Hms Arbutus

Arbutus was an Anchusa-group Flower-class sloop, built by Armstrong Whitworth at Barrow and launched on 8 September 1917. She displaced about 1,290 tons, could make about 16 knots and carried roughly 93 people. Ships of her type escorted merchant traffic, swept mines and were shaped to resemble merchant vessels so that they could also work as submarine decoys. On 15 December she was operating with the American destroyer USS O'Brien west of Pembrokeshire.

The ships went to investigate a reported submarine about 16 miles west-south-west of the Smalls. At about four in the afternoon a torpedo struck Arbutus on the port side and flooded her boiler and engine rooms. O'Brien searched and dropped depth charges while also shielding the damaged sloop. Arbutus could not be saved; her hull broke and she sank after the evacuation.

Most aboard transferred to O'Brien, but nine are named among the dead: Samuel Bunker, John Croskery, Thurston Haliwell, George Jones, Commander Charles Herbert Oxlade, William Phillips, George Pickett, Walter W. J. Rowley and Lieutenant Charles Stewart. Oxlade stayed with his command. Oxlade and Stewart reportedly decided by a coin toss which lieutenant would remain, and Stewart stayed aboard with him.

The wreck has collapsed into a scattered, roughly butterfly-shaped area about 100 metres long and 50 metres wide, lying approximately north to south. It is treated as the resting place of service personnel and is protected under the law covering military remains. Diving does not give permission to disturb or remove anything.

Arbutus had been in service only a few months, yet her loss captures the danger of Atlantic escort and submarine-hunting work late in the First World War. The rescue by an American destroyer also shows how closely the allied navies were then operating. The named dead and protected wreck turn what could be a bare map point into a human war grave.