More about William John Sales

William has no known grave but is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. He was serving aboard H.M.S. Wellholme which was torpedoed and sunk by German Submarine UB-55, S.W. of Portland on 30 Jan 1918.

Loss
On the morning of the 30th of January, in response to reports of U-boat activity near Lyme
Bay, Wellholme set sail from Portland. Patrolling around Lyme Bay her crew saw nothing until,
as the sun was setting in the west, a U-boat was spotted on the surface 400 yards away.
But the U-boat had seen Wellholme too and quickly moved east where it was hidden in the
rapidly darkening sky. Just before 6pm, the German crew fired four shots in quick succession
on Welholme. One struck the hull at the waterline and Wellholme immediately began to settle.
Realising there was nothing to be done the captain ordered the crew on deck and, less than
five minutes after being struck, the ship heeled over and the crew were tossed into the
water. A small boat drifted free and the crew were able to clamber on board, but it was
soon realised that three men had been lost.
The U-boat, SM UB-55, had played a shrewd game, quickly taking advantage of the dimming
light and moving each time it fired. The attacker wasn’t seen by the Wellholme’s crew again
and they drifted in their boat for seven hours until, at 1am, they were picked up by the
Admiralty yacht HMY Lorna.
Wellholme itself hasn’t been seen since either – its wreck has not yet been identified on the
seabed.