James Scott's Story.
Birkenhead News, Saturday, February 6, 1915.
Seaman J.S. Weatherburn.
Seaman James S. Weatherburn, another St. James schoolboy, also lost his life when the Viknor crew went down. He was 21. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as an artificer and was present at the siege of Antwerp. He was the grandson of the late chief engineer of the Birkenhead side of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.
HMS Viknor
Built in 1888 and originally named RMS Atrato she operated as Royal Mail Ship and ocean liner. In 1912 the ship was sold to a cruise company and renamed The Viking. With the outbreak of war in 1914 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty, armed as merchant cruiser, and renamed HMS Viknor.
During the first weeks of 1915 the HMS Viknor was patrolling off the north coast of Scotland when she was ordered to intercept a neutral Norwegian vessel, who the military suspected was carrying a German spy. HMS Viknor began to return to port in Liverpool; however on 13th January in heavy seas off Tory Island, County Donegal, she sank without sending a distress signal. All the crew aboard were lost. Some wreckage and many bodies were washed ashore on the north coast of Ireland and Scotland.
It has never been fully established the cause of the sinking, however the wreck was discovered in 2006 by an Irish survey vessel and because of the location it is thought that the Viknor may have struck a German mine, as a minefield was known to be in the vicinity.
James Weatherburn's photograph and research by Chris Booth