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Concept
HMHS Glenart Castle
Summary
HMHS Glenart Castle (His Majesty's Hospital Ship) was a steamship originally built as Galician in 1900 for the Union-Castle Line. She was renamed Glenart Castle in 1914, but was requisitioned for use as a British hospital ship during the First World War. On 26 February 1918, she was hit and sunk by a torpedo fired from the German U-boat .
Britain entered the First World War on 4 August 1914. The next day Galician was held up west of the Canary Islands by a ship flying a German flag. German officers boarded her, searched her papers and took two Army officer passengers prisoner before releasing her. In October 1914 she was refitted as a hospital ship and renamed Glenart Castle.
Glenart Castle subsequently suffered damaged when she struck a mine in the English Channel northwest of the Owers Lightship on 1 March 1917. Hit near the rear starboard around 23:40, the engines were stopped and the damage inspected. The watertight doors to the engine room were warped and could not be closed completely. Upon hearing that the boiler room and Number 4 hold were flooding, Captain Day ordered the ship to be evacuated. All 115 crew, 68 medical staff and 525 patients were saved, and the crippled ship was towed into Portsmouth. Glenart Castle was repaired and returned to service in November 1917.
On 25 February 1918, Glenart Castle left Newport, South Wales, heading towards Brest, France, to collect patients. After 3:00 on 26 February, fishermen in the Bristol Channel saw her clearly lit up as a hospital ship. John Hill — a fisherman on Swansea Castle — remembered "I saw the Hospital Ship with green lights all around her – around the saloon. She had her red side lights showing and mast-head light, and also another red light which I suppose was the Red Cross light." A little before 04:00, Glenart Castle was hit by a torpedo fired from the German U-boat in the No. 3 hold. The blast destroyed most of the lifeboats, while the subsequent pitch of the vessel hindered attempts to launch the remaining boats.
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