Legendary Q-ship treasure to go under the hammer in Scarborough

Discovered in a house clearance in Yorkshire, this week’s sale at David Duggleby Auctioneers Vine Street Salerooms will be the first time the bell has been seen in public for 105 years.

The Stock Force was torpedoed 25 miles off the Devon Coast by the UB-80 at 5 o’clock on the afternoon of July 30 1918.

The massive explosion wrecked the fore part of the ship, including the bridge, leaving the vessel dead in the water, billowing smoke and slowly sinking.

After a short time the submarine, commanded by Kapitanleutenant Max Viebeg, rose to the surface half a mile away, remaining there for a quarter of an hour observing the scene before beginning a slow approach to get in close and finish the job by gunfire.

Viebeg - one of the deadliest U-boat aces of the war who had sunk more than fifty ships in two years - was making a huge mistake.

He could see the Stock Force was done for but what he did not realise was that the innocuous looking little coaster – made in Dundee and then equipped with machinery at Earles Shipyard in Hull – was a Q ship, heavily armed with concealed guns.

Stock Force might be going down, the ship’s surgeon might be up to his waist in water on the lower deck as he worked on injured crewmen, but the Skipper, Lieutenant Harold Auten, and the crews of the ship’s two surviving hidden guns, were still at their posts, waiting.

They held their fire until UB-80 was abreast of them, just 300 yards away. Point blank range.

The first shot from the guns of the Stock Force demolished one of the submarine’s periscopes.

The next round hit the conning tower, destroying it and throwing one of the occupants high into the air.

The third hit on the waterline, tearing open a section of the submarine and blowing out several members of the crew.

Shot after shot then poured into the U-boat until it finally slipped backwards beneath the waves.

Jess Tarver, a maritime specialist with auctioneers David Duggleby, said: “Lieutenant Auten and his crew managed to keep the Stock Force afloat, for the next four and a half hours, long enough for two torpedo boats and a trawler to arrive on the scene to take everyone off, long enough for a lot of gear, equipment and even fittings to be removed from the sinking ship.”

“Some of that salvaged kit came back to Earle’s shipyard on the Humber, including the ship’s bell, which remained in the personal collection of the shipyard family and descendants until a couple of years ago when a house in Holderness was emptied on behalf of the executors of the deceased estate of 91-year-old member of the family.

At that time it passed into the hands of a Hull collector in a private sale.”

“He has now decided to sell part of his collection and it is to go under the hammer in our Maritime, Scientific Instruments and Cameras Sale on Friday.

It is the first time the Stock Force bell has even been seen in public for 105 years, let alone appeared in an auction.”

Jess added: “The astonishing story had an equally astonishing ending.

"Lieutenant Auten was awarded the VC for what was described as one of the finest actions in Q-ship history.

"The British believed that the submarine had been sunk but incredibly it had not.

"Kapitanleutenant Viebeg got the badly damaged boat home and it was amongst the submarines handed over to the Allies after Germany’s surrender.

"Both Auten and Viebeg survived the war by more than 40 years, living into the 1960s.”

The bell, which has a pre-sale estimate of £3,000-£5,000, goes on view at David Duggleby’s Vine Street Salerooms in Scarborough on Wednesday and Thursday July 5 and 6 from 10am-4pm and on Friday morning (July 7) from 9am until the start of the auction at 11 o’clock.

For further information or comment contact Jess Tarver at David Duggleby Auctioneers on 01723 507 111 or email [email protected].