Operations During The First World War
At the start of the war in July 1914, ML had a fleet of fifteen ships. Most of the fleet continued to operate services to ports in eastern Canada and to USA including Baltimore, returning with war and other supplies. In August 1914, the Manchester Miller (1903) and Manchester Civilian (1913) were requisitioned as supply ships and sent with coal to the Falkland Islands to refuel the battlecruisers HMS Inflexible and HMS Invincible. As the Civilian was coaling the cruisers, the German vessels approached and the British warships cast off immediately to engage them. In the ensuing battle Admiral Von Spee's battleships Scharnhost and Gneisenau, plus escorting cruisers, were sunk. The Civilian was later equipped with minesweeping gear. She returned in 1916 carrying supplies and equipment from Canada to the troops in France.
All vessels were fitted with defensive guns at the bow and stern. In June 1917 Manchester Port (1904) beat off a submarine attack with gunfire near Cape Wrath. Manchester Commerce (1899), outward-bound for Quebec City was sunk off northwest Ireland on 26 October 1914, with the loss of 14 crew, becoming the first merchant ship to be sunk by a mine. On 4 June 1917 the second Manchester Trader, en route from Souda Bay in Crete to Algiers, was engaged in a running battle with U-boat U 65 before she was captured and sunk near Pantellaria island, with the loss of one crewmember. The master, Captain F. D. Struss, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and went on to complete 40 years service with the line after surviving another sinking in the Second World War. A further nine ships were sunk by U-boats, seven of the losses occurring in 1917.
ML acquired seven ships between 1916 and 1918, four of which were sunk in 1917. Manchester Engineer acquired secondhand in 1917 had a short but eventful career with ML. On 18 June, when bound for Archangel, she was chased by a U-boat but escaped when her naval escort arrived. On 16 August when sailing from the Tyne to St Nazaire with coal, she was torpedoed five miles off Flamborough Head and sunk. Manchester Division achieved fame on her maiden voyage from West Hartlepool to join a westbound Atlantic convoy at Plymouth when she rammed and sank a German submarine off Flamborough Head in October 1918. At the end of the war in November 1918, ML had twelve surviving vessels on strength.
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