Mason, Albert

BORN HULL 1895. SON OF GEORGE & BETSY MASON ABOVE. DIED AT SEA. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 22/08/18.
British Pathfinder Class Scout Cruiser torpedoed and sunk out from the Firth of Forth by German submarine U-21. Hit by a single torpedo that hit the forward magazine causing it to explode, Pathfinder sinking in 4 minutes. She was the first British warship sunk by a submarine in World War 1. 500 crew were lost. There were seventy survivors from the crew of 570. 49 of these were picked up by a Norwegian steamer and taken to Aberdeen and further 21 were rescued by HMS Swift.
The perils of the early operations amongst the German laid mines was well shown by the cases of H.M.S. Speedy and the steam drifter Linsdell and H.M.S. Pathfinder.
On September 3, 1914, the commanding officer of the Speedy stated that the Linsdell struck a mine that morning 30 miles off the East coast and sank. A quarter of an hour later the Speedy also struck a mine and sank. The Speedy’ s casualties were slight. In the case of the drifter, Skipper Woodgate and four members of the crew were missing, the rest of the crew having been picked up by the Speedy before she struck the second mine.
Two days later the light cruiser H.M.S. Pathfinder struck a mine about twenty miles off the East coast and foundered very rapidly, with heavy loss of life. Several steam drifters which were in the neighbourhood hurried to the scene of the disaster and helped greatly in saving the survivors.