Second
Mate Robert Willis Adams.
S.
S. Ballogie [Aberdeen]
Born
1893 at Redcar
Died
9th November 1917.
Remembered
on the Tower Hill Memorial London.
Son of
Robert and Sophia Adams and husband of Eva Adams [nee Bell]
of 27 Nelson Street Middlesbrough
Robert Willis Adams was born at Redcar on the 3rd March 1893; he was first of seven children to be born to Robert and Sophie Adams [Robert 1893, Thomas 1895, Elizabeth 1897, Frederick 1900, Joseph 1903, Wilfred 1906 and Elsie May 1908].
During 1909 he was employed as an errand boy however on the 13th December that year aged 16 he enlisted into the Royal Navy as a ‘Boy Rating’ and arrived at the Royal Navy Training Establishment for boys HMS Ganges II. HMS Ganges [and HMS Ganges II] had over many years comprised of various outdated and semi retired ships and even later it eventually became a shore based training station. At the time Robert was there for initial training on HMS Ganges II the recent ship history had been; HMS Agincourt re-named to Ganges II between 1906 and 1908 then HMS Minotaur was re-named and became HMS Ganges II between 1908 and 1912. In 1909 when Robert arrived there HMS Ganges II was located at Shotley near Ipswich Suffolk.
HMS Minotaur [left] c 1906
Robert completed his initial naval training and left HMS Ganges II as a Boy Class 2 on the 20 March 1910. There followed a series of moves as follows:
21 March – 8 August 1910 HMS Caesar during which time he was promoted to Boy Class 1.
9 August – 7 September 1910 HMS Grafton.
8 September 1910 – 3 March 1911 HMS Liverpool.
On the 3 March 1911 Robert became 18 and so signed further enlistment papers for 12 years service and his rank changed from Boy Class 1 to Ordinary Seaman. He remained on HMS Liverpool until 31 January 1912.
On the 31 January he either committed or was in some way involved in an offence under Naval Regulations and he was sentenced to ten days in the cells. Sadly not enough records survive for us to know what the offence may have been.
11 February – 27 December 1912 HMS Liverpool.
28 December 1912 – 13 January 1913 HMS Victory; this was the shore based barracks at Portsmouth Dockyard rather than the ship HMS Victory itself.
14 January – 11 May 1913 HMS Maidstone. HMS Maidstone was
launched in 1912 to serve as a Depot Ship for the 8th Submarine
Flotilla. It was whilst as a rating on this ship when it was at Torquay that
Robert decided for whatever reason that he had seen enough of the Royal Navy
and deserted on the 11 May 1913.
Robert Adams Royal Navy Service Records
No other records allow us to follow Roberts progress immediately after deserting from the Royal Navy however it is safe to assume that at some point he joined the Merchant Navy under the false name of Robert Murray. Changing his name, if not officially, would put off the Royal Navy from tracking him down and it allows him to move around the country or even overseas from port to port which in the long term would make the task of finding him even harder.
The next time we can exactly trace Robert is when he marries Eva Bell in Middlesbrough sometime around March – April 1916. Robert marries under his real name, and he and Eva set up home together at 27 Nelson Street Middlesbrough. During the war Robert is still serving in the Merchant Navy under the assumed name of Murray and by 1916 has reached the rank/position of 2nd Mate.
On the 9 November 1917 Robert was the 2nd Mate on board the SS Ballogie out of Middlesbrough on Government service with a cargo of 1250 tons of slag for Dunkirk. She was heading South following the buoyed channel one and a half miles North East of Filey Brigg, when the gunner on station on the poop deck sighted a torpedo 300 yards away but too late to take avoiding action. It struck the vessel 3 feet below the water line abreast of the engine room on the port side. The explosion was devastating; it broke the vessel in half and killed 13 of the 19 crew. The survivors found themselves thrown into the water as the ship went straight down. Boats were lowered by the H.M.S. JASON II, from about 3/4 of a mile away, and the six survivors were picked up and landed at Grimsby. The patrol boat also picked up the bodies of the master and steward. All the other ship’s officers were lost. The vessel was torpedoed by the UC 47 at 4.10 p.m.
Trinity House Register recording him as Robert Murray 2nd Mate SS
Ballogie
The Ballogie was originally built for J. H. Lorentzen & Co of Hamburg and named MITTELWEG and launched on the 5 July 1889. Then sold to new owners at Middlesbrough in 1894 and renamed BULL. In 1912 renamed ANTWERPEN and sold to J. & A. Davidson Ltd. Finally in 1915 she was renamed Ballogie and armed with 1 x 90 mm stern gun. The UC 47 was a type UC II class of submarine. She was launched on the 30 August 1916 and in a total of thirteen patrols between 23 January and 18 November 1917 she had sunk 57 ships and damaged a further 9 including one warship. She was rammed and sunk with all hands by Patrol Boat P47 off Flamborough Head on the 18 November 1917.
Merchant Navy Memorial details showing him under his real name Robert Willis Adams.
Photo of HMS Minotaur: Public Domain.
Royal Navy Service Records: National Archives Kew
Trinity House Register: Photo Peter Fellowes
Merchant Navy Memorial Details: CWGC
Wreck Information of SS Ballogie and UC 47: Carl Racy and East Coast Ship Wreck Research