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Cook C. Harris, SS Edernian, MN

COOK

C. HARRIS

S.S. "EDERNIAN"

20TH AUGUST 1917

 

Cook, C. Harris, S.S. Edernian of Cardiff, Mercantile Marine

Died in the North Sea on 20th. August 1917.

Buried in Plot 13, Grave 395 at Normanston Drive cemetery, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

 

When East Suffolk Council put their cemetery records online they recorded the occupant of grave 13. 395 as Verner Harris, a 23 year old sailor whose last address was Lichworth Road, Cardiff. Verner was interred on the 23rd. August 1917.

However the General Registrars Office Index of Marine deaths for 1917 records a 25 year old Verner Harris who died while serving on the Edernian.

 

The S.S. Edernian was named after the village of Edern on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales.

She was built for S.S. Demetian & Ordovician Co Ltd. of Cardiff, by Craig, Taylor & Co. Ltd. of Stockton-on-Tees. Launched on 7th. July 1906 and registered at Cardiff on 8th. August 1906, she spent the next eleven years plying her trade, mostly on the South American run.

On 30th. March 1917, while sailing in ballast from Le Havre to Cardiff, the ship was damaged when she struck a mine in the English Channel, 3.5 miles north-east of St. Valery, laid by the Kaiserliche Marine submarine UC-71, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Hans Valentiner. The ship managed to reach Dieppe for dry dock and repairs. There were no casualties.

Edernian was en route from Middlesbrough to Dieppe with a cargo of ammunition steel, when on the 20th August 1917 she was torpedoed by a the Kaiserliche Marine submarine UB-10, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Fritz Gregor, and was sunk approximately six nautical miles south-east of Southwold, Suffolk in position 52° 13'N, 1° 45'E with the loss of fourteen lives. Cook Harris is the only one of the victims to have a known grave. Nine of the crew are remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial in London and four are remembered on the Bombay 1914-1918 Memorial, Mumbai, India.

 

Name: S.S. Edernian

Ship type: Cargo vessel

Home port: Cardiff

Flag: United Kingdom

Official number: 123166

Call sign: HGTV

Crew: 28, possibly up to 31

Length: 342 ft. (104.24 m)

Beam: 51 ft. (15.54 m)

Draught: 22 ft. (6.7 m)

Gross tonnage: 3,558 ton

Net tonnage: 2,284 ton

Builder: Craig, Taylor & Co. Ltd. of Stockton-on-Tees

Yard number: 117

Launched: 7th. July 1906

Engine builder: North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. of South Docks, Sunderland

Engine type: Steam triple expansion

Armament: 1 x 18 pounder

Owner in 1906: S.S. Demetian and Ordovician Co. Ltd. of 37 Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, Wales

Owner in 1917: Owen & Watkin Williams of Pwll Parc, Edern, Wales and was part of the fleet of the Golden Cross Line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Uploaded on January 23, 2023
Taken on December 11, 2022