The Sinking of the Aragon

The second account is of events at the time of the sinking of the Aragon, recalled by a V.A.D. It comes from The Nursing Mirror and Midwives' journal of 9 February 1918.


In the Admiralty official list it is reported that the transport Aragon was torpedoed and sunk in the Eastern Mediterranean on December 30, and also that eight female nurses on board the Osmanieh were lost. The following nurses are officially announced as ‘accidentally drowned': Sisters F. D. Compton, F. Tindall, and A. Welford, and Staff Nurse M. D. Roberts, all of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve; also Miss F. M. Faithfull, Miss G. Bytheway, Miss L. Midwood, and Miss H. Rogers, all V.A.D.s; in addition to Miss C. Ball, Miss W. M. Brown, Miss U. Duncanson, and Miss N. Hawley, whose details we announced in our issue for January 26.

A V.A.D. Nurse who was on board the Aragon writes home to her parents that the vessel sailed from Marseilles with destroyers as escorts. The vessel left the harbour the following Sunday. Proceeding, the writer says:
"No doubt we were watched then, but as we were so close to land we thought we were quite safe. At about 10.30 in the morning we could see the land. I went down to my cabin, and the steward was attending to my trunk, which had got damaged on the journey, when, at 10.55, there was a terrible crash, and the steward cried out 'My God, we've got it!' Anyway, he got me outside, though I was not frightened, and gave me my life-belt, and I ran up the two flights of stairs to our boat stations, as we sisters had been detailed to boats. In a minute we had orders to get into the boats, which we promptly did without any confusion. We were lowered - which was a shaky business - a doctor and a colonel accompanying us, and we got away from the ship as soon as we could. By that time we could see the stern of the Aragon down in the water and her bows in the air. The troops on board her were singing. By Jove! It took some doing. We picked up a lot of the boys in our life-boat off the rafts, and when we were packed we made for a trawler which was close by. Fortunately, there were several close at hand, as we were so near land.

In the meantime we looked at the Aragon, which was rapidly sinking. There were hundreds of boys in khaki on board her, and the sight I shall never forget. In fifteen minutes she had completely gone - no sign of her at all. Anyhow, we got into the trawler, and in another minute our destroyer was torpedoed right amidships. She went clean in half. She was close by, and had picked up hundreds of Tommies. They had to go down again, and, to my mind, that was the worst of all. The trawlers headed for land at once. All the sisters were saved, but there was a heavy death-roll. We had many troops on board. As soon as we reached land we were taken to a sergeants' mess close by, where we had brandy and hot tea. We were then put in ambulances and taken to hospital. We had nothing in the wide world except what we stood in."
The writer adds: "A most awful thing happened yesterday morning. Another ship was torpedoed in exactly the same place. She went down in five minutes. There were forty nurses on board, and they were all in the water. A good many, I believe, were drowned. I know they brought eight into the mortuary of the hospital.