The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals (Part 1)

A fine D.S.M. and Bar group awarded to Leading Seaman P. Ross, Royal Navy, his first award for the destruction of a U-boat and his Bar for a legendary encounter with a submarine in which his Skipper was killed and posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross

Five: Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar dated ‘15 August 1917’ (184463 P. Ross, Lg. Sea., North Sea 1 Feb. 1917); 1914-15 Star (A.B. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (L.S. R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., Admiral’s bust (A.B. H.M.S. Excellent) good very fine (5)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 23 March 1917 “The following awards have been approved.”

Bar to D.S.M. London Gazette 2 November 1917 “The following awards have been approved.”

On 1 February 1917, the day the German Imperial Navy declared virtually unrestricted submarine warfare, Leading Seaman Percival Ross was serving off Lowestoft as Gunlayer in the nine-man crew of H.M. Special Service Smack I’ll Try. To outward appearances the seventy-foot I’ll Try was engaged in fishing in company with another armed smack Boy Alfred when two U-boats appeared. One of the German commanders hailed the Boy Alfred from his conning tower and ordered Skipper Wharton and his crew to abandon ship as he intended to torpedo her. Wharton went up into the bows, feigning deafness, and asked the U-boat commander to repeat his instructions. All the while Boy Alfred was gently swinging by means of her specially fitted motor into a position abeam of the U-boat from which she could get off a shot from her concealed 12-pdr 12cwt gun. As Wharton was going through the motions of abandoning ship, he glanced at two fishermen standing in front of the gun and then at the U-boat, and judging his moment, roared “Let go, Buffer!” The two men stood aside from the muzzle and a shell tore away towards the U-boat. Before the Germans could recover, a second shot followed and struck the conning tower. The U-boat heeled over, swung back and went down by the head. The U-boat’s consort, east of the I’ll Try, crash dived.

For the next two hours the second U-boat, with only her periscope showing at intervals, and I’ll Try played a deadly game of hide and seek. Ultimately, Skipper Thomas Crisp of the I’ll Try decided to sail east hoping the U-boat would think they were retiring. As hoped the U-boat continued to stalk the smack and when about 200 yards off I’ll Try’s starboard bow, it fired a torpedo and broke surface, showing her conning tower and the whole of her upper casing. Crisp, using his secret motor, put the helm hard over so as to dodge the torpedo by two or three feet and also bring the smack broadside on to the U-boat. Leading Seaman Ross at the smack’s 13 pdr got on target and fired. The shell crashed into the base of the conning tower and exploded blowing pieces off the submarine in all directions. The U-boat heeled over under the shock, swung back again and dipped by the bow. The stern came up, the propeller spinning high out of the water, and she plunged into the deep. The I’ll Try closed over the spot, but all that could be seen were large pockets of air coming up from the bottom and an increasing spread of oil. The action brought Crisp a D.S.C. and thirty-six year-old Ross his first D.S.M.

Percival Ross was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, in 1880, and had joined the Boy Training Establishment H.M.S. Impregnable as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1895. He subsequently served aboard a great variety of ships and nearly a year before the outbreak of war, had received his L.S. & G.C. medal whilst on the books of EXCELLENT. He transferred to H.M.S. Dryad, an old torpedo boat based at Lowestoft for minesweeping duties, in October 1913, and was advanced to Leading Seaman on 1 August 1916. In December 1916 he was transferred to the shore base HALCYON II for special duties aboard ‘Q’ ships and had thus found himself on board the I’LL TRY as its Gun Layer.

Following the encounter of 1 February 1917 the I’ll Try, (formerly the G&E, the name under which she had vanquished UB.4 in August 1915) resumed her vigil under the new name Nelson. Whilst off Jim Howe Bank in the North Sea at about 2:45 pm on Wednesday, 15 August 1917, Nelson was fishing, with her trawl shot, about a mile apart from the armed smack Ethel and Millie, when Skipper Crisp having come on deck for a breath of air, sighted a U-boat coming out of the mist three or four miles away to the northwest. As Crisp roared “Sub Oh! Clear for action!”, the U-boat’s first shell fell about a hundred yards off the port bow, and as Ross manned the gun, a second German shell fell close by. Crisp put the Nelson on another tack to see if it would disturb the enemy’s aim but the German gunner was on target and the third shell penetrated the bow just below the waterline and Nelson began to sink. Crisp ordered a Seaman to break out the White Ensign, and Ross to open fire. The gun was raised to the extreme of its elevation, but still the 13-pounder was hopelessly outranged. The seventh German shell hit Crisp himself, shattering both his legs at the hips and partially disembowelling him, before smashing through the deck and passing out through the ship’s side. Gunlayer Ross, and the Skipper’s son, Tom Crisp, rushed over to him and found that in spite of his frightful wounds he was still concious. He knew he was dying and told his son to send off a message which Ross took down: ‘Nelson being attacked by submarine. Skipper killed. Send assistance at once.’ The message was attached the smack’s carrier pigeon and sent on its way.

‘After that’, Tom Crisp later told the Court of Inquiry, which Ross also attended, ‘we were making water fast and had used nearly all our ammunition, only having five rounds left, and we had to leave the ship because she was sinking. I asked the skipper if we should take him in the boat with us, but he said: “No, throw me overboard.” This I would not do, and so we had to leave him on board the smack as he was in too bad condition to be moved. We got into the small boat, the smack sinking by the head about quarter of an hour afterwards. All the shots were directed on the Nelson until she sank. After our ship sank the submarine directed the fire on the Ethel & Millie. When we were in the small boat, the skipper of the Ethel & Millie beckonned us to go on board, but we would not go. We kept rowing in to the south east and we saw one direct hit on the Ethel & Millie and the crew abandon her. Then the submarine worked round to the south and came to the southward of us. When the submarine was working round to the south we were working round in the opposite direction. The submarine left off firing at the Ethel & Millie and picked up her crew. We saw the submarine’s crew line the Ethel & Millie’s crew up on the submarine’s fore deck. They tied the smack’s boat up astern of the submarine and steamed to the smack. The wind being from the south south east was blowing the Ethel & Millie into the north north west until she was nearly out of sight. Just before the Ethel & Millie got out of sight a haze fell over her and we rowed into the southeast as hard as we could, the opposite direction in which the smack and the submarine were going. It was drawing in dusk then. After dark came on we kept pulling in to the southwest. Next morning at day break we saw a buoy ahead of us and the wind freshened and blew us out to the eastward again. We still kept pulling to the westward. On Thursday we saw the Dryad. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon. He came in sight of us and then directed his course to the northwest and went out of sight. After the Dryad came a group of minesweepers. They got ahead of us and turned and went away in a southwesterly direction. All the time we had a large piece of oilskin and a pair of trousers tied on two oars to attract attention, but they did not see us. As night came the weather became finer, and we kept pulling into westward all night as hard as we could. At daybreak we saw some smacks straight ahead of us, but there was too much wind from westward, and we could not get to them, and they went away from us in a southwesterly direction. One of the chaps sighted a buoy which turned out to be the Jim Howe Bank buoy. We pulled up to it and made fast to it just as the tide turned about 10.30 a.m. on the Friday. The wind was blowing hard. About 1.45 p.m. the Dryad found us.’

Following the Court of Inquiry at Lowestoft, Skipper Crisp was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, Tom Crisp the D.S.M., and Ross a Bar the D.S.M. he already posessed. Ross joined the Victory in September 1917 and was pensioned from Courageous in July 1920. From March 1921 he served in the Royal Fleet Reserve until discharged on reaching the age limit of fifty years in July 1930, his total service at that time amounting to thirty-five years. The group is sold with his original parchment Certificate of Service. Ross was one of only 67 men to win the D.S.M. and Bar during the Great War.