Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War ‘Q’ Ships D.S.M. group of five awarded to Chief Petty Officer W. E. Swanson, Royal Navy, for an action with an enemy submarine in April 1917

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (J.1599 P.O., Atlantic Ocean 22 Apl. 1917); 1914-15 Star (J.1599 L.S. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J.1599 P.O. R.N.); Naval L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue (J.1599 C.P.O., H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth) contact marks, otherwise very fine or better (5) £1000-1200

D.S.M. London Gazette 20 July 1917: ‘For services in action with enemy submarines.’

Petty Officer William Edwin Swanson was a member of the crew of the three-masted barquentine Gaelic, otherwise known as Brig 11, Gobo and Q-22, which was armed with two 12-pounders and, built in 1876, must have been one of the oldest ships to be used as a decoy during the war. On the evening of 22 April 1917 she sighted a submarine 5000 yards away, some 50 miles south of the Old Head of Kinsale. Hands were called down from aloft immediately and action stations sounded. The submarine kept its distance and fired shell after shell, of which six hit the Gaelic, killing two of the deckhands and wounding four, besides putting the port motor out of action and seriously damaging the rigging. After a while the sailing ship unmasked her guns and opened fire, prompting the submarine to alter course and fire a torpedo. Luckily Gaelic was able to manoeuvre sufficiently for this to pass harmlessly along the starboard side. After three misses, Gaelic’s forward gun obtained a hit on the submarine but then the firing pin broke and the gun was temporarily out of action. Firing continued from her starboard gun and the two adversaries traded shells for about 40 minutes when the submarine moved slowly away to the south-west, still firing. Gaelic had sustained a hit in her fresh-water tank which leaked through the deck onto the starboard motor, putting it out of action, rendering her completely without power on a windless evening. However, firing was maintained and another two hits were scored on the German submarine which eventually ceased firing, but not before Gaelic scored a final hit at a range of 4000 yards. Thus the action ended, each side having fired about 100 rounds and, although the submarine was not sunk, she was certainly badly knocked about. Gaelic set her sails despite the badly damaged rigging and made for the Old Head of Kinsale. At daybreak, when still 10 miles short of that landfall, she was picked up by H.M. sloop Bluebell and towed into Queenstown. Caelic’s skipper Lieutenant G. Irvine, R.N.R., was awarded the D.S.O. for this exploit, the award being announced in the same Gazette as Swanson’s D.S.M.