Ancona ~ 8 November 1915

The SS Ancona was an Italian passenger steamer, built in 1908 by Workman, Clark & Co., Ltd., Belfast, and operated by the Society di Navigazione a Vaporetti Italia, of Genoa. She was torpedoed off Cape Carbonara and sunk without warning on November 8, 1915 by U-38, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Max Valentiner. [The U-38 was flying the flag of Austria-Hungary as the German Empire was not yet at war with Italy.] Of the 446 passengers and 163 crew, 206 people were lost, including 9 Americans.

The Ancona was fully booked and bound from Messina to New York under the Austrian flag. Coming as it did six months after the sinking of the Lusitania, the Ancona incident added to a growing outrage in the U.S. over unrestricted submarine warfare, and U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing dispatched a sternly-worded protest to Vienna.

After receiving no satisfactory response from Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz, in December 1915 the U.S. demanded that the Habsburg government denounce the sinking and punish the U-boat commander responsible. Germany, then concerned to maintain American neutrality, advised Burián to accede to the U.S. demands, and Vienna eventually agreed to pay an indemnity and assured Washington that the U-boat commander would be punished, although this was a meaningless promise since he was a German officer. Following the settlement of the affair, the Austro-Hungarian government requested that German submarines refrain from attacking passenger vessels while flying the Austrian flag.

Burián's diplomatic accession to U.S. demands angered Grand Admiral Anton Haus, commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, who had advocated taking a hard line following the sinking. Haus justified the sinking on the grounds that the Ancona could have been used on its return voyage from the U.S. to transport armaments or Italian emigrants returning home to enlist in the Italian Army. Germany's decision in April 1916 to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare terminated the debate.

Persia ~ 30 December 1915

The SS Persia was a P&O passenger liner, built in 1900 by Caird & Company, Inverclyde, Greenock, Scotland. As passengers were having lunch on December 30, 1915, the Persia was torpedoed by the U-38, commanded by U-Boat ace Max Valentiner. She sank in five-ten minutes, killing 343 of the 519 aboard. 

The sinking was highly controversial, since it broke naval international law, or the Cruiser Rules, which stated that merchant ships could be stopped and searched for contraband, but could only be sunk if the passengers and crew were put in a place of safety (for which, lifeboats on the open sea were not sufficient). Instead, the U-Boat fired a torpedo with no warning, and made no provision for any survivors. This action took place under Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, but broke the Imperial German Navy’s own restriction on attacking passenger liners, the Arabic pledge. The sinking was front page news on many British newspapers, including the Daily Mirror and the Daily Sketch.

At the time of sinking, Persia was carrying a large quantity of gold and jewels belonging to the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh, though he himself had disembarked at Marseilles. Among the passengers to survive were John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. His secretary (and mistress) Eleanor Thornton, who was the model for the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy mascot by Charles Robinson Sykes, died. Also among the dead was Homer Russell Salisbury.

An attempt was made to salvage the treasure located in the bullion room. The salvage attempt met with limited success, retrieving artifacts and portions of the ship, and some jewels from the bullion room.