Page 45 - December 2020 Voices

BURIED TREASURE

Frank Paulding & First Canadian Toastmasters Club #38 (Part Two)

Henry Schowe, DTM - District 7 Historian

Frank Paulding boarded the Cunard Liner SS turned him away because it was filled with

Laconia with YMCA secretaries George Foster 70 people. Another lifeboat picked him up
and Henry G. Pope. The YMCA assigned them to afterwards where he spent the night in an ocean
work with Canadian troops in France. The Liner with 12-foot swells. One passenger in his lifeboat
SS Laconia was launched at Wallsend on July 27, died from exposure. The U-boat captain asked

1911 and delivered to Cunard Line on December lifeboat survivors where the captain was and
12, 1911. The Liner began service on January 20, what type of cargo the ship was carrying. He
1912. The 18,099 ton 600-foot long and 71-foot- wanted to take the Laconia captain prisoner. The
wide liner was one of first ocean liners to have submarine captain told the survivors a British

anti roll tanks. The British government converted warship would rescue them then the U-boat
the liner in 1914 into an armed merchant cruiser submerged. Later the YMCA secretary told
and troop transport. Laconia resumed regular Paulding that he and the Scottish soldier were
passenger service September 1916. in a half-submerged lifeboat when the second

SS Laconia departed New York City harbor torpedo struck the liner. The wave from the
Saturday afternoon on February 17, 1917 for explosion pushed their lifeboat away from the
Liverpool, England. The voyage was uneventful sinking liner and up against another lifeboat. A
for eight days. On a clear Sunday night, February British warship and other rescue vessels picked

25, 2017, Frank Paulding and the other YMCA up the survivors starting at 4:00 am until dawn.
secretaries were listening to a Scottish soldier Twenty-one passengers died from exposure.
telling a story about the Battle of Somme. Survivors were taken to Cork and Bantry,
Around 10:30 pm, they heard a loud explosion. Ireland before being transported to Queenstown,

A German submarine U-50 fired a torpedo that England. The sinking of the Laconia resulted in
struck the liner on the starboard side aft of the the US declaring war on Germany.
engine room. When the U-boat surfaced the SS Laconia—Laconia Officers: Captain W. I.
captain used a spotlight to identify the damaged R. D. Irvine, A. W. Roberts, chief engineer, G. S.

ship. Twenty minutes later, the submarine fired a Kennedy, surgeon, C.T. Spedding, pursuer, W. P.
second torpedo that struck the Laconia’s engine Gerson, assistant purser, W. Ballyn, chief steward
room causing it to sink stern first an hour later. Crew-216—Passengers: The line carried
Paulding and the other YMCA secretaries 75 passengers with 33 in first class and 42 in

ran to their cabins for their life preservers and second class. Frank Paulding was in the second-
boarded life boats. Paulding’s lifeboat tipped up class section where second class was composed
and threw him into the water. Frank remained primarily of Canadian and British Nationals.
in cold-seawater for 20 minutes. One lifeboat

VOICES! | DECEMBER 2020 45