Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A most interesting Great War D.S.C. group of four awarded to Captain James Blakie, Merchant Navy, who, after ramming the U-65, was captured by the Germans and imprisoned for the remainder of the war

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., the reverse hallmarked 1919; Transport 1899-1902, 1 clasp, S. Africa 1899-1902 (F. Blakie); British and Mercantile Marine War Medals (James Blaikie) extremely fine (4) £1800-2200

D.S.C. London Gazette 24 May 1919: ‘In recognition of zeal and devotion to duty in carrying on the trade of the country during the war.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 31 May 1916: ‘For good services whilst employed on transport duties at the Dardanelles:- James Blaikie, Captain, H.M.T. Caledonia.’

James Blaikie was born in Aberdeen in 1861, and joined the Anchor shipping line in 1884, aged 23. He rose rapidly in the service and within six years had become Master and took charge of eight of the companies vessels. During the Boer War he was Chief Officer of the City of Rome on voyages to and from South Africa.

At the outbreak of the war in 1914, Blaikie’s vessel, the Caledonia of 9223 tons, was requisitioned by the British Government. Her passenger accommodation in peace-time was for 1,450 persons, but her carrying capacity for war purposes was assessed at 3,074 troops and 212 horses. For more than two years she served in various parts of the world but met her fate in the Mediterranean on December 5th, 1916. When 125 miles east of Malta she encountered the German submarine U-65, which torpedoed her without warning. Captain Blaikie tried to ram the submarine, and struck her, but the impact was insufficient to sink her. The Caledonia sank within three quarters of an hour.

Captain Blaikie was taken prisoner by the Germans, and his fate would have undoubtedly been that of Captain Fryatt of the City of Brussels had not the British Government let it be known to the German authorities, through the U.S. Ambassador at Berlin, that a German officer prisoner would be shot in retribution should Captain Blaikie be executed. This firm attitude impressed the Germans and Blaikie was sent to an officers’ camp at Friedberg.

Some time later Captain Blaikie was able to give some account of his experiences on board the German submarine, a large vessel, fitted with four torpedo tubes and carrying eight torpedoes, besides mounting a gun on the fore-deck. Though the submarine was not destroyed when the Caledonia ran over her, she was flattened out on the port side forward for about 130 feet to a depth of eighteen inches. The stem had been bent to starboard, the periscope doubled up, and the wireless gear on the port side carried away. These injuries resulted in leakage around some of the plates, and after the submarine had gained the surface she was unable to submerge. Temporary repairs were at once undertaken, and on the following day an experimental dive was tried, but the boat threatened to get out of hand, and the commander decided that his only course was to make his way back to Cattaro on the surface. About three hours before reaching the port two Austrian torpedo boat destroyers came out to act as escort. Though the Caledonia gad only succeeded in crippling the U-65, the damage to the submarine was sufficiently serious to entail repairs which were not completed until the following April. After his repatriation in 1918, Captain Blaikie was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions against the U-65.

Captain Blaikie was in command of the California when he retired in 1925. He settled down in Greenock where he died early in January 1930.

The Transport Medal is correctly named with initial ‘J’ not ‘F