Compass rose - Noordwijk - the Netherlands
Posted by: eilers1
N 52° 14.918 E 004° 25.981
31U E 597829 N 5789659
WW I monument for the victims of HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy died after U-boot attack on September 22, 1914, 20 miles out of Noordwijk coast.
Waymark Code: WM10X03
Location: Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 07/04/2019
Views: 10
The Netherlands was a neutral country in the first world war. Yet this did not mean that things were happening that had to do with the horrors of a war.
One of these disasters occurred on September 22, 1914. On that day, three cruisers were torpedoed by the German submarine U9. The first to be hit was the Aboukir.
The commander thought he had hit a sea mine and sent an emergency call to the two sister ships, Hogue and Cressy.
These then became also an easy prey for the U9.
In total there were 2,296 people aboard of the three ships.
837 of them could be rescued by, among others, Dutch merchant ships. Only the sailor grave remained for the others.
The drowned sailors found on the coast were buried at various cemeteries along the entire Dutch coast.
In Noordwijk they wanted to erect a memorial for the missing sailors with their sailor grave.
For this a block of the English Portland natural stone of 3000 kg was cut into shape with a compass rose on top. The compass rose shows the direction to places that are important for this monument.