Tangistan

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.

Lives lost March 1915: Abdullah Saleh, serang, India; Ahmad Husain, fireman, India; Ahmad Nagi, greaser, India; Ali Nagi, fireman, India Ali Yahya, fireman, India; Ali Yahya Ahmad, fireman, India; All Ahmad, fireman, India ; Conroy, Reginald, William, 2^nd mate, 31, b. Southampton; De Sa, A, steward, India; De Souza, JMD, chief cook, India; Edmunds, David, master, 44, Burry Port; Emmett, Joshua, 1^st mate, 45, Tooting, London; Gomes, 2^nd cook, Indian; Jenkins, Walter Lewis, 3^rd engineer, 32, b. Swansea; Kavanagh, William, boatswain, 56, b. Dublin; Muhammad Abdullah, fireman, India; Muhammad Hamza, fireman, India; Muhammad Muhsin, donkeyman, India; Muhammad Said, fireman/trimmer, India; Nasir Ali, fireman, India; Nielsen, John Brustad, carpenter, 59, b. Norway; Obaid Abdullah, fireman, India; Olsen, Nils Christian, able seaman, 46, b. Norway; Parker, Charles Tom, 3^rd mate, 22, Hull; Paulsson, Erik Johan, sailor, 24, b. Finland (may have been known as Paulson); Peter, Frederick, sailor, 38, Bristol; Phillips, Martin, chief steward, b. Madras; Podesta, Henry, able seaman, 56, b. Exeter; Porter, James, 2^nd engineer, 33, b. Glasgow; Rosser, David John, 1^st engineer, 39, b. Llansamlet, Glamorgan; Said Munazir, greaser, India; Saleh Ali, fireman, India; Saleh Haji, boy, India; Simmonds, James Richard, deck boy, 14, b. Hastings, resided Swansea; Sparkes, Frederick Walter, 4^th engineer, 22, London; Taylor, William George, sailor, 25, b. London.

Survivor: O’Toole, James, b. Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, resided Swansea.

The Times 10 March 1915

‘The steamer Tangistan, owned by Messrs. Strick & Co, London, foundered shortly after midnight a few miles off Scarborough. Up to the present only one of her crew of 39 hands is known to have been saved. The survivor is a young seaman named James O'Toole, who hails from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, but last residing at Swansea, where he joined the Tangistan some five weeks ago. His story of the disaster is that he had been relieved from the watch at midnight, & was in his bunk. Half an hour later a terrible shock was felt; & within four minutes the ship foundered. The boats had been kept hanging from the davits in coming up the Channel; but there was no time to lower them before the vessel sank, O'Toole at the time being in the act of going down a line into one of the boats in which were two other men. The boat, however, never got clear, & but for the fact that O'Toole had secured a life belt he would in all probability have been lost with the others. As it was he was in the water for two hours before being picked up by a boat from the steamer Woodville, the crew of that vessel having heard his cries. Two other vessels had previously passed him without hearing, & he had almost given up hope of rescue. For nearly an hour before he was picked up could hear the cries of some of the Arab firemen who were evidently adrift on a piece of wreckage, but a boat's crew from the Woodville were unable to find any further survivors. The Tangistan, it is thought, must have been torpedoed, the injury apparently being amidships. Besides the captain, there were 16 white men in the crew of the Tangistan, the remainder being Arabs.’

Tangistan Yardbook pages.