welsh Prince ship number 105202.

Harry was on the St Louis leaving Liverpool bound for the United States at Ellis Island, New York in 1916 and again on the Orduna Ship Number 135539, the same destination.

Henry Hassan was master of 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 Kapitänleutnant 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 #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, Oberleutnant zur See 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 a Russian, swam back to the Belgium Prince and re-boarded 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, 2nd Cook William Snell a negro, 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. Silenskii stated the U-boat fired two shots from her deck gun and the Belgian Prince sank stern first at about 07:00 on August 1st, 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. Heckschuß, 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 Kapitänleutnant 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 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".

LOCAL VICTIMS

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.

Source : Maritime Quest

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.

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

Mr La Bas who made the application said that Mr Hassan who lived at 3 Park Road, Hebburn in County Durham was Master of the steamship Belgian Prince, which belonged to Messrs Furness, Withy and Co Ltd. The Belgian Prince sailed from Liverpool on 28 July 28 1917 bound for Newport News. On 3 August information was received by the London office of Messrs Furness Withy & Co from the Admiralty, through the War Risks Association, that the steamer Belgian Prince was sunk by torpedo in the Atlantic. There were three survivors and they had made declarations which were placed before the Court.

Counsel said he was only permitted by the Admiralty to read parts of the declarations. The facts he was allowed to state were that the ship was torpedoed by a submarine; that the submarine ordered the boats alongside, took certain of the crew on board, and took also the Master on board. The Master (Mr Hassan) was taken below. Subsequently information was received from the Admiralty that that submarine had been destroyed by a British warship in the North Sea on its way home on 12 August 1917. The obvious presumption was that the Master, if alive at all at that date, was still on board the submarine and that when the submarine was sunk all in it perished. Nothing had been heard of Mr Hassan since. The estate consisted of £794 and there was also a dwelling-house which was vested in him and his wife as joint tenants.

Mr Justice Coleridge granted leave to presume the death of Mr Hassan on or since 12 August 1917. The date of death recorded on the CWGC Debt of Honour is 31 July 1917 – the date on which the SS Belgian Prince sank.

One of the victims from the crew of the Belgian Prince was Apprentice Ralph Henderson Robinson (18), [remembered on C105.28]

Elizabeth died died in Belfast on the 21st June 1936, and is buried in Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.

Henry Hassan is remembered at Hebburn on H93.45, also at Cork in Ireland, and on our List of ship's crew.

Wilhelm Werner life story
Maritime Quest
The CWGC entry for Master Hassan