BORN HULL 1879. WIFE MABEL BARKER LIVED ABOVE. SON OF THE LATE ROBERT ARTHUR & MARY ANN BARKER. SERVED AS A ROYAL NAVY ENGINEER. LOST AT SEA, ON 13/12/1917, AGED 38. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 13/11/1918.
SS Stephen Furness, built by Irvine’s Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Ltd., West Hartlepool in 1910 and operated at the time of her loss by Royal Navy, was a British passenger of 1.712 tons, used as an armed boarding cruiser.
On December 13th, 1917, Stephen Furness, on her way from Lerwick to Liverpool for repairs, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-64 (Walter Gude), 15 miles W x N from Contrary Head, Isle of Man.
Struck by a torpedo on the starboard side between the bridge and the funnel, she started sinking and before the life boats could be lowered, she suddenly went down. 101 persons were lost.
