Spencer Genn of Blackburn d. 1917

Spencer Genn here is a direct descendant of the Richard Ginn of Ely mentioned in my post of 23rd September.  The surname in this family changed its spelling from Ginn to Genn in the latter part of the 18th century.

Whilst I have a very full list of descendants of many mentioned on this blog up until the present day, my custom out of respect for the privacy of people will obviously be not to give any details of people living or those who died after the First World War.

Spencer here was born one of three brothers in 1889 in Blackburn in Lancashire, to where some of the Genn family of Ely had decamped.  

Spencer was a steward on the “Brittanic” (originally called the “Gigantic”) which was commissioned by the White Star Line, was sister ship to the “Titanic” and met a similar fate.

In 1915 the ship was requisitoned as a hospital ship for use during the First World War and her livery was changed and as such she is seen above.  She was used in the Mediterranean.

At 8:12 AM on 21 November 1916, the ship being off of the southern coast of Greece, a loud explosion shook the ship. The cause, whether it was a torpedo from an enemy submarine or a mine, was not apparent * The reaction in the dining room was immediate; doctors and nurses left instantly for their posts. Not everybody reacted the same way, as further aft the power of the explosion was less felt, and many thought the ship had hit a smaller boat. Captain Bartlett and Chief Officer Hume were on the bridge at the time, and the gravity of the situation was soon evident. The explosion was on the starboard side, between holds two and three. The force of the explosion damaged the watertight bulkhead between hold one and the forepeak.The first four watertight compartments were filling rapidly with water. Also, the firemen's tunnel connecting the firemen's quarters in the bow with boiler room six was seriously damaged, and water was flowing into that boiler room. 

As with the Titanic, the crucial things were the bulkheads, if they were damaged or the water were to overflow them the ship would immediately sink.  The good news was that after the Titanic disaster the White Star Line had ordered that the Brittanic's bulkheads be reinforced and enlarged and there were more lifeboats, but unfortunately as the ship was being used as a floating hospital, the portholes on the lower decks had been left open to ventilate the wards.  These filled rapidly with water and the ship began to go down and the ship's crew began to prepare the lifeboats.

Unfortunately, some of the stewards (and I assume this must have included Spencer)  had the Titanic disaster fresh in their minds and panicked and rushed the lifeboats, getting in two and trying to lower  them.  They were stopped, but to avoid the panic spreading the crew left them pretty much to their own devices whilst they attended elsewhere.

The situation worsened rapidly, but the crew had things in hand apparently.  However whilst unattended the stewards apparently lowered the two half lowered boats in which they sat.  They were clumsy, the ropes shot through the pulleys quickly and the boats fell heavily into the water. The ship's engines were still running, the propellers were half out of the water now and still turning, the boats were dragged by the flow onto the propellers and you can guess the rest, a fair number of men were chopped to death and others wounded, Spencer obviously among them.  The ship sank within an hour of the explosion and was the largest ship lost during WW1.

The sinking of the Brittanic was obviously a major disaster and has achieved some attention by Hollywood, a highly fictional film being made in 2000 and the image of the sinking above having been taken from the film.

Ironically, had the stewards not panicked they would likely have got off of the ship completely safely, as subsequently the engines were turned off and no less than 1,036 of the 1,066 on board were saved, partly (as compared to the Titanic) due to the warm sea, partly due to there being more lifeboats and partly due to rescue being at hand.

                            Survivors on board HMS Scourge

 Spencer was obviously invalided home and died of his injuries at Plymouth in 1917 aged 28.  He is mentioned on the Blackburn War Memorial shown below. Spencer is known to have married but I know of no descendants and would be pleased to know more from any family member.

 * In 1975 the famous French diver, Jacques Cousteau, located and led an expedition to the ship.  His conclusion from the damage was that the ship was torpedoed.  Obviously,as the ship was a hospital ship it should not have been torpedoed and the Germans have denied this and subsequent diving expeditions have suggested that the ship could have hit a mine.