Clonmel Graveyard, Cobh, (formerly Queenstown), Co.Cork

This list is a conservative estimate of losses of US Naval personnel based in Ireland during World War One. The casualties are mainly based on the postwar publication Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Naval Service Who Died During the World War. This book was published by the Department of the Navy in 1920. That publication is limited, in that deaths after November 11, 1918, are not included. Records of other deaths have been recorded from news reports and archived Honour Rolls

This was the the time of the second, and most fatal wave of the so-called Spanish Flu Pandemic. There were still United States naval personnel based in Cork, Ireland, until July 1919. There may be many victims not included in this list.

One particularly ironic post-war death was that of Boatswain Gibson. He died in a loading accident, on board the USS Malang , at Deepwater Quay, Queenstown, on January 4th 1919. He had previously survived the torpedoing and sinking of USS Jacob Jones , on December 6th, 1917.

Some remains,such as some those lost in action, were not recovered. Those USS Manley victims recovered, appear to have been immediately shipped home to the USA.

A USS Manley victim is unloaded at Philadelphia from the USS Camden

The remainder were interred, mainly, in the Old graveyard in Queenstown (Cobh) - known as Clonmel, Old Graveyard . This is the graveyard where many of the Lusitania victims lie. It also contains the graves of many Royal Navy personnel.

Graves of USS Utah servicemen (Armistice Day, 1919)

In November, 1919. The US Naval vessel USS Yankton (a hired steam yacht), visited Queenstown. Under the direction of Dr Clarke Andrew, the remains of US personnel interred in Clonmel Old Graveyard, were exhumed. These bodies were then transported back to the USA for re-burial. In 1919. In total, thirty two bodies of US servicemen were taken from Ireland, and re-interred in the USA.

USS Yankton

For an account of US Naval Hospitals in Ireland, see HERE

Funeral of US serviceman on board USS Utah, Berehaven Harbour, Ireland, 1918.

(There is another flag draped coffin in the background).

Casualties List

SOURCES

There have been a number of publications detailing the history of Queenstown (Cobh) during World War One. The standard reference works are those those listed below

Danger Zone. The story of the Queenstown Command.
By E.Keeble Chatterton
Little, Brown and Co, Boston 1934
(copy available in Cork City Library – local history section top floor)

The Victory at Sea. By Rear-Admiral William Sowden Sims, Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, 1921.

Available to download here

Simsadus London, The American Navy in Europe.
By John Langdon Leighton.
Henry Holt & Co, New York, 1921.
Available to download here

Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy
For the Fiscal Year, 1918
Available to download here

Officers and Enlisted Men of the US Navy who died during WW1
Available to download here

Bayley’s Navy,
by Vice Admiral Walter.S.Delany (Rtd)
Available to download here

American Participation in the Great War,
by Captain Dudley W.Knox.
Available to download here

Naval Aviation in WW1,
by Adrian O. Van Wyen.
Available to download here

For Operational Records Various files from the Public Records Office,of the United Kingdom, Kew are invaluable, especially records of ADM137, which were files bound for the official history of WW1 Naval Operations. None of these records are digitised yet, and can only be accessed by visiting the British Public Records Office, Kew, near London.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

For photographs of the Queenstown Command, the following websites have many photographs available to download free of charge. Most of the aforementioned publications also have photographic illustrations.

US Naval History and Heritage Command website
www.history.navy.mil

United States National Archives Website
www.archives.gov/

The British Imperial War Museum
www.iwm.org.uk/research
This site contains many photographs of US and British Naval operations in Ireland. Importantly, it also has a number of copies of unique newsreel footage. These can be played on the site.