Captain William Shewan

He seems to have been born to Alexander Shewan and Ann Young, born Brakes of Scatness, Dunrossness, Shetland, 10 Jan 1876.
It looks like he married an Elizabeth Reed in Sunderland, and had the following children:-
- William Alexander b. 1906, 

- Annie Elizabeth b. 1909, 

- Margery Catherine b. 1911, 

- Douglas b. 1913, and 

- Gladys b. 1916

.
Captain Shewan  was one of the victims of the German raider the Seeadler, and is noted in the book "The Sea Devil: The Adventures of Count Felix von Luckner, the Last Raider",  by Sam Jefferson, but misidentified as a Gael.

Shetland Times 20 April 1918 page 4

SHETLAND OFFICER LOST
CAPTAIN SHEWAN, DUNROSSNESS.

Widespread regret was felt in the South Dunrossness district when news was received of the death of Captain William S. Shewan, through his vessel being mined in the English Channel whilst returning from a foreign voyage. The vessel was lost on the morning of Good Friday. Only two apprentices were saved.

Captain Shewan was 42 years of age, and was born at Scatness, where his mother and several of his brothers and sisters still reside. He left Scatness when 17 years of age, and has followed the sea ever since. 

He early got his master’s certificate, and for many years has been in the employment of the Westoll Line, Sunderland. Earlier in the war, a vessel of which Captain Shewan was in charge, was sunk by a German raider, and the Captain and his crew after being confined on the German vessel for 72 days and undergoing many adventures, was landed at Rio de Janeiro.

Last year, Captain Shewan visited Shetland for three weeks in June. He was an extremely popular officer, and his loss is much regretted by his employers and a wide circle of friends. He leaves a widow and five children.

(Courtesy of  :- Angus Johnson of shetland-archives.org.uk )

Canadian Database of Sunderland Ships

An unexpected Christmas present for the project has been contact from Peter Searle of Toronto, Canada. Peter runs an information rich website on Sunderland ships which includes a reference to the T R Thompson. The index to the database can be accessed from HERE. From the index you can either navigate to Page 55 "1st of 2 pages re Short Brothers" or go straight on Page 55 by clicking HERE, Section / Paragraph 25 of that page refers to the T R Thompson.

Peter has done a good job trawling for a huge amount of information on Sunderland ships and his linked references are very useful. I was pleased to see the T R Thompson ship's plans on his site, I recognise the distinctively scanned image, it appears on several other websites which is good as it shows the T R Thompson project blog is used by many enthusiasts, which is exactly what our project brief to the NAS said. Success!

From Peter's website there is a link to the Miramar site which amongst a treasure trove of other information gives a list of Short Brothers ships. Click HERE to view that list.

PADI Cover the Wreck of the T R Thompson

Rather belatedly I noticed that we haven't put a link to the PADI website coverage of the Meridian Divers T R Thompson Project!

So, for the record HERE it is!

Wreck of the T R Thompson in DIVER Mgazine

The Meridian Divers' wreck project on the T R Thompson is mentioned extensively in an article by John LIDDIARD entilted "Newhaven New Identities" that is published in the DIVER Magazine (January 2010 edition, pages 72 to 76).

The article covers several wrecks and in particular the T R Thompson , the subject of the Meridian Divers NAS Wreck Project. John's article has some new pictures and extends our knowledge of the wreck , it really helps to have an expert on the team! We hope that the national publicity will draw attention to the T R Thompson and that it will lead to even more people contacting us with new information . The project blog is a treasure chest of information on the wreck and we hope it will be a benefit to divers with an interest in the wreck's history

If you are visiting this blog from the DIVER magazine article , don't forget that the "Lables for Quick Reference" on the right hand side panel of the screen are a good way of navigating around the site, and we would be really pleased if you would like to add a comment or provide some new information. All comments are moderated and no personal information is published without prior agreement,

T R Thompson on the Wreck Site

Details on the T R Thompson are shown on the WRECK site , click HERE

Mr Alexander A New TRT Mystery ?

I have been contacted by Robin who has been conducting some family tree research . As a part of his research into a man called Elijah Alexander, born 29th March 1882 in Lambourn, Berkshire, he checked a substantial number of death records which led him to discover a record for an Alexander (with no forename), whose death certificate shows that this Mr Alexander was a Fireman on the HMS T.G.Thompson, and died on the 29th March 1918 when the ship was sunk off Beachy Head following it being struck by a torpedo.

The certificate (copy shown above) is quite difficult to read. It has been interpretated as follows:-

No. 464.
When & Where died: Twenty ninth March 1918 English Channel off Beachy Head.
Name and Surname: -------------- Alexander.
Sex: Male.
Age: 34 Years.
Occupation: Fireman on HMS "T.G.Thompson" of Sunderland.
Cause of Death: From immersion in the sea his vessel being sunk by a torpedo.
Informant: Certificate received from Sydenham Payn, Coroner for Dover and its Liberates. Inquest held : Thirtieth March 1918.
When Registered: Second April 1918.
Registrar: Walter E Wright.

The circumstances, the date, the location all seem to point to this death being linked to the sinking of the SS T R Thompson, however, neither the crew list for the journey from South Wales to Beni Saf in Algeria (the trip before it's fateful last journey back the UK) , nor the casualty list from the Commonwealth war Graves Commission show any member of the crew with the surname of Alexander and the only person with that name as a forename was much younger.

It would seem a new mystery has been uncovered, who was this Mr Alexander and why does his name not appear on any of the crew or casualty lists we have found so far. We will need to do some more research.

(Click on Image above to enlarge)

John Liddiard's T R Thompson Wreck Photos

Professional underwater photographer & diving journalist John Liddiard , dived the wreck of the T R Thompson on 26th July 2009. His photos can be viewed on his webiste :- http://www.jlunderwater.co.uk/ .

To look specifically at his shots of of the T R Thompson wreck , click www.jlunderwater.co.uk/piclib/goto.htm?pic=09_07_26_2338 . The TRT photos are numbered 2338 (and onwards). All of John's photos have captions that identify the wreck feature being photographed.

We hope that in due course , possibly after more dives on this wreck, John will be able to write-up a "Wreck Tour" in the DIVER Magazine.

Many thanks John , and well done on the identification work.

T.R. Thompson Look-a-Like ?

A previous post by Tad (9th Aptil 2008) mentions the Westburn as a T R Thompson look-a-like , and well it might be , but it's been pointed out to me by esteemed Wreck Tour author (for DIVER magazine) John Liddiard, that many ships of the era may have looked similar bit not in fact been sister ships. Fair point , worth some more research Tad!

DIVER magazine has a write-up on a dive on the Westburn by John, you can read his account on the following LINK.

You can check Tad's posting HERE.

Nautical Archaeolgy Society Honours Project

I am delighted to announce the Meridian Divers Adopt-A-Wreck Project on the Steamship T R Thompson has been awarded the "Runner Up" certificate in the annual national NAS award. The award was announced at the NAS Annual Conference held in the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth . For full details and photographs visit the link below:-

http://meridiandivers.blogspot.com/2008/11/nas-honours-meridian-divers-t-r.html

Meridian Divers were presented with an engraved wine decanter as a sign of the NAS recognition.

Thompson One Name Study (2)

The following comment (on a post of the same title) is reproduced here for convenience:-

Thank you very much for publishing this material - you have things in the blog that I wasn't aware of, although I think I was aware of the ship that carried his name. It is good to know that it is not yet forgotten. Best regards Michael Thompson mthompson@btinternet.com

Johannes LOHS ~ Grave

An early post on this blog (16/5/2004) states LOHS is buried Vlissingen, Holland. Some further enquiry shows that Vlissingen was NOT his FINAL resting place.

I recently received the following information from Mr A Meerman, the Town Archivist for Vlissingen:-

In 1918 Johannes LOHS, in German records registered as Johannes Oswald LOSZ, commander of the German submarine U.B. 57, was buried inVlissingen in 1918.

From the same submarine were buried in Vlissingen, Julius Eduard Hans Luis SCHEELE and Friedrich Karl Wilhelm BLUMENBERG.

During the Second World War the Germans moved their graves to the new cemetary in Vlissingen to be joined with the German soldiers who died during WW2.

In 1949 all German soldiers, buried in Vlissingen were moved to the German Cemetary in Ysselsteyn in the Dutch province of Limburg. The address is: German War Cemetary, Ysselsteyn , Timmermannsweg , AM Ysselsteyn.

I am indebted to Mr Meerman for this information.

Click Here to view general images of the German War Cemetary

The military cemetery can be found in Ysselsteyn, Netherlands, in the Province of Limburg close to the German border. The cemetery is the only German military cemetery in the whole Netherlands. 85 killed soldiers from the First World War and almost 32.000 from the Second World War are buried here on a territory of 28 hectares. For each killed soldier one cross has been placed. The data (name, grave location, dates of birth and death, rank - if known) have been written on the crosses with white colour.

My command of the German language is negligible but the German War Graves Commission has a record of LOHS which states :-

Johannes Lohs ruht auf der Kriegsgräberstätte in Ysselsteyn (Niederlande) .Endgrablage: Block C Grab 70

I take this to mean his memorial is in Block C , Grave 70 of the Ysselteyn Cemetary.

Click here to view the record (in German)

Adopt-A-Wreck Award Applicants

The T R Thompson Project Team are delighted to announce that they have (at long last) submitted an application to the Adopt-A-Wreck Award scheme operated by the Nautical Archaelogy Society.

A multi-media computer based application (Four Copies) has been sent to the NAS HQ at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth ( where a number of the Team completed their NAS training) . The application represensts a lot of work conducted over the last four years. The closing date for applications is 1 September . Winners & Runners-Up will be presented Awards at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on Saturday 8th November.

Whatever the judges decision the project has provided us all with an immense interest which has not only raised the profile of the Wreck and it's history but also acted as a catalyst for divers to go diving , to go to new places, meet new people and in some cases add highly memorable moments to their and our lives.

A Summary of the Loss of UB57

A summary from Global Underwater Explorers :-

After sinking the City of Brisbane, the UB-57 headed for home in Zeebrugge, Belgium. During the journey, having first checked that the horizon was clear, she started to surface to run on diesels and recharge her batteries. Upon surfacing, Lohs opened the hatch to find himself almost directly beneath a low-flying British airship. A crash dive was immediately ordered, but they had been spotted and the airship started dropping bombs. Fortunately, they evaded sinking and continued their journey home.

On 14 August 1918, Lohs radioed to base that he had sunk 15,000 tons of shipping and was returning to base. That night he started through the narrow and swept straits of Dover. Nothing more was ever heard from him but it is likely that he hit a mine near Zeebrugge. Lohs' body and those of some of his crew were washed up near the mouth of the river Scheldt about one week later. Lohs was one of the Imperial Navy's war heroes, having sunk an impressive seventy-six merchant ships and one warship, a total of 148,677 tons. During World War II, one of the U-boat flotillas operating from France was named in his honour.

Johannes Lohs ~ UB57 Commander

Johannes Lohs has his Wikipedia Page ( with much shared data that is also on u.boat.net) .

Click here to visit the Wikipedia Page.

Uboat.net

The uboat.net website now carries a section that relates to World War I, UB57 and the T R Thompson feature in their records.

View their WWI content via :- http://www.uboat.net/wwi/ or

Click here to visit the u.boat.net page on the T R Thompson

Leslie Francis Jack ~ Memorial

In Loving Memory Andrew Jack , Master Mariner , drowned in the wreck of S.S. George Royle on Sheringham Shoal. Jan 18 1915 , Aged 45 Years. Faithful to Duty.

Leslie Francis son of the above drowned off Beachy Head through ????????????? Aged 16 Years.

[From Mr Norman Jack]

TR Thompson ~ Ships Plans

TR Thompson ~ Ships Plans

Click to Enlarge

[Info from Alf Rodenby]

The Ship's Master ~ William Shewan

A hand written record states the Master was William Shewan late of the "Gladas Royal" which was also sunk. The "Gladas Royal" was a similar / identical ship to the TR Thompson.

Photograph of a painting of the "Gladas Royal"
[Info from Alf Rodenby]

Survivors Employments

A hand written note on a copy of the ships plans says " This Steamer was sunk by a mine or torpedo off Beachy Head on 29th March 1918. All hands were lost with the exception of an Apprentice, Sailor & Gunner who were picked up after several hours in the water"

Another (printed) record states "Torpedoed and sunbk by the German Submarine UB57 at 3.45am three survivors were picked-up who were landed in Dover, the master being amongst those lost. Wreck lies in averahe depth of 30m on even keel oroientated E/W with the bow to the E. The Stern is intact but gun has fallen into the hull, her superstructure collapsed.

[Info from Alf Rodenby]

This ties in with the post of June 28th 2008 "TRT Survivors" (below) which names the survivors as :-

Apprentice - Alex Hardy Finnie b.1900 Aberdeen
Sailor - H Price (ABS)
Gunner - John Daly 27 years (b.1891?) of 58 Chapel Street, Newry

Ship Specifications ~ All that for £32,000!

T R Thompson: Port No 10, Date 3/5/1897, Built Sunderland. Builder Short Brothers of Pallion, Yard No 258, Launched 5/3/1897.

A steel screw steamer , one deck, two mast , schooner rigged, Elliptical sterned Clincher built. Fitted with a Billet head, L360', B47.2' D 24.6' Tonnage underdeck 3306.22, Poop 88.42, Forcastle 47.45, Bridge space Port 19.67, Starborad side House 22.49, lockers two on bridge space 2.62, chart house 10.31, Excess to Hatchway 41.00, Gross Tonnage 3538.18, deductions per contra 1277.12, Registered tonnage 2261.06, Engine builder John Dickinson of Sunderland. Tri Compound Dia of Cylinders 24.5,40, 66, 45 HP 300 WHP 1HP 1500 Two Boiles 1601PS. Length of engine room 47.7' Purchase Price £32,000, named after the companys agent and large shareholder in Westolls Ships. Owner James Westoll of 13 john Street, Sunderland. Designated Managing Owner . Advice under his own hand, received 3/6/97