Baron Driesen

Owners: 1901 Northern SS Co (P Mörch) Odessa, Russia

Masters: 1903-07 L Laurent: 1909 Melville: 1913-17 J Kaemmerling.

On a voyage from Vladivostok for Hull with a cargo of soya beans she was stranded near Cape Guardafui on 4 June 1915 & was eventually refloated in July 1915.

On 3 February 1916 she arrived at Hull from Vladivostok. While discharging explosives at Bakaritsa, Archangel on 8 November 1916 there were a series of explosions which destroyed the Baron Driesen & a coal steamer the Earl of Forfar which was moored nearby. Because it was dinner hour there were many people in the huts around the docks which were also destroyed. The report in The Times stated 314 deaths & 49 officers & officials, 437 soldiers, 131 male & 25 female civilians injured.

‘The KING has further been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the Albert Medal to

Lieutenant Edward Henry Richardson, R.N.R., 2nd Engineer Christopher Watson, A.B. James Dixon Henry & A.B. Malcolm Thompson, for gallantry in saving life at sea.

The following is the account of the services in respect of which the decoration has been conferred:

London Gazette 9 July, 1918 (from the Admiralty, 8th July, 1918)

On the 8th November, 1916, a series of fires and explosions occurred at Bakaritsa, Port of Archangel, on merchant ships and on the wharves. The S.S. Baron Driesen had blown up at 1 p.m. and part of the S.S. Earl of Forfar forty minutes later. The latter ship, with a cargo of explosives, was on fire, and might have blown up at any moment, and explosions were continually taking place in the immediate vicinity. The ship was alongside the main fire on shore, and burning embers were constantly showered over her. Lieutenant Richardson-2nd Engineer Watson and Able Seamen Henry and Thompson, of the Tug Sunderland, nevertheless volunteered to board the Earl of Forfar and affected the rescue of a considerable number of wounded and helpless men who would otherwise have perished. 

They displayed the utmost gallantry and disregard of their own personal safety in saving the lives of others.’

Of the crews of the two British ships 27 men were killed & 26 injured.”

This section will, in time, contain the stories of more than 450 merchant ships built or owned in the Hartlepools, and which were lost during the First World War. As an illustration of the truly global nature of shipbuilding, these ships were owned by companies from 22 different countries, including more than 30 sailing under the German flag at the outbreak of war.