Built in 1905 at William Doxford & Sons and owned by the Tatem Steam Navigation Company the freighter Torrington was 390' long and 5,597 gross tons, her 395 hp triple expansion engine could produce up to 10 knots. On April 8, 1917 Torrington was en route from Italy to Cardiff to collect another load of coal for the Italian State Railway for which she was under charter.

About 1130 a.m. on that day a lookout spotted a lifeboat in the distance, the master, Anthony Starkey, steered toward the lifeboat to pick up the survivors of an unknown shipwreck. Shortly thereafter a torpedo was noticed approaching his ship. Putting the helm over in an attempt to avoid it failed as the torpedo was too close, it hit the ship forward of the bridge. Holds 2 and 3 began to flood quickly and soon the propeller and rudder were out of the water stopping the ship.

There was no doubt that the ship would sink because of the damage, but the submarine commander apparently did not want to take any chances. He surfaced and began to shell the wounded ship. According to Starkey none of the shells hit the ship and he ordered the two lifeboats lowered. All thirty-five men got into the two boats and began to row away from the Torrington, but before they got to far they were approached by the submarine.

Starkey was taken aboard the submarine and quickly sent below to be interrogated by the commander. The commander was very curt and the interrogation harsh. He was asked his name and then accused of lying by the commander, his edition of Lloyd's showing the name of the previous master. He was asked if his ship was armed to which the reply was yes, but the gun could not be brought round to fire on the submarine. He was asked where the gunners were and why they were not in uniform, he replied that they had no chance to change into their best clothes before the attack.

During the interrogation much was taking place outside of the submarine, Starkey's lifeboat was emptied of provisions and the men put aboard the submarine, it is not clear what was happening to the other lifeboat. The submarine crew took the empty boat to the Torrington, boarded the ship and looted her.

Inside the submarine the interrogation was over and the German told Starkey that he considered him to be a pirate and that he would or at least should be shot, as for the others...let them swim. Then a bell rang and the submarine submerged. She stayed down about twenty minutes and then surfaced at which time the crew returned with the booty from Torrington and her lifeboat. Starkey later noticed that the Germans were eating foodstuffs which had only been in the port lifeboat, he knew this because he had noted earlier that the supplies from his boat differed from those of the port boat.

Starkey was now a resident of SMS U-55 with hospitality provided by Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Werner, with him were the masters of SS Petrigde Mr. Ashfield, SS Umvoti Mr. Draper and two gunners, one from each ship. Both ships had been sunk the same day before shortly Torrington and it might have been a lifeboat from one of these ships which Starkey's man had seen causing him to alter his course just before being torpedoed.

At first the safety of his men did not seem to be a concern, the sea was calm and he felt that they would make land or be picked up, however conversations with some of the German sailors led him to believe otherwise. A German sailor named Küper told him that he (Starkey) was lucky to escape with his life. This must have concerned him so he struck up a conversation with the radio operator, he mentioned in passing that he "supposed his men would all be home by then," the radio operator replied "your crew has been drowned." At least one further statement made by a crewmen to Starkey was of terrifying bluntness, the machine gunner is said to have told him that "this was not war, this was murder."

Starkey did not let on that he knew what had happened, and in fact he had not seen any of this with his own eyes. Accounts of what actually happened vary, but it seems that Werner submerged his boat with the crew of the Torrington on the casing, something he had done before and would do again only a few days later. Twenty minutes (the amount of time he was under) does not seem like enough time to allow healthy sailors on a calm sea to drown, maybe the submarine moved away a couple of miles before submerging and then returned to the Torrington (much like he had done during the sinking of the Belgian Prince only a few months later) or maybe something more sinister happened. Exactly what happened to the men in the port lifeboat is also unclear, maybe they were taken aboard the submarine and subsequently drowned or maybe they were shot in their boat, I was unable to find a definitive statement as to how they died, all that is known is that all thirty-four survivors from Torrington were never seen again. It is not known why the two other crews sunk that day (Petridge and Umvoti) did not share the same fate as the men of Torrington.

Starkey (and the others) were held as prisoners until the war ended, when they were released the story of what had happened was bound to float to the surface, and it did. Werner and his actions had become well known to the authorities and he was charged with war crimes. He should have been on trial at Leipzig, but he fled to Brazil and was never tired for his crimes.