Foreword by Rt. Hon. Lord George Islay MacNeill Robertson of Port
Ellen, [Isle of Islay, Scotland], KT, CMG, HonFRSE, PC
Chapter 1: Pride of the P&O Line
Chapter 2: America Joins the War
Chapter 3: Convoy HX-50 Leaves for England
Chapter 4: Prelude to Disaster
Chapter 5: Collision with the Kashmir
Chapter 6: The Mounsey to the Rescue
Chapter 7: The Sinking of the Otranto
Chapter 8: The Families Back Home
Chapter 9: The Aftermath
Chapter 10: The Rest of the Story
Appendix 1: HMS Otranto American Casualties
Appendix 2: HMS Otranto American Survivors
Appendix 3: Soldiers Reported AWOL (Absent without Leave) from HMS
Otranto in New York Harbor
Appendix 4: HMS Otranto British Casualties
R. Neil Scott was professor and user services librarian at Middle Tennessee State University until his death in 2012. His prior publications include Flannery O’Connor: An Annotated Reference Guide to Criticism (a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2002) and Flannery O’Connor: The Contemporary Reviews, as well as numerous scholarly articles.
During WWI, German U-boats struck fear into the hearts of sailors
aboard Allied vessels traversing the Atlantic Ocean. Yet the HMS
Otranto, a British troop transport ship carrying more than 1000
men, was sunk by one of its own, the HMS Kashmir, after the two
vessels collided during a storm in October of 1918. Here, the late
Scott, formerly a professor and librarian at Middle Tennessee State
University, offers a gripping account of this calamity and the
events surrounding it. After picking up Europe-bound American
soldiers in New York, a series of mishaps plagued the boat, leading
some to believe the Otranto was "jinxed:" days after setting sail,
the ship rammed a French fishing boat, and shortly afterwards many
of the men fell violently ill with Spanish influenza. Relying on
contemporary accounts, Scott provides graphic details of these and
the final tragic accidents off the coast of Scotland, as well as
the chilling three-hour aftermath, during which time a British
destroyer braved the waves and saved nearly 600 men before the
Ontrato was finally shattered against the reefs. How the tragedy
affected the nearby islanders (some of whom helped to rescue those
who made it to shore alive) and the American families awaiting news
of their loved ones provides a grim denouement to this beautifully
written and heartrending story.
*Publishers Weekly, Starred Review*
HMS Otranto was a merchant cruiser converted to a troopship during
World War I. In October 1918 she was transporting over a thousand
servicemen—including 701 American soldiers newly headed to the
Western Front—as part of a convoy off the coast of Scotland, when
brutal storms knocked the ships out of position, with HMS Kashmir
ramming Otranto. Scott, an academic librarian who died earlier this
year, delivers a gripping tale based on scrupulous and accessible
use of primary sources and amply quoted memories of survivors, to
tell the full story of the ship, her heroic crew, and the noble
work of the destroyer Mounsey in rescuing as many men as possible.
VERDICT Highly recommended to all who love crackerjack sea
chronicles and can bear the heartbreak; and all readers of wartime
naval histories.
*Library Journal, Starred Review*
In a maritime disaster that occurred one month before the WWI
armistice, a troop transport, HMS Otranto, sank with hundreds of
American soldiers and British sailors aboard. Discovering that an
ancestor survived the catastrophe and that no complete account of
it existed, the late Scott resolved to research and write the
story. The ship, which escaped destruction in the 1914 Battle of
Coronel, was four years later the flagship of a convoy carrying
doughboys to Europe. Those on the Otranto came from Georgia. After
chronicling the men’s enlistment, training, and embarkation, Scott
meticulously chronicles the fateful voyage, which was beset by a
hurricane-force storm. Blown off course, the convoy found itself in
sudden peril of grounding on the Hebridean island of Islay. The
convoy commodore ordered an emergency turn to port, but one ship
turned to starboard and collided with the Otranto. Gathering
survivors’ testimonies, Scott grimly narrates the ensuing
foundering, burial services for the victims, and monuments to the
tragedy on Islay and in Nashville, Georgia. Scott’s final work is
itself an apt commemoration of the Otranto.
*Booklist*
Great naval battles, terrible privation, and mind-boggling acts of
heroism flow through Scott's book, which successfully blends the
characteristics of a page-turner with meticulous, scholarly
research. The charmed life and tragic sinking of the troopship HMS
Otranto under the cliffs of a Scottish island resulted in America's
heaviest loss of life at sea during World War I, but it could have
been so much worse. This was one of the terrible but ultimately
uplifting tragedies from which the 'special relationship' between
Britain and the United States has been forged. Scott issues a
timely reminder. We must never forget.
*Carl Reavey, editor, The Ileach (Islay, Scotland)*
Professor Scott tells a well-researched, fast-paced story of one of
the most dramatic and courageous sea rescues in modern history,
tempered by the tragic loss of so many young American troops.
Working with detailed firsthand accounts, historical documents, and
private letters, Scott recounts a gripping and heart-rending story
of heroism and horror. In the absence of public monuments to the
worst maritime disaster to befall American soldiers during World
War I, Many Were Held by the Sea serves as a memorial and in itself
a monument to the 470 men of HMS Otranto who lost their lives on
that unlucky day.
*Irwin H. Streight, Royal Military College of Canada*
An MTSU librarian and author of several books, [Scott's] latest
book tells the story of the collision between the HMS Oranto and
HMS Kashmir off the coast of Scotland near the end of World War I
while ferrying hundreds of American soldiers from New York to
various British ports.
*The Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN)*
Scott’s book brings to light a long-neglected tragedy from
America’s role in World War I and reveals the personal losses as
well as the courageous actions of many. More importantly it should
go far to ensure that the sinking of HMS Otranto is not
forgotten.
*Naval History Book Reviews*
“When his father told him about two great-uncles who were in a ship
that collided in World War I, Scott was hooked. He had to tell the
story of the HMS Otranto and the HMS Kashmir.”
*The Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN)*
Much of Scott’s source material is from published works, but it is
evident that he scoured the major archives in the United States and
the United Kingdom for primary documents. A number of photographs
from his personal collection are included. Scott also provides an
impressive set of appendices listing casualties and survivors. Many
were Held by the Sea is a grim reminder of the inherent danger of
naval operations.
Neil Scott’s monograph is a well written and thoroughly researched
account of one of the final disasters of World War I.
The main characters appear to be handled fairly, the prose is clear
and the narrative is complete in every way
*Naval History Magazine*
Much of Scott’s source material is from published works, but it is
evident that he scoured the major archives in the United States and
the United Kingdom for primary documents. A number of photographs
from his personal collection are included. Scott also provides an
impressive set of appendices listing casualties and survivors. Many
were Held by the Sea is a grim reminder of the inherent danger of
naval operations.
Neil Scott’s monograph is a well written and thoroughly researched
account of one of the final disasters of World War I.
The main characters appear to be handled fairly, the prose is clear
and the narrative is complete in every way
*Naval History Magazine*
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