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Auction: 21003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 320

'At 4.15 p.m. on Thursday 13th December 1917, whilst zigzagging at a speed of 13 knots and 15 miles west by north of Contrary Head, Isle of Man, H.M.S. Stephen Furness was struck by a torpedo on her starboard side, between bridge and funnel, smashing numbers one and three boats … As a result of the damage and there being no watertight bulkhead between the collision bulkhead forward and the after end of the engine room, she filled rapidly, dipping by the bow … she suddenly sank by the head taking all the boats with her. As she sank she rose perpendicularly in the air. Less than three minutes had elapsed since the torpedo first struck.'

Hostile Sea, by Adrian Corkhill, refers.

A Great War campaign group of four awarded to Petty Officer 1st Class J. A. Lyngnane, Royal Navy, one of just 12 men to survive the loss of the armed boarding steamer H.M.S. Stephen Furness off the Isle of Man in December 1917 - 98 of his shipmates were killed

1914-15 Star (194711 J. A. Lyngnane, P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (194711 J. A. Lyngnane, P.O., R.N); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (194711 J. A. Lyngnane, P.O., H.M.S. Bristol), mounted as worn, generally very fine or better (4)

James Arthur Lyngnane was born at Hounslow, Middlesex on 27 February 1881 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1897.

Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in March 1914, he was serving as Petty Officer in the light cruiser H.M.S. Bristol on the outbreak of hostilities, in which capacity he was present in the Falkland operations.

Having then removed to the gunnery training establishment Excellent as a P.O. (Instructor) in December 1915, Lyngnane returned to sea in the armed boarding steamer Stephen Furness in April 1916. He was likewise employed at the time of her loss on 17 December 1917, when she fell victim to the U-Boat offensive being mounted off the coast of the Isle of Man.

Torpedoed by UB-64 15 miles off Contrary Head, Isle of Man, the Stephen Furness started listing straight away and, before the life-boats could be lowered, suddenly went down. Six officers and 92 ratings were lost, nearly half of them members of the Mercantile Marine Reserve.

Fortunate indeed to be among those plucked from the icy waters by the trawler Elite, Lyngnane returned to instructional duties in Portsmouth. In March 1918 he joined the battleship Neptune and he remained similarly employed until the war's end.

His final appointment was aboard the royal yacht Osborne between January 1920 and March 1921, and he enrolled in the Royal Fleet Reserve on coming ashore in the latter month.

Sold with a copy of Adrian Corkhill's Hostile Sea, a history of the U-Boat offensive around the Isle of Man during the Great War, in which Lyngnane is confirmed as just one of 12 survivors from the loss of the Stephen Furness.


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Sold for
£220

Starting price
£60