This record comprises a documentary reference to a shipping casualty which has been assigned to the maritime named location OFF ST ANN'S HEAD pending more information which may allow a more precise location for the loss to be assigned

Event and Historical Information:
The HANNAH CROASDELL was a wooden schooner built at Ulveston in 1866. The vessels was originally rigged as a brigantine. Other official details include registered tonnage 142, official number 54550, signal letters JHLT, and first registered at the port of Lancaster on 22 November 1866. The vessel appears to have had two owners during its service life - first John Willson of Ulveston and then William Postlethwaite of Millom. The intelligence information gathered by the Admiralty about the loss on 26 February 1917 noted that a large explosion was heard and see at 1.21pm. The locations given are bearing 330 from St Anns Head, 51 40N 5 17W or 4 miles W 3/4 N from St Ann's Head. The explosion, which reached 200ft into the air, redcued the schooner to matchwood. Part of the ship's boat with the HANNAH CROASDELL provided the identity. The correspondence that followed reported that the area was being swept at the time and no mines had been located. The devastion of the explosion led to speculation that the schooner might have been torpedoed, but that it would be strange for a German submarine to waste such a weapon on such a small sailing vessel. Her owners were asked if she were carrying explosives, but the cargo appears to have been 122 tons of bath brick and bath brick powder (bath brick being a clay used in the manufacture of scouring pads). UC 65 has been attributed as the German submarine responsible. There were no survivors. The names commemorated on the Tower Hill memorial are Joseph Clarkson, aged 18, cook; Frederick John Grenfell, master; H Hughes, Able Seaman; and Arthur Henry Sealey, mate.

Sources include:

ADM137/3891 Home Waters Ships Attacked 21-28 February 1917, The National Archives, Kew
Appropriation Books, Official Numbers 54501 - 54550 (54550)
Goddard, T, 1983, Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, p.104
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 January - 31 March 1917, p.18 (i)
Mercantile Navy List 1880, p.314
Mercantile Navy List 1890, p.421
Mercantile Navy List 1900, p.525
Mercantile Navy List 1910, p.712
Mercantile Navy List 1915, p.801
U-Boat Project: Commemorating the War at Sea

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, March 2019.

This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.