CLAN MCNAUGHTON

[Dizzi R.I.P.]

Clan McNaughton

Port of Registry: Glasgow
Propulsion: Steam, triple expansion, 497 nhp, 14 knots
Launched: Wednesday, 28 June 1911
Built: 1911
Ship Type: Passenger Cargo Vessel
Tonnage: 4985 grt
Length: 429.8 feet
Breadth: 53.7 feet
Owner History:
Clan Line Steamers Ltd Glasgow
Status: Sunk After - 03/02/1915

Whilst on patrol duty as an auxiliary cruiser she was last heard of on the above date under the command of Com Robert Jeffreys. Wreckage was found in the area, presumed sunk with 20 officers and 261 ratings H.M.S. Clan McNaughton which has been missing since Feb. 3rd, and is feared to have been lost during the severe gale experienced at the time.


She was on the north coast of Ireland but the exact position is not known. Unless of course a forum member knows different?

Im not sure of the crew but it is likely that the RMLI was onboard but maybe someone has the crew list


Name: CHAFE, WILLIAM HENRY
Initials: W H
Nationality: Canadian
Rank: Seaman
Regiment: Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve
Unit Text: H.M.S. "Clan McNaughton".
Age: 21
Date of Death: 03/02/1915
Service No: 1283X
Additional information: Son of Henry and Hannah Chafe, of Forest Pond, The Goulds, St. John's West.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Memorial: BEAUMONT-HAMEL (NEWFOUNDLAND) MEWilson-Wheeler a couple of years ago. He proposes that loss was due to weather and instability due to modifications. Phil B


I have long been fascinated by this ship and her loss. I have read and
re-read every scrap information I can find on her.

She was a pre-war merchant ship, which was requisitioned in November 1914
when she returned to her home port of Tilbury. She was then hastily
converted into something she was never intended to be - a warship, which
would have included mounting guns up on deck - well above her normal centre
of gravity. A hotch potch crew was then cobbled together for her: Career RN
officers, although her engineer officers had all been Merchant Navy, some
career RN Ratings, but many of the rest of her crew were reservists
including some men from Newfoundland, one or two RN pensioners, plus no less
than 50 boys straight out of the training shore base at Shotley, H.M.S.
Ganges. All in all, a motley bunch who would have been completely unfamiliar
with the ship and how she sailed.

She sailed for patrol duties in the North Atlantic a few days before
Christmas 1914, but had to put into Liverpool on the way, seemingly for some
problem to be sorted but I have never been able to find out what it was. She
returned to Liverpool certainly once, perhaps twice before her loss in
February 1915. She was in radio contact at about 6 a.m. on the morning of 3
February 1915 and reported terrible weather conditions. Nothing further was
ever heard of her. Some floating wreckage was found about fortnight later
in the approximate area of her last known position but it could not be
identified as having come from her. The truth is that no one knows for
certain what did happen to her. The mine theory was put forward as a
possible cause of the loss. But, if you think about it, surely the odds must
be seriously stacked against a ship encountering a drifting mine out in the
Atlantic Ocean? Personally speaking, I believe that the real cause of her
loss was a combination of three factors: An Atlantic gale, she had been
converted into something she had never been designed to be with those guns
quite possibly making her top heavy in such weather, and real mixture of a
crew, who had only limited experience of the ship and how she sailed.MORIAL