Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

The Great War D.S.M. awarded to Stoker J. Cook, Royal Naval Reserve, arguably for the most famous Q-Ship action of them all, namely the Dunraven’s celebrated clash with the UC-71 on 8 August 1917 - on which occasion Gordon Campbell’s crew of 69 men won two V.Cs, two D.S.Os, six D.S.Cs, seven C.G.Ms, 24 D.S.Ms and 14 “mentions”

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (S. 4704 J. Cook, Sto., R.N.R., Atlantic Ocean, 8 Aug. 1917), possible official correction to initial, very fine £1600-1800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 2 November 1917.

On 8 August 1917 at 10:58 a.m., the Q-ship Dunraven, disguised as a British armed merchant ship, was zig-zagging about 130 miles off Ushant when a U-Boat was sighted on the horizon two points before the starboard beam. Dunraven maintained her course and the U-Boat, UC-71, began to close. At 11:17 the enemy submarine dived and, resurfacing again 5,000 yards away on the starboard quarter at 11:43, opened fire. Dunraven’s commander, the Q-Ship ace Captain Gordon Campbell, V.C., D.S.O., R.N., acting out the evolutions of a panic stricken merchantman, sent off a distress signal containing his ship’s position and ordered a token fire to be returned from the merchantman’s two-and-a-half-pounder gun. The submarine closed to within 1,000 yards somewhat surprisingly without scoring a hit, but at about 12:40 Campbell took advantage of a near miss to make ‘a cloud of steam’ and so simulate boiler trouble. At the same time he sent away the “Panic Party”, giving the impression that the ship was being abandoned. So far the U-Boat had been made to conform to Campbell’s wishes and all might have been well except for the submarine, now closing rapidly, scored three hits on Dunraven’s poop in quick succession. The first detonated a depth charge which wounded three men, including Lieutenant Bonner, who was blown out of his hiding place, and who with great presence of mind quickly scrambled through the hatch to join Petty Officer Pitcher, the captain of the 4-inch gun crew. The explosion also cut communication between Pitcher’s team and the bridge, whereupon, ‘they decided for themselves that they must stay where they were, as had they moved they would have spoilt the show, since the ship had already been abandoned and no one was supposed to be on board’. ‘This act of theirs,’ wrote Campbell, ‘was entirely their own; they had no prompting from me and no words of encouragement’.

The second and third shells started a major fire on the poop where, Pitcher and the others were uncomfortably concealed on a ‘red hot deck’ immediately above an ammunition store. As the fire spread, one of the gunners tore up his shirt ‘to stuff up their mouths to keep the fumes out’, while Pitcher and others ‘lifted the ready use boxes of cordite off the deck on to their knees to delay them exploding’. Meanwhile UC-71, obscured by black smoke billowing from the poop was somewhere crossing Dunraven’s stern. Campbell was anxious to wait until the U-Boat was clear of the smoke before opening fire, but he was also painfully aware that an explosion must soon take place: ‘To cold-bloodedly leave the gun’s crew to their fate seemed awful, and the names of each of them flashed through my mind, but our duty was to sink the submarine. By losing a few men we might save thousands not only of lives but of ships and tons of the nation’s requirements. I decided to wait ...’

At 12:58, just before the submarine emerged from the smoke to present three of Dunraven’s 12-pounder guns with a clear target at less than 400 yards range, the expected explosion - ‘probably two depth charges and some cordite’ - took place, blowing out the stern of the ship and throwing the 4-inch gun and crew into the air. The gun crashed on to the well-deck as 4-inch projectiles were blown about the ship. One man landed in the sea, while Pitcher and Bonner, both of whom were wounded by the blast, landed in board on mock railway trucks made of wood and canvas which cushioned their fall and undoubtedly saved their lives.

UC-71 crash-dived. Two shots were fired at her, but without telling effect, and Campbell, realizing that a torpedo attack might follow, had Pitcher and the other wounded removed to the cabins where they were obliged to remain during the closing stages of the action, ‘with shells exploding all around them, and only such attention as the surgeon probationer and his comrades could give them’. Having sent two more “Panic Parties” away from the ship in boats in order to try and reassure the enemy, Campbell was preparing to make his own torpedo attack when at 13:20 Dunraven was torpedoed abaft the engine-room. UC-71 surfaced again and shelled the Q-Ship for a further 20 minutes before diving at 14:50. Campbell then fired two torpedoes at the U-Boat, using the periscope as the point of aim, but both missed. The ship’s company waited for the coup de grâce, but none came. UC-71, having no more torpedoes, left the scene at the approach of the U.S.S. Noma and the British destroyers Christopher and Attack. The Christopher took Dunraven in tow for Plymouth, but during the night the weather worsened and the Q-Ship was abandoned before sinking at 03:00 a.m.

To the dismay of Campbell and indeed his entire crew, Dunraven was not to be replaced and the ship’s company was paid off on 24 August 1917 - but they did become the most decorated ship of the War, their Honours and Awards being headed by V.Cs to Bonner and Pitcher.