Manchester Commerce

In this section you will find information, photographs and stories relating to more than 260 Hartlepool seamen who lost their lives during during the First World War, and of the ships they served on.
To find a particular crewman, simply type his Surname in the Search Box at the top of the page.

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.

Masters: 1900-02 J Baxter: 1904 JR Foale: 1905 WP Couch: 1907 WJ Parry: 1909-11 WP Couch: 1914 Charles William Bloom Payne.

On a voyage from Manchester for Montreal, Quebec with a crew of 44 Manchester Commerce ran into a minefield laid by the North German Lloyd liner Bremen& sank 20 miles NE of Tory Island on 26 October 1914. One lifeboat was launched but there was no time to launch a second & those left on board had to jump into the sea with some making it to the launched lifeboat. A Fleetwood trawler, City of London, picked up the 30 survivors. This was the first vessel of World War 1 to be mined. 14 lives lost including master.

Lives lost 26 October 1914: Ali Musa, fireman/trimmer, India; Burgess, Daniel, storekeeper, 30, Pendleton, Lancashire; Burke, John, fireman/trimmer, 43, b. Cork; Dennett, Frederick W, boatswain, 48, b. Kent; Denny, F, 2^nd steward, 20, b. Gorton, Manchester 1918; Everest, Cecil H, 4^th mate, 20, Liverpool; Hughes, John Thomas, boy, 22, b. Salford, resided Patricroft, Lancashire; McMahon, J, able seaman, 50, b. Liverpool; Moller, Charles, donkeyman, 36, b. West Hartlepool; Payne, Charles William Bloom, master, 41, Hull; Rae, Robert, fireman/trimmer, 38, b. Maryport; Spears, Robert, chief steward, 35, b. Manchester; Sudell, Harold, wireless operator, 18, Liverpool; Warren, Arthur Herbert, 2^nd engineer, 32, b. Macclesfield.