Service No: 132052
Died: 13/01/1915
Age: 45
Interred in Bangor Cemetery
Found in Belfast LoughJohn Alfred Blockley was born on 14th February 1870 in Hinckley, Leicestershire. He was the son of Zinor Blockley, a carpenter, and his wife Agnes, and the second of their six children.
In Bangor yesterday afternoon Dr. Samuel Wallace conducted an inquiry into the circumstances under which J. E. Blockley, said to be a first-class petty officer on board H.M.S. Vicknor, whose body was discovered on Monday, had met his death. When taken from the water the body was encircled by a lifebelt, and round the neck of the deceased was an inflated rubber collar. Where the deceased came from is as yet unknown, but his official number is given as 132052.
Sergeant J. Johnston gave evidence of identification. The deceased was J. E. Blockley, said to be a first-class petty officer on H.M.S. Viknor, and appeared to be about forty-six years of age. Whether he was married or where he came from was not yet known. The body had been picked up off Black Head on Monday, and identified by a disc attached to it.
Dr. J. F. Mitchell expressed the opinion that he body had been in the water for about a week, and death in his opinion was due to asphyxia caused by drowning.
A verdict of "Found drowned in Belfast Lough" was returned.
John was working as an errand boy when on 14th February 1888, his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the Royal Navy.
He served on numerous vessels and shore establishments and in 1904 was serving on Excellent when he married Mary Margaret Foster in Portsmouth. They had two children: John Alfred born 1905 and George Edmund born 1910.
John completed his 12 years service in February 1910 and the following year was working as a "beer retailer" in the Lord Palmerston in Arundel Street, Portsmouth although he transferred his licence to another in July 1913.
In August 1914, John was recalled for service joining the crew of the Dolphin as Petty Officer. He then served at Victory 1 and on the Excellent before joining the Vicknor in December 1914.
The following on the loss of the Viknor is extracted from the Dawlish Chronicles
... One such loss with all hands was of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Viknor. She had been built as long before as 1888 as a passenger liner, the Atrato, for use on routes between Britain and the West Indies. Capable of carrying 279 passengers, and 421 ft long and 5,347 tons, she was distinctly yacht-like in appearance due to her clipper bow and smartly raked masts and funnels. Sadly underpowered at 1000 hp, her single screw driving her at no more than 14 knots, she must nevertheless have looked a splendid sight on the blue waters of the Caribbean. In 1912 she was renamed as the Viking by new owners and was used for cruising, an activity for which speed was not an essential.
Thoroughly obsolete in 1914, not to mention slow, it is therefore surprising that she should have been requisitioned by the British Admiralty service on the outbreak of war in 1914. Now named HMS Viknor, she was armed as a “merchant cruiser” and allocated to the Royal Navy’s 10th Cruiser Squadron which was tasked with patrolling between Iceland and Northern Scotland. Minimally armed, these merchant cruisers were not expected to meet enemy warships and their main purpose was to intercept neutral shipping for inspection to detect war contraband destined for Germany. Considering that during the winter months the ships on this station were likely to encounter some of the worst sea conditions in the world, it is surprising that an old underpowered vessel like the Viknor was ever chosen for such duty.
During the first weeks of 1915 the Viknor was on patrol off the North West coast of Ireland. She appears to have been in radio contact but she was to disappear in heavy weather on January 13th, close to Tory Island, off the coast of Donegal, without sending a distress signal. She took with her the entire 291-man crew, as well as a German national who had been taken off a ship the neutral Norwegian vessel Bergensfjord, under suspicion of being a secret agent, as well as six other men who have been cryptically referred to as “stowaways”. Some wreckage and many corpses were subsequently washed up on the Irish and Scottish coasts.
Though the exact cause of the Viknor’s loss cannot be established with certainty, it is possible that she struck a German mine. This could possibly have been one of the 200 laid in the same general area by the German auxiliary cruiser Berlin, one of which had sunk the British super-dreadnought HMS Audacious on October 27th 1914...
The Viknor’s wreck was found by the Irish survey vessel Celtic Explorer in 2006 but the reason for her loss could still not be identified with absolute certainty.
 |
| The liner Atrato, later the Viking and lastly HMS Viknor |
BLOCKLEY – In loving memory of John Alfred Blockley, Warwick House, Kimbolton-road, Copnor, of H.M.S. Viknor, drowned off the Irish coast, January, 1915. – From his sorrowing wife and boys. R.I.P. Portsmouth Evening News, 29th January 1915.
No comments:
Post a Comment