The maker's plate was reportedly recovered in September 2012. The character and extent of archaeological remains associated with the loss of this vessel is presently unknown.
Event and Historical Information:
The PATIA was a steel-hulled steamship built in 1913 by Workman, Clark & Co Ltd and registered in Belfast (9 in 1913). Technical and configuration specifications are given as 6104gt, 3337nt; 417ft 2in length x 53ft 3in breadth x 30ft 1in height; twin screw propulsion powered by 5 steam boilers linked to two triple expansion engine producing 594 horsepower (both boilers and engine built by Workman Clark); 2 decks and two partial decks; poop deck 46ft; forecastle 48ft; two masts, schooner rigged, round stern, clencher built, steel framework, five bulkheads, thirteen water ballast capacity 1130 tons; official number 132034. The vessel's first owners were Elders & Fyffes Ltd. The company had been formed in 1901-2 as a subsidiary of Elder Dempster Ltd of Liverpool in association with the London fruit distributer Fyffe, Hudson & Co. (contibuting the other part of the company's title). The original four second-hand ships were refitted with special cooling systems to preserve the fruit during transport. The PATIA was a new vessel added to the fleet - already dubbed the 'banana boats' - and could carry 150,000 stems of bananas in refrigerated conditions. The ship could also carry 50 passengers in relative comfort. The Elder & Fyffes fleet numbered 18 vessels at the outbreak of the Great War. The majority of which were hired by the Admiralty, with four being lost to enemy action. The PATIA's was converted to an armed merchant cruiser with 6 x 6in guns and 2 x 3 pounder guns. The normal crew was 28 officers and 200 crewmen. The ship's military service began on 21 November 1914 and it was one of 33 merchant vessels which served with the 10th Cruiser Sqaudron on northern patrol. The surviving logs have been transcribed by the volunteers for the 'Old Weather' project (i.e. to recover weather, ocean, and sea-ice observations. These transcriptions reveal convoy escort duties and the interception of merchant ships which might be carrying contraband goods to Germany and her allies (i.e. breaking the British blockade). The PATIA stopped some 565 vessels between December 1914 and April 1918. Her operating area was primarily between the Clyde and northwest towards the Faroe islands and Iceland. The final year of entries reveal that the PATIA was detailed to escort home a convoy from Dakar on 8 February 1918. During this assignment, the PATIA's defensive duties included steam ahead of the convoy, zig-zagging as it went, or steaming around the perimeter of slower moving convoy as a deterrent. The convoy reached the Cornish coast on 23 February and split into those contining north and those entering the Bristol Channel. The PATIA continued as fast as possible towards Barry, trailing anti-mine parvanes to port and starboard, and acquiring an escort in HMS VIOLA. A day later, the ship picked up a pilot for Barry and is then noted as being at Avonmouth for around a month being dry-docked and repainted. On 13 June 1918, the PATIA was under the command of captain W G Howard when it was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UC-49. The u-boat was commanded by Oblt. Hans Kukenthal. Contemporary accounts give the attack location as 25 miles west of Hartland Point or 50? 53'N, 5? 41'W. The casualties recorded on the Portsmouth and Plymouth Naval memorials are as follows: Leslie V Atwell, Able Seaman, age 29; Hugh Blair, Ship's Cook, age 31,Mercantile Marine Reserve; Harold Bowren, Assistant Steward, Mercantile Marine Reserve, age 31; William R Brown, Able Seaman, age 29; Percy Cook, Ordinary Seaman, RNVR, age 30; Arthur Edwards, Able Seaman, age 29; Francis H Getwood, Wine Steward, Mercantile Marine Reserve, age 21; Joseph Matthews, Assistant Steward, Mercantile Marine Rerserve, age 31; John E Macdonald, Steward, Mercantile Marine Reserve, age 31; William H B Roe, Signalman, RNVR, age 30; Claude L Stewart, Engineer, Commander, RNR, age 31; and James H Taylor, Assistant Steward, Mercantile Marine Reserve, age 31.
Sources include:
The Cambria Daily Leader, 19 June 1918, p.3
Colledge, JJ, 1986, Ships of the Royal Navy, p.169
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Gwyliedydd Newydd, 26 June 1918, p.5
HMAV Patia, Wreck Site EU
HMSO, 1988, British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914-18 and 1939-45, p.7
HMS PATIA - December 1914 to April 1918, 10th CS Northern PAtrol, Central Atlantic Convoys, Royal Navy Log Books of the World War 1 Era, naval-history.net
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 April - 30 June 1918, p.10 (i)
Old Weather Project, amongst the many log pages digitised are 23 February 1918 and 30 April 1918
Patia, uboat.net
Port of Belfast Shipping Register 1911-1918, CUS/1/6/1/12, 9 in 1913
Tennant, AJ, 1990, British Merchant Ships Sunk by U-Boats in the 1914-1918 War, p.75
UC 49, uboat.net
U-Boat Project: Commemorating the War at Sea
Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, January 2019.
This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.
