Tradition in Samoa dictated that leadership of the islands was to be invested in a hereditary chief, but in the 1880s these claims to power were anything but certain. Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived in Samoa during this period of turmoil, commented that Europeans familiar with a history of kings and queens tend to leap to the conclusion that the office of high chief is absolute. In fact the office in Samoa was elective and held in many ways on condition of the holder's behaviour and attendance to his many obligations.
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Many Irishmen enlisted in the Navy, driven by a sense of duty, adventure, and economic necessity. This essay explores the significant contributions of Irish sailors to the Royal Navy during the Great War, focusing on their roles in major sea battles that shaped the course of the conflict.
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On 5 June 1916, HMS Hampshire left the Royal Navy’s anchorage at Scapa Flow, Orkney, bound for Russia. The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, was on board as part of a diplomatic and military mission aimed at boosting Russia’s efforts on the Eastern Front.
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‘American naval aviation had a romantic beginning; indeed, the development of our air service from nothing to a force which, in European waters, comprised 2,500 officers and 22,000 men, is one of the greatest accomplishments of the war.’
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On the night of 31 July 1917, the SS “Belgian Prince” was torpedoed by the German submarine, U-55, 175 miles North West of Tory Island. The incident occurred when the ship was traveling from Liverpool to Newport News, Virginia, in the United States, with a cargo of blue clay – which is rich in minerals. That night, thirty-nine men drowned.
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“The sea was running so high that the boat over turned almost immediately. Most of the crew managed to cling to the ' keel and succeeded in turning the boat , but it filled with water and capsized again , The same thing happened on four other occasions , and each time some of the sailors disappeared .
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