Auction Catalogue

22 September 2000

Starting at 12:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Download Images

Lot

№ 792

.

22 September 2000

Hammer Price:
£1,450

A superb Great War D.S.M. group of five awarded to Gunner S. W. Brattle, Royal Marine Artillery Reserve, for the epic five-hour engagement between the Defensively Armed Merchant Ship S.S. Durango and two German submarines in August 1917

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (B.1227. Gunr., R.M.A.R. Atlantic Ocean 26 Aug. 1917); 1914-15 Star (R.M.A. 9262 Gr.); british War and Victory Medals (R.M.A. 9262 Gr.); Naval L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. 1st issue (9262 Gunner, R.M.A.) together with parchment Certificate of Service, portrait photograph and ten other original documents, light contact marks, otherwise good very fine (5) £700-900

D.S.M. London Gazette 22 February 1918: ‘For services in action with enemy submarines.’

The following extract is taken from the history of the Royal Marine Artillery: ‘The other ship mentioned as having been sunk by gunfire was the
Durango, which left Lough Swilly on August 25th 1917, bound for Halifax with a general cargo. Next morning at 10.20, the ship being then twenty miles west of Tory Island, the Marine gunner on watch heard gunfire, and saw a shell pitch a quarter of a mile from the ship. A submarine, invisible in a bank of mist, was firing at them from the port side. Soon afterwards they were struck on the starboard side, and saw a submarine on the quarter at about seven thousand yards. The gun’s crew closed up, opened fire with an ‘over’ at eight thousand yards, worked a bracket, and in four or five rounds got so near to the submarine that she dived. Then both submarines appeared, one on either quarter, and opened a brisk fire which fell short. The ship’s gun again began to make good shooting, when the crew threw over smoke boxes and obscured both submarines. To get over this difficulty, one of the Marines went to the masthead and spotted over the smoke screen.

The range was increasing, but at twelve thousand yards a hit was scored on one of the submarines: “which appeared to hit between the forepart of the conning tower and the periscope. There also appeared a slight splash on the water, and then a great upheaval of steam or smoke, which brought the fore and after parts of the larger submarine clear of the water, her centre breaking. Two more rounds were fired at twelve thousand at the second submarine, which was of a smaller type, as she appeared to be crossing to pick up survivors. On our nineteenth or twentieth round a hit was observed on the top forepart of the conning tower. Firing again ceased, as smoke boxes were used, again obscuring the submarine from the gunlayer, trainer, and spotter. The submarine also ceased fire ... Observing was impossible, as smoke boxes were being used most lavishly by the ship’s crew.” Some forty minutes later the submarine appeared again on the quarter and opened a rapid fire. The ship zigzagged, her crew continued to throw over smoke boxes, and the gun’s crew continued to fire a shot now and then when the smoke allowed them a glimse of the target. This went on until the ship was sinking from a bad hole at the water-line aft, and the ammunition, seventy-five rounds, was all spent. The submarine made a wireless signal to them to take to the boats before they were destroyed; and when the crew were in the boats, and had pulled some six hundred yards from the ship, she came close and shelled the ship till she sank. But she did not molest the boats. This ship had a bombardier, and two gunners R.M.A., who appear to have made much better shooting than the submarines, for, till after the boats had left her, the ship was only hit four times. It is quite evident that the Marines did not admire the promiscuous use of smoke boxes as an aide to good shooting.’

Their fight was ended but they had kept the U-boats at bay for five hours and ten minutes. Even Captain Hans Rose, commander of one of the submarines engaged, the U-53, could not but admire the courage of the master of the
Durango: ‘She put up a fine fight and her shooting was deadly,’ he remarked, years after the war. When the crew took to the boats they were 35 miles from Barra Island in the Hebrides, and they were not picked up until 11.30 next morning, when two trawlers took them on board and landed them at Oban. The defence of the Durango was in fact carried out with all the dash and skill of a naval action, and the Admiralty recognized the fine work by awarding all concerned a very handsome cheque, as did also the Merchant Ships Gratuities Committee and Lloyd’s of London. Gunner Brattle’s share of these three awards amounted to the princely sum of £35/19/3d, certainly a good and rewarding day’s work.