Loss
In 1914, the Admiralty chartered Marquette as a military transport. She was in Admiralty service for more than a year.[14]
On 19 October 1915, Marquette left Alexandria in Egypt for Salonika (now Thessaloniki), carrying a total of 741 people and 541 animals. The largest contingent was ten officers and 439 other ranks of the ammunition column of the British 29th Division. There were also 12 officers, 36 nurses and 143 other ranks of the No 1 Stationary Hospital; six Egyptians; and 491 mules and 50 horses. Her Master was Captain John Findlay, and her complement was 95 officers and men. The British authorities had sent the Stationary Hospital aboard Marquette, despite the unladen British hospital ship Grantully Castle having left the same port, for the same destination, on the same day.
A French Navy destroyer escorted Marquette until the night of 22 October.[15] For the first two days of the voyage, Marquette held lifeboat drills. However, one of the New Zealand nurses later wrote "we hardly took it seriously I am afraid". At 09:15 hrs on 23 October, 36 nmi south of Salonika,[16] SMU U-35 (Germany) hit her starboard side with a single torpedo. Marquette rapidly listed to port, and sank within seven to 15 minutes.[17]
The torpedo exploded through the accommodation of some of the troops on the starboard side of the ship; killing some men, and wounding others.[18] Troops and nurses donned their lifejackets, and went to their boat stations quietly and in good order. The nurses formed two groups: 18 each to the port and starboard sides of the boat deck.
On the starboard side, their lifeboat was lowered not by members of the crew, but by soldiers inexperienced in handling lifeboat davits. They lowered one of the falls more rapidly than the other; tipping five of the 18 nurses out of the boat and into the sea. At the time, all five were rescued and returned to the boat, but one nurse was later found to be missing. On the port side, the lifeboat carrying some of the nurses was lowered into the water, but then another boat was lowered on top of it. Several of the nurses were injured, and later died either of their injuries, or of being unable to survive in the water.[15] Other nurses on the port side were left aboard ship. One later wrote "While standing on the deck, I saw a boat load of men in uniform getting away. I wondered why we nurses were left on deck, without a chance of getting into a boat. I really owe my life to the chief officer of the Marquette, he picked me up during the afternoon and put me in a boat." The lifeboats seem to have suffered from instability, with reports of at least some of them repeatedly capsizing, and becoming swamped. Marquette sank before all of them could be launched. Many survivors clung to floating wreckage, or floated unaided as best they could.
Marquette's wireless officer succeeded in transmitting an SOS signal before the ship sank. However, about 30 minutes later, a stronger SOS signal was transmitted from a different position, which confused rescuers. U-35 was later suspected of having transmitted the second SOS as a decoy. Rescuing craft went to the position given by the stronger signal, with the result that they did not reach Marquette's survivors until about nine hours after the sinking. By then, many of those in the water, or cold and wet in the lifeboats, had died of hypothermia or injuries.[18]
