Johnsen, O.

BORN DENMARK 1873. LOST AT SEA. HIS WIFE BERTHA JOHNSEN LIVED HERE.
On February 15th, 1915, the British cargo ship MEMBLAND, built in 1900 by William Gray & Co., Ltd. and owned at the time of her loss by Macbeth & Co., West Harlepool, left Hull for Tyne in ballast, and went missing. She was not heard of ever since. 25 people lost their lives. Presumed mined, possibly in the Scarborough mine-field laid in December 1914.
CREW and PASSENGERS LOST ON MEMBLAND
J. Brotchie, Master, of South Shields.
Edward Husdell, 1st mate, West Hartlepool.
P. Ware, 2nd mate, Hull.
C. Grant, steward, Ingleton, Yorks.
C. Johnson, boatswain, Hull.
A. Richards, A.B., Hull.
W. McDermott, seaman, Hull.
Wemer Parlon, seaman, Hull.
N. Johnson, seaman, Hull.
T. Freer, A.B., Hull.
Charles Berge, seaman, Hull.
L. J. Ellis, O.S. Hull.
W. Guthrie, 1st engineer, Ardrossan.
R. Mather, donkeyman, Hull.
E. Andersen, fireman, Hull.
H. Taylor, fireman, Hull.
John Jansson, fireman, of Hull.
Alex. Smith, fireman, of Hull.
John Finon, fireman, of Hull.
Richard Tattersall, fireman, of Hull.
William Lewis, engineer assistant, of Langside.
R. E. Page, North Sea pilot, of Hull.
Mrs. Guthrie, wife of chief engineer.
Mrs. Husdell, wife of 1st mate, and child.
During the First World War, nothing outraged the people of Yorkshire more than the bombardment of Scarborough by a fleet of German ships in December 1914. Nineteen people were killed and a further eighty were injured. The cry “Remember Scarborough!” was used in recruitment posters, so great was the anger felt.
What was not so clear at the time was that the bombardment was nothing more than a cover for an even greater threat. While the German battle-cruisers DERFFLINGER and VON DER TANN were firing their shells at the town, the light cruiser KOLBERG was engaged in laying, what proved to be, the densest minefield ever known in the history of naval warfare just off Scarborough. There is a theory that the intention of the German ships was to try and lure the British Grand Fleet into this minefield, and there are strong arguments for this. Whatever their reasons, the minefield did have devastating results, many of which did not become apparent until the last few years. Many ships in the war years simply disappeared without trace: they left their home ports and failed to reach their destinations. At the time, many of these unfortunate vessels were listed as “lost in the North Sea”. Discoveries by amateur divers of Scarborough Sub-Aqua Club in more recent years have shown that many such losses were, in fact, victims of KOLBERG´s 100 mines.