This is a wonderful article from our family member Duncan Ashcroft who gives an insight into the Pender side of the family. Great photos!
The 19th August 1915 marks 100 years ago that my great Grandad Tom Pender survived being caught up by German U Boat 27 in the Irish Sea while returning from New Orleans as a fireman stoker on merchant vessel Nicosian. The ship was transporting hundreds of mules to Europe to be used by the Allies in the trenches.
Tom Pender you may recall has a big connection with the Murphy clan - he was brother to Mary Pender who married Michael Murphy (big Da) and brother to Robert who married Kate Murphy. “It's sobering to think my family’s very existence is owed to Tom surviving being cast adrift on a lifeboat while torpedo and artillery shells slammed all around and the Germans were wiped out by a disguised Royal Navy ship in an incident that caused an international diplomatic spat. 'The Baralong Incident' (look it up on Google/Wikipedia) has been described in a couple of books as a war crime unparalleled in the history of the Royal Navy. The books have the dramatic titles 'Slaughter at Sea - The Truth Behind a Naval War Crime' by Alan Coles and 'Outrage at Sea - Naval Atrocities in the First World War' by Tony Bridgland. But let's not forget the context of it being just a few months after The Lusitania had been sunk with the many hundreds of women and children killed, and many crew from Liverpool. In our family history, we knew Tom was involved in a horrific incident at sea during WW1, but speaking recently to my Father Wally and Auntie Sue they say that he never wanted to talk about it because he was 'sworn to secrecy'. He wasn't lying there! The merchant vessel Nicosian was re-named by the Government and the crew were meant to hand in their discharge record books. Tom didn't, and it's thanks to this maverick lack of action that I could trace the war ordeal he didn't wish to speak about. My gran Maggie Pender (Ashcroft) tried a number of times to get to the bottom of the story choosing moments when much drink had passed Tom's lips, but no matter how intoxicated, he always used the same deflection technique, quoting word perfectly every verse of Edgar Allan Poe's poem 'The Raven'.
So on Wednesday 19th August 2015 I too will have a drink and celebrate Tom's survival, and might try reading 'The Raven' too.
Thanks Duncan - a poweful article and makes us all proud of the Murphy/Pender Union.
God Bless.
x
Book about the Baralong Incident
Merchant vessel The Nicosian (from 'Slaughter at Sea' book
Nicosian entry in Tom's mechant navy record book
Tom with his mercantile marine medal for voyages through WW1 war zones
U-boat 27 which apprehended the Nicosian merchant ship and so ended it’s days sank by the Baralong.
U-41 destroyed in a cloud of smoke (immediate top eft of Baralong ship) from 'Slaughter at Sea'
Young Tom's earlier merchant navy photo
