Asleep in the Deep is the story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC), loosely told through the experience of Nursing Sister Anna Stamers of St. John, New Brunswick. As Stamers left neither diary nor first person narratives, author Dianne Kelly was forced to rely on newspaper articles, military records or writings of others from which Stamers’ location and actions could be determined or inferred. Two years after graduation from Saint John School of Nursing, Stamers was one of 50 CAMC nurses to sail from Montreal on June 4, 1915, arriving at Plymouth on June 13 after an uneventful crossing.
Beginning on July 2, 1915, Anna spent her first eight months at Moore Barracks near Folkestone, Kent;. As more Canadian troops entered the lines in France, CAMC established two Canadian Casualty Clearing Stations (CCCS), Canadian Stationary Hospital (CSH) No. 1 and Canadian General Hospital (CGH) in France. Anna was one of nine Canadian nursing sisters to arrive at CGH near Etaples, France on February 19, 1916. Though ostensibly protected by the Hague Convention, medical corps were targets. On April 25/26, 1916 a Zepplin attack dropped two bombs directly on No. 1 CGH. After over a year of treating Canadian casualties from Mount Sorrel outside Ypres, the Somme and Vimy Ridge, Anna was granted leave to return home, departing from Liverpool for Canada on June 9, 1917, facing a greater threat from U-Boats than in 1915. While in Canada, veteran nursing sisters gave speeches on conditions in France and highlighted patriotic events.
Anna was at No. 16 CGH in Orpington, England, by October 12, 1917. Many of her patients had already received treatment in France and some would be sent back to Canada on hospital ships. In her evolving service, Anna was transferred to the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle, in March 1918. Despite special protection under the 1907 Hague Convention, to which Germany, Britain and all the naval powers were signatories, observance varied over time and among officers. Article 1 of the Convention stipulated that hospital ships were not to be used for any other purpose.
Claims that hospital ships were used for transportation of troops or war materials and for observation were raised by both sides. After sinking a half-flotilla of German minelayers on October 17, 1914, the British captured the German hospital ship Ophelia on the claim, upheld by the Prize Court, that it was acting as a signaling ship but not as a hospital ship. The Ophelia precedent would be cited by Germany to justify actions against British hospital ships for the rest of the War. After February 4, 1915, all ships in the war zone around Britain and Ireland were declared subject to German attack, although “hospital ships are to be spared; they may only be attacked when they were obviously used for the transport of troops from England to France.” On February 1, 1915 a German torpedo narrowly missed the British hospital ship Asturias. In 1916 the Russian hospital ship Portugal was torpedoed by U-33 in the Black Sea and Portugal’s replacement, Vpered was later torpedoed. British hospital ships torpedoed included HMHS Gloucester Castle, Asturias, HMHS Lanfranc, HMHS Donegal, and Britannic.
Anna knew she was undertaking hazardous duty whenever she boarded Llandovery Castle. On June 27, on the seventh night of a return trip to Liverpool, a torpedo from U-86 struck the ship at 9:30 p.m., sinking her in ten minutes. The explosion destroyed the wireless and prevented the crew from sending a distress call. Witnesses claimed that seven lifeboats made it safely into the sea. One was sucked into the whirlpool created by the sinking ship, two others capsized. The captain’s lifeboat was rescued after 36 hours at sea. A British sloop and four American Destroyers continued the search, yielding only one lifeboat.
All massacres have survivors. Major Thomas Lyon, a Canadian surgeon, testified the U-Boat commander took Lyon and Captain Sylvester of Llandovery Castle aboard for questioning. After their release, the U-Boat went on “a smashing up cruise among the survivors and by hurling it hither and thither he succeeded in ramming and sinking all the boats and rafts except one…which escaped. The survivors in this boat heard the sound of gunfire behind them for some time.”
The sinking of the Llandovery Castle became part of the Allies’ propoganda war and forced a change in hospital ship practice. After the sinking, hospital ships proceeded as ordinary transports, with no distinguishing markings, armed and with naval escorts. Helmut Patzig, commander of U-86, was convicted of war crimes in 1920, but the conviction was quashed in a general amnesty in 1931 and he served as a U-boat commander from 1943-1945.
Anna Stammers was killed in the sinking and is commemorated in her home province of New Brunswick.
War History Network members readers will appreciate this 222 page book for its insights into the Canadian Army Medical Corps in World War I and for the shocking details of the dangers of hospital ships. The focus of this book is the nurses of the CAMC, with Nurse Stamers serving to provide a connection to qualify the book for The New Brunswick Military History Series, of which it is a part. Asleep in the Deep has earned its niche in the medical history of the World War I.
Replies