Additional information and photographs
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Photograph of grave of H B Farley at
Ramsgate & St Lawrence Cemetery, Kent (courtesy of E
James)
Click on the image to view a larger
version |
H J B Farley was an employee of the Board of Trade at Ramsgate
Harbour. He was working on board HMS Princess Irene at Sheerness
when she was destroyed by a massive explosion on 27 May 1915,
killing all but one of all those on board. He is one of the very few to have a known grave and is buried in Ramsgate.
The Princess Irene story has been extensively researched by maritime writer, John Hendy, whose book Blown to Eternity!
The Princess Irene story, was published by Ferry Publications in
2001 and from which the following description is taken.
At about 11:14 on the morning of 27 May 1915, Sheerness witnessed the destruction of the minelayer HMS Princess Irene which
was on No.28 buoy about 3 miles WSW from the town centre. The event was the result of a catastrophic internal explosion.
There was only one survivor.
The ship had been built in Scotland in the previous year to the order of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company but was
requisitioned by the Royal Navy before she could sail to the Pacific and converted into a minelayer.
The Princess Irene had a complement of 225 officers and men, three of whom were ashore that morning as the mines were being
primed on the ship's two mine decks. Also on board were a party of 80 or so Petty Officers from Chatham in addition to 76
Sheerness Dockyard workers who were completing tasks prior to the ship's planned departure to lay her mines on 29 May. Without
warning, the ship was blown to pieces and her remains, and the remains of those on board, were scattered over a wide area of the
surrounding river and countryside. One of the Chatham Dockyard workers, David Wills, amazingly survived the explosion but few
bodies were found. A memorial to those lost in both
this and the Bulwark disaster is situated opposite Sheerness railway station. The cause of the disaster was thought to have
been a faulty primer (pistol) although evidence at the Official Enquiry showed that the work of priming the lethal mines was
being carried out (a) in a hurry and (b) by untrained personnel.
(HMS Bulwark, a battleship, had blown up in Sheerness Harbour
on 26 November 1914 with the loss of 600 lives.)
The lower decks and keel of the Princess Irene remain more or less intact and have caused a degree of navigational problems to
the large ships now using the eastern end of nearby Thamesport. At present there are no plans to raise her remains.
Blown to Eternity! The Princess Irene Story, by John Hendy, can be obtained from
Ferry Publications
PO Box 33, Ramsey, Isle of Man, IM99 4LP.
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