SS Mendi

File:HMS Brisk 1910.jpg

Mendi had sailed from Cape Town carrying 823 men of the 5th Battalion the South African Native Labour Corps to serve in France. She called at Lagos in Nigeria, where a naval gun was mounted on her stern. She next called at Plymouth and then headed up the English Channel toward Le Havre in northern France, escorted by the {{sclass|Acorn|destroyer}} {{HMS|Brisk|1910|6}}.

Mendi{{'}}s complement was a mixture characteristic of many UK merchant ships at the time. Officers, stewards, cooks, signallers and gunners were British; firemen and other crew were West Africans, most of them from Sierra Leone.{{sfn|Board of Trade|1917|p=7}}

The South African Native Labour Corps men aboard her came from a range of social backgrounds, and from a number of different peoples spread over the South African provinces and neighbouring territories.South African National Defence Force Archive 287 were from Transvaal, 139 from the Eastern Cape, 87 from Natal, 27 from Northern Cape, 26 from the Orange Free State, 26 from Basutoland, eight from Bechuanaland (Botswana), five from Western Cape, one from Rhodesia and one from South West Africa. Most had never seen the sea before this voyage, and very few could swim. The officers and NCOs were white Southern Africans.

At 5 am on 21 February 1917, in thick fog about {{convert|10|nmi|km}} south of St. Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company cargo ship Darro accidentally rammed Mendi{{'}}s starboard quarter, breaching her forward hold. Darro was an {{GRT|11484}} ship, almost three times the size of the Mendi, sailing in ballast to Argentina to load meat. Darro survived the collision but Mendi sank, killing 616 Southern Africans - 607 black troops, nine white officers & NCOs, and 30 crew.{{cite web|url= http://www.navy.mil.za/newnavy/surface/mendi040823/i040823_update.htm|publisher= South African Navy|title= Memorial wreath laying for the SS Mendi and her crew|access-date= 10 April 2006|archive-date= 5 June 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130605223616/http://www.navy.mil.za/newnavy/surface/mendi040823/i040823_update.htm|url-status= dead}}

Some men were killed outright in the collision; others were trapped below decks. Many others gathered on Mendi{{'}}s deck as she listed and sank. A number of the men were afraid to enter the water and many white NCOs delayed abandoning ship in order to encourage the men to jump overboard.{{Cite book |last=Starling |first=John |title=No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour During the First World War |last2=Lee |first2=Ivor |last3=Holmes |first3=Professor Richard |date=2014 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7509-5666-6 |location=New York}} Oral history records that the men met their fate with great dignity. An interpreter, Isaac Williams Wauchope (also known as Isaac Wauchope Dyobha),Record Card at South African National Defence Force Archive{{cite web|title=Isaac Wauchope Dyobh|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2895554/DYOBHA,%20ISAAC%20WAUCHOPE|publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission|access-date=23 February 2017}} who had previously served as a Minister in the Congregational Native Church of Fort Beaufort and Blinkwater, is reported to have calmed the panicked men by raising his arms aloft and crying out in a loud voice:

"Be quiet and calm, my countrymen. What is happening now is what you came to do...you are going to die, but that is what you came to do. Brothers, we are drilling the death drill. I, a Xhosa, say you are my brothers...Swazis, Pondos, Basotho...so let us die like brothers. We are the sons of Africa. Raise your war-cries, brothers, for though they made us leave our assegais in the kraal, our voices are left with our bodies."{{cite book |last=Boon |first=Mike |year=2008 |title=The African Way: The Power of Interactive Leadership |publisher=Zebra |isbn=978-1-77007-310-4 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XOVJ-zg14kgC}}

The damaged Darro did not stay to assist, but Brisk lowered her boats, whose crews then rescued survivors.{{cite web |url=http://www.navy.mil.za/newnavy/mendi_history/mendi_hist.htm |author=SA Legion – Atteridgeville Branch |title=The SS Mendi – A Historical Background |publisher=Navy News |website=South African Navy |access-date=20 November 2008 |archive-date=5 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305223813/http://www.navy.mil.za/newnavy/mendi_history/mendi_hist.htm |url-status=dead }}

The investigation into the accident led to a formal hearing in summer 1917, held in Caxton Hall, Westminster. It opened on 24 July, sat for five days spread over the next fortnight, and concluded on 8 August.{{sfn|Board of Trade|1917|p=1}} The court found Darro{{'}}s Master, Henry W Stump, guilty of "having travelled at a dangerously high speed in thick fog, and of having failed to ensure that his ship emitted the necessary fog sound signals."{{cite journal |url=http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol101gs.html |title=The Sinking of the SS Mendi, 21 February 1917 |first=G |last=Swinney |volume=10 |issue=1 |access-date=17 February 2008 |journal=Military History Journal |publisher=The South African Military History Society |date=9 December 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030701220713/http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol101gs.html |archive-date=1 July 2003 |df=dmy-all }} It suspended Stump's licence for a year.

The reason for Stump's decision not to help Mendi{{'}}s survivors has been a source of speculation. There is however no evidence of his state of mind or intention. Certainly Darro was vulnerable to attack by enemy submarines, both as a large merchant ship and having sustained damage that put her out of action for up to three months.{{sfn|Nicol|2001|p=229}}

{{location map|England south|width=

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In 1945 Mendi{{'}}s wreck was known to be {{convert|11.3|nmi|km|0}} off Saint Catherine's Light, but it was not positively identified until 1974.{{cite web |url= http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/marine/eh/ssmendi/legacies.html |title=SS Mendi: The Legacies |publisher=Wessex Archaeology |access-date=17 September 2008}} The ship rests upright on the sea floor. She has started to break up, exposing her boilers.

In 2006 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission launched an education resource called "Let us die like brothers" to highlight the role played by black Southern Africans during the First World War. In death they are afforded the same level of commemoration as all other Commonwealth war dead.

In December 2006 English Heritage commissioned Wessex Archaeology to make an initial desk-based appraisal of the wreck. The project will identify a range of areas for potential future research and serve as the basis for a possible unintrusive survey of the wreck itself in the near future.{{cite web |url= http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/marine/eh/ssmendi/index.php |title=The Wreck of the SS Mendi |publisher=Wessex Archaeology |date=1 May 2008 }} In 2017 the ship's bell was handed in anonymously to a BBC journalist.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-40293225|title=SS Mendi: WW1 shipwreck's bell 'recovered' in Swanage|date=15 June 2017|work=BBC Online|access-date=15 June 2017}}{{cite news|title=SS Mendi's bell surfaces|url=http://www.iol.co.za/news/special-features/ss-mendi-remembered/ss-mendis-bell-surfaces-9827949|first=Michael |last=Morris|date=17 June 2017|access-date=17 June 2017|agency=IOL}} The Prime Minister, Theresa May returned the bell to South Africa while on an official visit there in August 2018.{{cite news |title=SS Mendi: WW1 shipwreck's bell returned to South Africa by Theresa May |publisher=BBC News |date=28 August 2018 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-45329128 |access-date=28 August 2018}}

This event is commemorated by monuments in South Africa, Britain, France and the Netherlands, as well as in the name of the port admin building at the Port of Ngqura, the eMendi Admin Building and the names of two South African Navy ships:

• File:Newtimber Church SS Mendi memorial plaque.jpg{{SAS|Isaac Dyobha}}, a {{sclass|Sa'ar 4|missile boat}}.
• {{SAS|Mendi|F148|6}}, a {{sclass|Valour|frigate}}.

Monuments, ceremonies and other commemorations, such as artworks, in which the loss of men of the Mendi has been commemorated include:

• Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton, bearing the names of the men of the Mendi who had no known graves.{{cite encyclopedia |url= http://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/monuments-of-the-first-and-second-world-wars/ |encyclopedia=Canadian Encyclopedia |title=Monuments of the First and Second World Wars |publisher=Historica Canada }}{{clarify|date=May 2015}}{{cite web |url= http://www.delvillewood.com/sinking2.htm |work=Delville Wood |title=Sinking of the Mendi }}
• 13 men are buried in cemeteries in England, one in France and five are buried in Noordwijk in the Netherlands.{{Cite web|url=https://www.zuidafrikahuis.nl/het-vergaan-van-de-ss-mendi-zuid-afrikaanse-oorlogsgraven-noordwijk|title=Het vergaan van de SS Mendi: Zuid-Afrikaanse oorlogsgraven in Noordwijk {{!}} Zuid-Afrikahuis|website=zuidafrikahuis.nl|access-date=2020-03-05}}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{Cite web |title=106th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Mendi commemorated in the Netherlands |url=https://www.salegion.org.uk/anniversary-of-the-sinking-of-the-ss-mendi-commemorated-in-the-netherlands/}}
• a memorial in the churchyard of St John Evangelist Church at Newtimber in West Sussex, England.{{cite web| url = http://www.downlandchurches.co.uk/Newtimber-Church.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131225023815/http://www.downlandchurches.co.uk/Newtimber-Church.html| archive-date = 2013-12-25| title = Newtimber {{!}} THE DOWNLAND BENEFICE}}
• Mendi Memorial in Avalon Cemetery in Soweto, unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on 23 March 1995.{{cite web|title= The Mendi Memorial at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto | url=http://www.allatsea.co.za/cems3/mendiavalon.htm |access-date=6 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305180526/http://www.allatsea.co.za/cems3/mendiavalon.htm |archive-date=5 March 2011 }}
• Mendi Memorial in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
• Mendi memorial at the Gamothaga Resort in Atteridgeville, South Africa.

File:SS Mendi UCT.jpg

• SS Mendi Memorial on an embankment at the Mowbray campus of the University of Cape Town, at the site where men of the South African Native Labour Contingent were billeted before embarking on the Mendi. This is a sculpture by Cape Town artist Madi Phala that represents a ship's bow cast in heavy metal, sinking into the ground. In front of it are helmets, hats and discs, symbolising Mendi{{'}}s troops, officers and crew. A plaque simply reads "SS Mendi, S. African troopship, sank next to the Isle of Wight 1917 02 21".{{cite web |url= https://www.uct.ac.za/mondaypaper/archives/?id=6301 |title=SS Mendi sculpture part of UCT |work=Monday Paper Archives |publisher=University of Cape Town |date=7 May 2007 }} The wall was completed in 2014 with the names of all the men who were killed.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} The military had its first practice parade on 18 October 2014.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} In 2016 the South African Heritage Resources Agency declared the SS Mendi memorial as a national heritage site.{{cite web|last1=MG Digital|title=SS Mendi and Sharpville massacre named as new heritage sites|url=http://www.dispatchlive.co.za/featured/2016/12/31/ss-mendi-sharpville-massacre-named-new-heritage-sites/|website=DispatchLive|publisher=East London Daily Dispatch|date=31 December 2016|access-date=1 January 2017}}
• Delville Wood South African National Memorial has a bronze relief and panel bearing the names of men lost in Mendi. On the event of the 90th Anniversary of the tragedy, commemorative events were held at the memorial, including the reading of a Poem, a lament, written by the then South African High Commissioner to London Lindiwe Mabuza. Delville Memorial also has the SS Mendi Poem by S.E.K Mqhayi titled 'The Sinking of Mendi' which was originally written in isiXhosa.

• The bridge telegraph from the Mendi is at the Maritime Museum, Bembridge, on the Isle of Wight.
• The Order of Mendi for Bravery, bestowed by the President of South Africa on citizens who have performed extraordinary acts of bravery.
• A wreath laying ceremony was held on 23 August 2004 when the SAS Mendi and the Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer {{HMS|Nottingham|D91|6}}, met at the position where Mendi sank.
• In 2006 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and History Channel released a 20-minute film, Let Us Die Like Brothers, about the Mendi sinking and the involvement of black Southern Africans in the European theatre of the First World War.
• On 21 July 2007 a ceremony was held at the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton, followed by SAS Mendi laying a wreath at sea where the ship sank.
• In March 2009 the UK Ministry of Defence designated Mendi{{'}}s wreck site as a protected war grave, thanks to a campaign by retired British Army Major Ned Middleton.{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5012237/Retired-Army-major-wins-campaign-to-get-sunken-South-African-warship-classed-as-official-grave.html |title=Retired Army major wins campaign to get sunken South African warship classed as official grave |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=18 March 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.allatsea.co.za/shipwrecks/mendiwreck.htm |title=Disasters at sea: the loss of the troopship Mendi |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060118231606/http://www.allatsea.co.za/shipwrecks/mendiwreck.htm |archive-date=18 January 2006 }}
• A painted triptych, The loss of the Mendi, by Hilary Graham, at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth.
• An animated short film Off the record by Wendy Morris, 2008 Artist in Residence, In Flanders Fields Museum.Morris, Wendy. 2008. Off the record. In Flanders Fields Museum, Ieper, Belgium.
• BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio documentary, The Lament of the SS Mendi, on 19 November 2008. Scots poet Jackie Kay studied the history of the sinking and recited her own memorial poem.{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fgvbq |last=Kay |first=Jackie |author-link=Jackie Kay |title=The Lament of the SS Mendi |publisher=BBC}}
• Several websites including those of the British Council,{{cite web |url=http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/hidden-history-sinking-ss-mendi |last=Young |first=Baroness Lola |author-link=Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey |title=The hidden history of the sinking of the SS Mendi |work=Voices |date=31 October 2014 |access-date=14 May 2015 |archive-date=1 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150101192841/http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/hidden-history-sinking-ss-mendi |url-status=dead }} the Commonwealth War Graves Commission,{{cite web |url= http://www.cwgc.org/news-events/press-releases/south-african-war-dead-honoured-through-new-technology.aspx |work=News |title=South African War Dead Honoured through New Technology |publisher=CWGC |date=27 November 2013 |access-date=14 May 2015}} Wessex Archaeology and Delville Wood.
• A commemorative white life-belt labelled "SS Mendi 21-02-1917", on public display at Simonstown's quayside in South Africa, next to the popular "Just Nuisance" dog statue.
• A 23-minute film African Kinship Systems: Emotional Science – Case Study #2: The Fate of the SS Mendi by filmmaker and visual anthropologist Dr Shawn Sobers was shown at the Royal West Academy (RWA) from 10 to 31 August 2014. Sobers' exhibition included the film, an alcohol libation offering, and a screen-based text piece presenting names of all the 646 men who died on the Mendi. The work was exhibited as part of RWA's "Re-Membering" series presenting commissioned artists responses to the First World War.{{cite web |url= http://rwabristol.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/a-look-at-re-membering-i/ |title=A look at Re-Membering I |publisher=RWA |work=Behind the scenes |date=14 August 2014 }}
• War memorial (next to Parliament of Botswana) in Gaborone, Botswana{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gvCzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT24|title=The Kalahari Killings: The True Story of a Wartime Double Murder in Botswana, 1943|first=Jonathan|last=Laverick|date=4 May 2015|publisher=History Press|isbn=9780750964593}}

• A special memorial service marking the 100th Anniversary of the disaster was held in Portsmouth on Tuesday 21 February 2017.
• A memorial service was held at the memorial in the churchyard at Newtimber near Brighton, where some of the dead are buried, on 19 February 2017.{{cite web| title= SS Mendi tragedy commemorated in Sussex 100 years on|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-39021119|publisher=BBC News|date=19 February 2017 |access-date=19 February 2017}}
• On 20 February 2017, a memorial ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary was held at Hollybrook Cemetery in Southampton which was attended by The Princess Anne.{{cite web|title=Princess Anne marks SS Mendi tragedy in Southampton|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-39027882|publisher=BBC|access-date=21 February 2017|date=20 February 2017}}
• A poem titled Waters of Wars Unknown was penned by South African Catholic cleric, writer and poet Fr Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu to mark the 100th Anniversary. It was published in the Huffington Post South Africa on the 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the SS Mendi.{{Cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/mduduzi-ndlovu/on-the-centenary-of-the-sinking-of-the-ss-mendi/|title=On The Centenary of the Sinking of the SS Mendi|work=Huffington Post South Africa|access-date=2017-03-31|archive-date=31 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331210507/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/mduduzi-ndlovu/on-the-centenary-of-the-sinking-of-the-ss-mendi/|url-status=dead}}
• From Friday 29 June - Saturday 14 July 2018, Nuffield Southampton Theatres, NST City presented the world première of the play SS Mendi, Dancing the Death Drill, based on a book by Fred Khumalo.{{cite web |title=SS MENDI DANCING THE DEATH DRILL |url=https://www.nstheatres.co.uk/city/ss-mendi-dancing-the-death-drill |website=Nuffield Southampton Theatres |access-date=9 March 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200121141353/https://www.nstheatres.co.uk/city/ss-mendi-dancing-the-death-drill }}
• On 8 August 2017, to coincide with the 100-year anniversary, a commemorative granite plaque was placed at the wreck site by a team led by the chairman of the English branch of the Legion of South African military veterans, Claudio Chistè.{{cite web |url=https://samilhistory.com/2017/02/12/let-us-die-like-brothers-the-silent-voices-of-the-ss-mendi-finally-heard/ |title=Let us die like brothers … the silent voices of the SS Mendi finally heard |website=The Observation Post: South African Modern Military History |date=12 February 2017 |access-date=4 January 2022 }} The plaque contains a dedication.{{cite web |url=https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/daily-dispatch/20170828/281668255107137 |title=Team braves rough waters to place plaque in honour of the SS Mendi |work=Daily Dispatch |last=Riddin |first=Tyler |date=28 August 2017 |access-date=4 January 2022 |via=Pressreader.com |url-access=subscription}}
• In 2017 Author and public speaker, Brenda Shepherd wrote a book titled Men of The Mendi: South African Forgotten Heroes of World War I. {{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aK41MQAACAAJ | title=Men of the Mendi: South Africa's Forgotten Heroes of World War I | isbn=978-1-928359-04-3 | last1=Shepherd | first1=Brenda | date=2 June 2024 | publisher=30° South Publishers }}{{cite book | url=https://www.amazon.com/Men-Mendi-Africas-Forgotten-Heroes-ebook/dp/B073BQC9T4 | title=Men of the Mendi: South Africa's Forgotten Heroes of World War I | date=25 June 2017 | publisher=30 Degrees South Publishers }}

• {{annotated link|HMS Otranto|HMS Otranto}}
• {{annotated link|List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll}}
• {{annotated link|List of maritime disasters in World War I}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |url= http://www.plimsoll.org/images/39085a_tcm4-336418.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151019132836/http://www.plimsoll.org/images/39085a_tcm4-336418.pdf |url-status= usurped |archive-date= 19 October 2015 |title="Mendi" and "Darro" |place=London |publisher=Board of Trade |date=2 October 1917 |ref={{sfnref|Board of Trade|1917}}}}
• {{cite book |last=Clothier |first=Norman |year=1987 |title=Black Valour – The South African Native Labour Contingent, 1916–1918 and the Sinking of the Mendi |publisher=University of Natal Press |place=Pietermaritzburg |isbn=0-86980-564-9}}
• {{cite book |last=Nicol |first=Stuart |year=2001 |title=MacQueen's Legacy; Ships of the Royal Mail Line |volume=Two |place=Brimscombe Port and Charleston, SC |publisher=Tempus Publishing |isbn=0-7524-2119-0 |page=229 }}
• {{cite book |last=Tracey |first=Hugh |year=1948 |title=100 Zulu Lyrics |publisher=African Music Society |access-date=17 February 2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6EYeAAAAIAAJ}}
• {{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/they-died-like-warriors-tale-of-the-ss-mendi-5334107.html |title=They died like warriors: tale of the SS Mendi |newspaper=The Independent |date=21 July 2007}}
• {{cite book|last1=Gribble|first1=John|last2=Scott|first2=Graham|title=We Die Like Brothers: The Sinking of the SS Mendi|date=16 February 2017|publisher=Historic England Publishing|isbn=978-1848023697|place=London}}
• [http://www.historyextra.com/article/bbc-history-magazine/%E2%80%9Cwe-die-brothers%E2%80%9D-sinking-ss-mendi "We die like brothers": The sinking of the SS Mendi. History Extra]
• {{cite web|title=The Wreck of the SS Mendi: project pages|url=http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/marine/eh/ssmendi/index.php|publisher=Wessex Archaeology|access-date=23 February 2017}}

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{{February 1917 shipwrecks}}

{{Recreational dive sites|wresit}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendi}}

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Category:Maritime history of South Africa

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