BORN HULL 1893. SON OF JOHN JOSEPH SONNABEND (1859-1939) & MARY ANDREW (1857-1928), OF 16, MARMADUKE STREET, HULL. HIS FATHER, WAS BORN IN DANTZIG, GERMANY AND A NATURALISED BRITISH CITIZENS.
HE JOINED THE MERCHANT NAVY, ON 29/02/1908. SERVED AS AN ABLE SEAMAN, ON THE STEAM SHIP, “TYCHO”. KILLED AT SEA WHEN HIS SHIP WAS TORPEDOED. HE WAS RETURNING FROM A FIVE MONTH VOYAGE AND WAS SUNK NEARING THE ENGLISH COAST. AGED 23. ANOTHER SAD FEATURE WAS HE WAS DUE TO BE MARRIED. HE IS REMEMBERED ON THE HULL MERCHANT NAVY ROH AND THE TRINITY HOUSE WW1 MEMORIAL. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH, IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 24TH MAY 1917. *
SS Tycho, built by Earle’s Shipbuilding & Eng. Co. Ltd., Hull in 1904 and owned at the time of her loss by Ellerman’s Wilson Line, Ltd., Hull, was a British steamer of 3216 tons. On May 20th, 1917, Tycho, on a voyage from Bombay to Hull with general cargo, was sunk by the German submarine UB-40 (Hans Howaldt), 16 miles W1/2S of Beachy Head. 15 persons were lost.
When about 8 miles south of Beachy Head on the 20th May, the British steamer Tycho was torpedoed without warning and began to go down by the head. The order to abandon ship was given at 5.10 p.m., ten minutes after the ship had been struck, and was carried out without casualties. The vessel went down at 5.20.
The crew then pulled towards the steamship Porthkerry, which had seen the explosion and was standing by about 200 yards away on the port beam. As the Tycho’s boats came alongside her, another torpedo was discharged by the submarine.
This blew up one of the boats, killing the master and 14 men, and capsized the other boat. The Porthkerry was abandoned, with eight casualties, the vessel going down in three minutes after being struck by the torpedo. The survivors from both ships were picked up at 7 o’clock that night by a small coasting steamer and landed at Newhaven at midnight on the 21st May.
