In Embleton (Spitalford) Cemetery is the Commonwealth War Grave of:

Fourth Engineer
S. Inouye
S.S. Northumbria
9th January 1919.

David Thompson has submitted the following:-

Sadas Inouye was born in Japan about 1889. His last known address was 7 Victoria Place, Barking Road, London.

SS Northumbria was a ship of 4,215 grt built in 1906 and owned by Westminster Steamship Co. Ltd. of London.

While on a voyage from Baltimore to Sunderland with a cargo of wheat she struck two mines in the North Sea one mile off Redcar at 03:00hrs on 9 January 1919.

The ship’s lifeboats had not been fitted with rowlocks.  Most were swamped but one managed to get away.  After drifting for a week in stormy weather the sole surviving lifeboat washed up at Newton by the Sea, Northumberland.  All but two of the ten men who managed to get into the lifeboat were dead.  In all, thirty-six men lost their lives.

The Irish Independent 11/01/1919 reports:-
LONDON STEAMER MINED. The ss. Northumbria (London), bound from New York, with wheat, was sunk by two mines in the North Sea off Middlesbro’ on Thurs. night, and it is feared that the greater part of her crew of between 50 and 60 have been lost. A lifeboat washed ashore at Newtown contained only 2 survivors and 15 dead bodies. Nine more bodies were washed ashore on the north Northumbrian coast. There is no trace of the three other boats, of the vessel which are being searched for by lifeboats. The survivors’ names are M. Patterson, Steward and M. Boyd seaman.

The owners of the Westminster Shipping Co., lost 3?? of their five vessel in the war.

Five other crew members are buried at Embleton.

Sadas Inouye is remembered in our List of Ships’ Crews.