BORN HULL 1864. SON OF GEORGE & ANN ELIZA WINDLE, OF DRYPOOL ABOVE. HUSBAND OF ANNIE. LOST AT SEA.
SS Minneapolis, built by Harland & Wolff, Ltd., Belfast in 1900 and owned at the time of her loss by Atlantic Transport Co. Ltd., Belfast, was a British passenger steamer.
On March 23rd, 1916, Minneapolis, on a voyage from Marseille to Alexandria carrying 60 tons horse fodder, was torpedoed by the German submarine U-35 (Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière), 195 miles of E1/2N Malta. 12 persons were lost.
The destroyer Sheldrake rescued 166 of her crew and 1 passenger. Minneapolis evidently remained afloat for some hours after the attack and an attempt was made to tow her to Malta.
She was towed in turn by by the destroyer HMS Lydiard, the sloop HMS Nasturtium and finally by the tugs Veteran and Milon, but she sank on March 25. She was under the command of Captain F. O. Hasker at the time of her loss.
On October 9, 1913, Minneapolis was one of 11 ships that responded to wireless distress calls from the burning Italian passenger cargo vessel Volturno. She was bound for New York carrying mixed cargo and a large number of emigrants, mostly from Russia, Poland, and Bulgaria when a serious fire broke out forward during a storm. Minneapolis launched one lifeboat at midnight but the sea was too rough to rescue anyone, and the boat was swamped as its crew was being recovered by the Carmania. The following day at first light as the seas moderated the tanker Rappahannock poured oil on the water around Volturno. Minneapolis launched all of her remaining lifeboats and saved 30 male passengers (the surviving women and children having been removed already by other vessels). They were landed at Gravesend on October 14 and provided with overnight accommodation at an emigrants lodging in London. All but three took advantage of the free passage to New York on the Olympic the next day provided for them by the owners of the Volturno. The disaster cost the lives of 136 of the 657 aboard Volturno, and was hailed as an example of the value of wireless telegraphy. Captain F. O. Hasker of the Minneapolis received the gold Sea Gallantry Medal from the Board of Trade and 21 members of the crew received silver medals and cash awards from the Atlantic Transport Line.
