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Name
George Coltar, late of Cowes, Isle of Wight. Son of the late Captain Benjamin Coltar, of Cowes. Name was recorded on the Cowes War Memorial Service details Captain George Coltar, Mercantle Marine, Master of the s.s. Whitgift CWGC record ...
The s.s. Whitgift, built in 1901 by the Northumberland Shipbuilding Co, was torpedoed by a German submarine in the Atlantic off Ushant and was lost with all hands except one. The Master and 31 crew died *. The following reports give the story :
MARINE INSURANCE MARKET
Information taken from : The Times Digital Archive 18 Aug 1916
---- THE WHITGIFT A WAR LOSS ---- A claim for a war loss was yesterday being settled in respect of the British steamer WHITGIFT, which left Gibraltar on April 13 bound from Almeira for the Tyne. Information has lately been received pointing to the fact that she was torpedoed on April 20 and that there was only one surviving member of the crew - a Japanese. The WHITGIFT became practically uninsurable early in May on news that wreckage belonging to her had been washed ashore near Brest, and on June 8 she was posted as missing. She was of 4,397 tons, built in 1901, and belonged to the Westminster Shipping Company (Limited).
THE LATE CAPTAIN GEORGE COTTON
Information taken from : Isle of Wight County Press 6 Jan 1917 - note the incorrect use of COTTON rather than COLTAR. The correct name is
given in an In Memoriam notice of 21 April 1917.
---- Mrs Cotton (nee Ella G Ratsey, of Cowes), of Eastbourne, Lytham, Lancashire, has received details of the recovery of the body of Capt. George Cotton, late of Cowes, from the sea on the coast of Brittany, last June. It was accorded full Catholic religious services at the Parish-church and buried in the Cemetery at Erquy. It will be remembered that the s.s. Whitgift, a vessel of nearly 5000 tons, left Gibraltar on April 13th, 1916, and was torpedoed on April 20th. The remains of one of her boats were found on the north coast of Spain in June. This was Capt. Cotton's 17th long voyage in command of his old ship - and he lost his life with her. * The ss Whitgift had British Officers and a mainly Chinese crew. None were found other than Capt Coltar. The other British and the Costa Rican crew members are named on the Merchant Naval Memorial at Tower Hill in London, while the Chinese crewmen are named in the register at the Hong Kong Memorial.
George Coltar was the uncle of the Ratsey brothers, Donald, Clayton and Stephen, who all died in the Great War serving with the Isle of Wight Rifles. George Coltar married Ella Ratsey, sister of Thomas W Ratsey (father of Donald, Clayton and Stephen Ratsey). |
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Memorials & Monuments
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