ss Lady Cory Wright 

Official Number:                                      123697                                                                      

Class:                                                     Mine Carrier                      

Pennant No:                                             

Laid down:                             
Builder:                                                  S P Austin and Son., Sunderland
Launched:                                              4 August 1906   
Into Service:                                           5 August 1914       
Out of service:                                        26 March 1918
Fate:                                                      Sunk by German submarine UC17

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

Background Data:

One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty in WW1 to augment the ships of the RFA

4 August 1906 launched by S.P. Austin & Son, Wear Dock, Sunderland as Yard Nr: 237 named  LADY CORY WRIGHT for Cory Colliers Ltd ( Wm Cory & Son Ltd, Managers)  London

September 1906 completed

3 March 1907 when on passage to Cardiff near the Gull light ship in collision with the French schooner Berthe Marie of Brest when she was on passage from St Marlo to London. The Berthe Marie suffered serious damage and was towed into Ramsgate Harbour in a sinking condition by a Deal boatman

30 November 1910 passed the Signal Station at Dover

8 May 1912 passed the Signal Station at Dover

31 October 1913 arrived at Tyne Dock, River Tyne

30 July 1914 at Hamburg, Germany discharging coal

3 August 1914 requisitioned by the Admiralty for service as a Mine Carrier

5 August 1914 Lieutenant Daniel Richardson RNR appointed in command and Engineer Lieutenant Michael J Hindmarch RNR appointed as Chief Engineer Officer

19 March 1916 sailed Gibraltar with RFA MANICA and Royal Naval escort

1 March 1918 to 5 March 1918 at Devonport loaded the following cargo: –

Hold 1 –

200 ‘S’ Mines – Mark IV

132 Service Mines

400 Depth Charges – Type D

Hold 2 –

868 Service Mines

Hold 3 –

1,000 Mines BE

Hold 4 –

100 cases of primer for BE mines

100 cases of primers for Service mines

210 boxes of detonators for S mines

40 cases of primers for depth charges

21 cases for detonators for S mines

26 March 1918 while sailing from Plymouth to Malta with a cargo of mines she was torpedoed by the German Submarine UC17 (Oberleutnant zur See Eric Stephan) 14 miles SSW of the Lizard at 49°45N, 05º20W. The ship sank. All of the 41 members of the crew on the ship lost their lives. The crew was a mixed RFA/RN one. Those who were members of the RFA are included in the Roll of Honour for 1918.

Part of the Rothes, Morayshire War memorial

Others are remembered with pride on the Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth Naval Memorials and, remembering Shipwright G E R Hoare also the Anthony War Memorial, near Torpoint