BORN WEST DERBY, LIVERPOOL, 1886. SON OF ROBERT AND ALICE E.WHITFIELD, AT 35 VAUXHALL ROAD, LIVERPOOL. A BUTCHER SHOP MANAGER. SERVED AS CHIEF STEWARD, IN THE MERCHANT NAVY. DIED AT SEA ON THE 30/04/1918, AGED 31. PROBATE ADDRESS. LEFT £170 IN HIS WILL TO HIS FATHER.
The UMBA was built as Adelheid Menzell (Construction No. 287) in 1903 at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock, Germany. She was a schooner rigged screw steamer with a gross tonnage of 1501t, and measured 88.39m x 12.5m x 5.8m. She was equipped with a triple expansion steam engine delivering 180HP and two boilers. She had a crew of 25 and was capable of a maximum speed of 9kn. According to Lloyds Register in 1917, the vessel had a single deck, deep framing and was equipped with electric light and wireless. The Register also gives the lengths for poop (8.53m), bridge deck (38.1m) and forecastle (10.36m). From 1903 to 1906 Adelheid Menzell was employed on the Hamburg- China route. In 1906 the vessel was bought by the Hamburg Bremer Afrika Linie Ag, and was used in the Africa trade. In 1907 she was renamed to Irmgard, renamed again to Utgard and purchased by the Deutsche Seeverkehrs A.G. in Nordenham in 1912. A plan published in Strandgut 17 shows the general layout of the Utgard and her sister ships. A photograph shows one of the sister ships, the Asgard, also built by the Neptun shipyard in 1903 moored in Wilhelmshaven in 1919. In 1914 F.W. Fischer from Rostock bought the Utgard, but shortly thereafter she was commandeered by the Russian forces in Kovda in 1914, renamed to UMBA and used by the Archangelsk Murmansk S.N. Co. Archangelsk. The vessel was armed with a single Russian 6pdr gun mounted at the stern. In 1917 the UMBA was in turn confiscated by the Shipping Controller in England. In 1918 she was bought by the Ellerman´s Wilson Line. She was torpedoed on 30 April 1918 while in ballast en route from Dunkirk in France to Barry Roads in south Wales. The torpedo, fired by Sm UB-57, hit the UMBA amidships and tore a massive hole into her side. She sank almost immediately with the loss of 20 of her crew of 25. Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?201
