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HMS ''Bergamot'' was an ''Anchusa''-class sloop of the Royal Navy, which had a short career during World War I. Built by Armstrong Whitworth, the ship was laid down on 1 January 1917, launched on 5 May, and commissioned on 14 July.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher =Flixco Pty Limited )〕 Four weeks later, on 13 August 1917, under the command of Lieut-Commander Percy T. Perkins, she was sunk in the Atlantic north-west of the harbour of Killybegs by the German submarine , commanded by Walter Rohr. His war diary describes how he sighted a lone merchant ship, with no defensive armament (an unusual sight by 1917). HMS Bergamot evidently sighted the U-boat's periscope, as she began to zig-zag at high speed. The U-84 fired one torpedo — which hit — and HMS Bergamot sank in 4 minutes. Surfacing, the U-84 sighted an unusually large number of crew (70) and pieces of wood floating. The U-boat's log identifies the possibility of the Bergamot being a "trap ship". One of the indicators being the narrow beam in relation to the length of the ship, a sure sign of a warship. After a brief search of the area, in which no officers could be identified, the light diminished too much, and the U-84 left the area to continue her patrol. When the torpedo hit her, HMS Bergamot launched a "panic party" in lifeboat no.1, containing 31 men, but the ship sank too quickly for the ruse to be successful.〔http://www.naval-history.net/WW1Book-RN5a.htm#1" Naval Operations - Volume 5. "Loss of the Dunraven"〕 At the moment of the explosion, the Bergamot's first officer, Lieutenant Frederick W. Siddall, and her probationer surgeon, Robert S.Smith were both in her wardroom. The explosion jammed both of the watertight doors leading into this compartment, and Siddall was rendered unconscious. Smith piled the wrecked wardroom furniture up in order to reach the skylight in the roof, and then dragged the unconscious Siddall up and out of the compartment. Having reached the main deck, Smith worked on both Siddall and a wounded Petty Officer, who was lying on the deck with a broken leg and arm. By this time the ship was clearly sinking so Smith inflated his casualties life vests and lowered them both into the water. As HMS Bergamot sank one of her depth charges exploded, badly wounding Siddall and again rendering him unconscious. Smith towed both his casualties to lifeboat no.2, which had left the sinking ship, containing 47 survivors, and then worked on Siddall for 25 minutes, administering artificial respiration, until he again recovered consciousness. Smith then treated the other injured survivors in no.2 over the 48 hours that the lifeboats were adrift until they were picked up. For these life saving actions, Surgeon Robert Sydney Steele Cathcart Smith was awarded the Albert Medal. For the unfortunate Siddall, this was the second time he'd been blown up in 6 weeks. He'd been a member of the crew on (HMS Salvia ) when that ship had been sunk. An interesting historical note is that the week before, ''Bergamot'' had experimented with towing a submerged submarine — — thus resurrecting a 1915 method of trapping submarines. ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Bergamot (1917)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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