#ship sinking

December 30th 1915 saw the Cruiser Natal explode in Cromarty harbour, killing over 400 people.

HMS Natal on that fateful day was at anchor in the Cromarty Firth. Her Captain, Eric Percy Coventry Back, had allowed a number of the ship’s crew to take shore leave – many of them to watch, and play, in an inter-ship football match. For some of his officers however, Captain Back had invited them and their wives to a film show on board. He had also invited a family friend, John Henry Dods – a former Scottish International rugby player – his wife Annie and their children Dorothy, Marcus and John. Captain Back’s wife (their own children were ill) and three nurses from the nearby hospital ship HMS Drina.

At around 3.20 pm the Natal was rocked by an explosion, followed by a further three blasts in short succession. Flames shot throughout the ship but the true seriousness of the situation wasn’t fully appreciated, with injured seaman were being sent to sickbay to have their burns dressed. Orders to flood the magazines couldn’t be carried out and although hoses were rigged no water was obtainable through the fire main system. Within three minutes of the first explosion the ship started to list heavily to port and after another two minutes, she had completely settled down with the forward end of the starboard bilge keel clear of the water. 421 men, women and children lost their lives in this disaster.

The loss of the ship was soon announced to the press. Various photographs of the Natal, her crew and the ship’s cat (with the caption “Rudolph, it is feared, was on board at the time”) appeared on the front page of the Daily Sketch two days running. And although they attempted to notify next of kin as quickly as possible, the Admiralty was inundated with letters from family members of the crew.

Although not immediately ruled out, the idea of a submarine attack was soon dismissed. In order to carry out a torpedo attack, a U-boat would have needed to have passed two other ships: another cruiser and an even more tempting target – the battleship Emperor of India. Having talked to survivors personally, and from divers reports, Vice-Admiral Jellicoe was of the opinion that the foundering of the Natal was due to an internal explosion.

As was traditional in the loss of a Royal Navy ship, a Court Martial into the loss of the Natal was held at Chatham between 18th and 20th January 1916. As the highest surviving officer, Lieutenant Commander John Spencer Tyndall was the first to give evidence. He was in the Mail Office and in the immediate aftermath directed the crew to rig fire hoses. His testimony, along with that of others, in particular the divers William Russell and Charles Lambert, confirmed the opinion that the loss of Natal was due to an internal explosion caused by faulty ammunition. (The divers reported that the explosion had blown both sides of the ship bodily outwards)

Today, a buoy marks the spot where Natal sank – the remains of the wreck designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Many of those who died are remembered on the naval memorials at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth. Of the bodies recovered only 17 were identified and were buried in the local cemeteries of Cromarty and Rosskeen.

3 years after the Titanic, another ship, the SS Eastland, sank killing even more people, most were young women and children. Where did it sink? The Chicago river. While still tied to the dock. Why have you never heard of this? That's a good question.

The video above was made by Caitlin Doughty and her team on the Ask a Mortician YouTube channel along with bunches of experts, historians, etc., and shows both how and why the ship sank, who the victims were, and why both they and the entire incident has been almost completely forgotten by history.

Spoiler Alert: It's because the victims were poor, working class families. As apposed to the rich and famous victims of the smaller tragedy of the Titanic.

And I do mean families. It was a company outing. Entire families died while sitting feet away from dry land.

I had never heard this story before, and I'm glad I was able to learn about both it, and the efforts people in the Chicago area are taking to get it back into the history books. BUT…

For some reason, this over 40 minute long historical documentary, got a strike from YouTube against its community standards and is no longer being suggested to anyone on the platform. Because it's not educational???

Caitlin Doughty and her team are a fantastic resource for all things related to the death industry (funerals, mortuary, bodies, and the like) and have been in the business of educating people on YT for over 10 years. Now after putting out one of the most complete looks at a tragedy that has been mostly forgotten, in a video that handles the issues with both in-depth research and full respect for the victims and their living descendants, YT has decided it's not up to "their standards". (As you can see from the preview above). :/

Not only is that a slap in the face to this team of people that worked for months to do this forgotten piece of history and it's forgotten victims justice, it also takes away the ability for others to learn about it and help keep the memories of those lost alive.

You can learn more about YT's decision in the video below. And if you've not heard of this disaster before you need to see the video on the Eastland. It's an impressive piece of media, and an incredibly sad story. But one that despite YT's feelings, deserves to be told.