The Sinking of the ss mendi

Before the war, the SS Mendi, a passenger steamship built in 1905, managed the trades between Liverpool and West Africa for the UK-based shipping company, Elder Dempster & Co. However, given the shortage of ships, in 1916 the SS Mendi was requisitioned, adapted as a troopship, and pressed into service to aid the war effort.

Her final voyage began on 16 January 1917 from Cape Town harbour. The experienced Henry Arthur Yardley captained her as she carried the 5th battalion of the South African Native Labour Corps (SANLC) who were headed to Le Havre port, France and then onto the Western Front. The SS Mendi carried some 823 men from the SANLC, a crew of 89, 22 white officers and 56 other military passengers when she departed from Cape Town. They left at noon as part of a four-ship convey escorted by the cruiser HMS Cornwall.

The convoy proceeded at a leisurely pace and the men quickly fell into the routine of life aboard a troopship. The long, slow voyage was notably calm and marked by few incidents. The SS Mendi first called at Lagos in Nigeria, and, after a naval gun was mounted on her stern, she continued onto Freetown in Sierra Leone where coal and stores were loaded. From Sierra Leone the convoy steamed on unescorted despite the last part of the journey being the most dangerous due to the U-boat threat. By this point in the war, the German submarines had orders to attack without warning, which made the British waters especially dangerous.

On 19 February the SS Mendi arrived safely at Plymouth to cold weather and grey skies. It had been 34 days since her departure from Cape Town. At Plymouth, the military passengers disembarked. The SS Mendi planned to sail on – across the English Channel – the following day.

The sinking

In the afternoon of 20th February 1917, the SS Mendi sailed from Plymouth and steamed towards Le Havre in France, escorted by the destroyer HMS Brisk. The weather was cold and overcast, with threatening mist, light winds and a calm sea. At nightfall, however, the weather became foggy and this significantly reduced visibility across the busy shipping lanes. As a safety precaution and as required by regulations, the ship’s siren was sounded at one-minute intervals. Thereafter the fog became thicker and speed was reduced despite the presence of hunting U-boats. By 4:57am the SS Mendi was 11 nautical miles (20 km) off the southern tip of the Isle of Wight. In the dark and the fog, no one saw the steam ship SS Darro approach at full speed – by the time they did, it was too late.

Under the captaincy of H.W. Stump, the SS Darro, at 11 484 tons, was a much larger vessel: almost 3 times the size of the SS Mendi [4 230 tons]. In the late afternoon of 20th February, the SS Darro sailed from Le Havre and steamed at full speed [12 knots] towards Falmouth. On 21st February 1917 at 4.57 am, the lookouts of the SS Mendi [which was then 11 nautical miles (20 km) off the southern tip of the Isle of Wight] heard a vessel approaching and sounded the siren. The SS Darro was travelling at full speed and making no sound signals. The second officer and lookouts heard the SS Mendi’s siren and saw a green light. Orders were at once given to put the engines full speed astern and the SS Darro’s siren then sounded. However, it was too late.

The SS Darro’s bow crashed into the starboard side of the smaller ship in the early hours of 21 February. The collision occurred almost at right angles, tearing a 20 foot (6m) hole in the SS Mendi close to the crowded holds where men slept in tightly-packed tiers of bunks.

Men standing on the SS Mendi were hurled to the deck by the force of the impact and the men who were sleeping were abruptly woken up. The SS Darro struck near the watertight bulkhead between N°1 and N°2 holds and opened both of them to the sea. On the SS Darro, the engines which had been going full steam astern were stopped and the two ships drifted apart, leaving a huge hole in the side of the SS Mendi through which the sea poured. The force of the collision knocked down Captain Yardley. He got up quickly, went to the fore part of the bridge and ordered the engines to be stopped. He sent a man to tell the carpenter to sound the depth of the water in the breached holds of the ship and gave the order to lower the boats to the rail. No SOS was sent out because the wireless operator could not be found.

Men, shaken by the shock and sound of the collision began to struggle out of their blankets, picking up their lifebelts and making their way in the dark through the rising freezing water [38 degrees farenheight] to the exits. But at least one of these exits may have been damaged by the bow of the SS Darro, so that some of the men were trapped. A large number (one estimate was 140) never made their way to the deck and drowned in the blackness of the hold as the water rose quickly. For most of those who survived, perhaps 750 men, there was now a struggle in the darkness to lower the lifeboats that could take a total of 298 men. As the SS Mendi sank lower in the water, she listed heavily to starboard and it became difficult to lower the portside boats.

The troops were quiet and orderly at their stations, as they had learned in the exercises at sea during the voyage. Officers and crewmen lowered the lifeboats on the starboard side. N°1 and N°3 boats were lowered safely and were quickly filled with men. The N°2 boat while being lowered capsized with the men aboard owing to a sailor’s blunder. N°5 boat was lowered safely to the water with two crewmen and four soldiers, but many men then jumped into it on one side and capsized it. Everyone was thrown into the water and it was not possible to right it again. The N°6 boat smashed against the ship’s side. What happened to N°7 boat was never determined.

The work proceeded to get out the 46 rafts, each capable of supporting 20 people, and the troops worked methodically under the direction of their officers. At the same time, other soldiers came up from the hatch of N°1 hold.

Somewhere about this time must have occurred the best known legend in the story of the SS Mendi. It is not confirmed by any survivor or official account, but oral tradition has preserved it and the press kept it alive. The Reverend Wauchope Dyobha cried out to the men:

“Be quiet and calm, my countrymen, for what is taking place is exactly what you came to do. You are going to die… but that is what you came to do… Brothers, we are drilling the death drill. I, a Xhosa, say you are my brothers, Swazis, Pondos, Basutos, we die like brothers. We are the sons of Africa. Raise your war cries, brothers, for though they made us leave our assegais in the kraal, our voices are left with our bodies.”

And they took off their boots and stamped the death dance on the deck of the sinking ship.

Captain Yardley, realising that the ship would not last much longer, ordered that everyone leave the ship and get away from it before it sank. Many men threw themselves into the sea, singing, praying and crying. There was a big explosion which shook the ship, putting out the lights and causing panic and confusion. However, a lot of soldiers remained aboard as they were too afraid to jump into the icy waters. Most of them had no experience of the sea, many probably not even having seen it before they embarked on the SS Mendi, and very few could swim. In spite of the call from their NCOs and comrades in the waters to jump, most were still aboard of the dying ship when it sank.

During this agony of 25 minutes, no help came from the SS Darro, even so not far, and HMS Brisk had lost visual contact with the SS Mendi in the fog.

About 120 men were now in the two boats, and some hundreds more were in the freezing water clinging to rafts or wreckage, or supported only by their lifebelts.

At 05h00 the Darro sent an SOS message to which the HMS Brisk replied. The crew inspected the vessel, lowered the boat to the rail and prepared to do a potential evacuation. But the damages were moderately minor. No attempt was made to hail the other vessel or to lower a boat in the water.

Not far away, in the icy waters, the tragedy continued. Many frozen men hung to the rafts and several reached to go up on the keel of the N°5 boat. Men without lifebelts drowned and others died freezing or from exhaustion. The water temperature in the Channel at this time of year is only about 7 degrees.

Captain Yardley floated for about an hour and a half and recalled:

“I had a lifebelt on. There were hundreds of boys [sic] around me after the wreck. They died from exposure. They all had lifebelts on… It was a very cold, dark, damp, miserable night….”

About 400 men drowned or died of exposure in the water or on the rafts. The N°1 boat was the first to reach the Darro, about 50 minutes after the collision. The shipwrecked troops were so exhausted that they were helped by the crew to go up the gangway. The N°3 boat came alongside the Darro about ten minutes later. Some members of the crew heard the shouting of men on rafts. However, Captain Stump took no measure to rescue the men.

At the same time, the boats of the HMS Brisk, who came rapidly on the site after the wreck, carried on searching but with great difficulty in the darkness and the fog. Another ship nearby, the SS Sandsend, picked up 23 survivors.

The Darro remained in the vicinity until 06h45 and then proceeded through the fog at reduced speed sounding her whistle. The HMS Brisk called her boats with her exhausted crews at 09h45 and cruised looking in vain for survivors.

The tally of survivors was 267 : 107 on the Darro, 137 on the Brisk (of whom Captain Yardley was one) and the 23 men picked up by the Sandsend.

The final toll of this tragedy is terrible. Thirty-three members of the crew, two white officers, seven white NCOs and 618 black soldiers were lost. Among them were prominent figures: Pondoland chiefs Henry Bokleni, Dokoda Richard Ndamase, Mxonywa Bangani, and the Reverend Wauchope Dyobha.

The Aftermath

Despite racial tensions at the time of the SS Mendi’s sinking, when news reached South African Prime Minister, General Lois Botha, he immediately addressed Parliament saying:

“… as delay might arouse suspicion that the Government is wilfully concealing facts, I have deemed it right to take the earliest opportunity of informing the House [of the sinking of the SS Mendi and the subsequent loss of 625 lives].

I will, therefore, move as an unopposed motion: That this House has learned with deep regret of the sad loss of life of members of the South African Native Labour Contingent, caused by collision and sinking of the transport SS Mendi on 21 February 1917, and resolves to record an expression of its sincere sympathy with the relatives of the deceased officers, NCOs and men of the bereavement.”

The unopposed motion was carried and the members rose from their seats as a mark of respect. It was an unprecedented gesture for colonial South Africa. However, it was to be the last for some time. Members of the SANCL received neither ribbons, medals nor pensions. It was only after the African National Congress came to power that the sinking of the SS Mendi and the tragic loss of life that day was formally acknowledged. 

HW Stump – the Darro’s captain

The captain of the Darro, HW Stump, was later disciplined, but the sanction must appear minor compared to the tragedy : a ship command suspension of 12 months.

Hendrik Lawrens Jensen van Vuren’s evidence was damning about the conduct of the SS Darro’s master, Captain Henry Winchester Stump. The Lieutenant attested [at the Board of Trade investigation] that:

“I could see that the ship would very soon sink. I could see another very large vessel (the Darro) about 200 yards away from us and as the sea was perfectly calm I ordered my men in Sixosa [Xhosa] to jump overboard and get away from the Mendi before she sank … I ordered my men into the water in the sure belief that the other vessel which I learnt was the Darro would lower her boats and come and pick them up.

The Darro however lowered no boats and made no effort to save us. She was only about 200 yards away from the Mendi and must have seen us and heard our cries as the sea was very calm. I saw the Mendi sink approximately 25 minutes after being struck. I was pulled on to a raft by one of my Sergeants a minute or so before she sank. We floated away with the current shortly after she sank and I saw no more of the Darro after that. I become unconscious on the raft and later found myself in a Destroyer. Of those picked up by the Destroyer 104 natives survived and were landed at Plymouth also one officer (myself) and three European N.C.Os. She picked up many more who were too far gone to recover and died before reaching port, also at least 8 of the crew.”

The inquiry placed the blame for the collision firmly upon Stump. Darro had been moving at close to its maximum speed and failed to make sound signals under conditions of poor visibility. Furthermore, he had failed to come to the assistance of drowning men although he had caused a fatal accident and remained in the vicinity. Even after a lifeboat from Mendi reached Darro, the inquiry found, he did not send assistance. In spite of this, Stump was never charged and his sole punishment was the suspension of his licence for a year.