Hi all,

I am hoping someone can shed some light on the unsuccessful attack on the troopship Northumberland in May 1918. A website claims the following:

Orders were received on May 2, 1918, to entrain for duty overseas, and on the night of May 10, 1918, the 117th Infantry went on board transports at New York. The First and Second Battalions with 20 officers and 1922 enlisted men climbed up the gangplank and onto the HMS Northumberland, and the Third Battalion consisting of 27 officers and 949 enlisted men went aboard the HMS Anselm. There were nine troopships that sailed on the morning of the 11th of May and Captain Blair on board the HMS Northumberland started his voyage across the Atlantic. The Northumberland was a cargo ship owned by the Federal Steam Navigation Company and had for the most part been on the Australia, New Zealand and South Africa route before the war. She was 11,559 gross tons and built in 1915 and scrapped in 1951. The 1,942 men of the 117th Infantry were the only men on board the Northumberland that trip so there must not have been much space for troops as being that she was a cargo ship accommodations on board were crude as the men were likely bunked out in the holds of the ship. Some ten days later, after an attack by submarines off the Irish Coast, in which the convoy escaped without loss, the HMS Northumberland docked at Liverpool, England, where special trains carried the 117th Infantry straight through London to Folkestone.

This is taken from:
[freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com]

So, the attack would have been between the 11th and the 21st. Given that the Northumberland was involved in a collision with the collier Cliffburn on the 18th (with the Cliffburn going to the bottom with all hands), the attack may not have been on that day. If anyone can perhaps ID the u-boat that may have been involved, that would be great.

Thanks,

-Daniel