2020/2021
Collection 16

Shipwrecked

1917–1918; New York, New York, USA; North Atlantic Ocean near France

In 1917 the United States entered World War I. My great-great-great-uncle Michael O’Donnell worked as a steamship engineer on a ship called the Antilles. The U.S. Army chartered the ship to transport American troops and ammunition to France to fight the German army.

Before dawn on October 17, 1917, three days after the delivery of the soldiers and supplies to France, Mike was already awake, because another steamship engineer had asked him to start his shift early so he wouldn’t be alone before sunrise. German submarines usually attacked around that time, and the other steamship engineer was frightened.

At about 6:45 a.m. a torpedo from German submarine U-62 hit the Antilles. The ship began to sink.

As the ship was evacuated, a fifteen-year-old cabin boy approached Mike and looked very worried. He told Mike that he couldn’t find his life preserver and he didn’t know how to swim. Mike might have been a little hesitant at first, but then he realized what he had to do: He took off his life preserver and gave it to the boy.

Mike jumped off the ship without a life jacket, the water feeling like an electric shock. Even though he knew he might get sucked underwater by the sinking ship, Mike managed to survive. The Antilles sank in about four and a half minutes.

After swimming in the dangerously cold water for a long time, Mike was rescued by a ship called the Corsair. The sinking of the Antilles caused the largest loss of U.S. lives up to that point in World War I. Tragically, the cabin boy Mike had tried to help did not survive.

Back in New York, where Mike had grown up, Mike’s family received the newspaper, and they were devastated. The headline read “Antilles Sunk. All Lost.” Everyone thought Mike was dead, but the paper was wrong. Sixty-seven people had died, but 118 had survived. And who would ring the doorbell one month later but Mike! Everyone was quite surprised and so happy to see that he was alive. They all crowded around Mike and hugged him.

After just a little time with his family, Mike went back to work to help America on a ship called the Tenadores and survived another maritime disaster. On December 28, 1918, the Tenadores hit a small island, which resulted in the ship getting tipped over on its side. The ship was quickly evacuated, and everyone was saved by a ship called the Hubbard.

Michael O’Donnell survived the sinking of the Antilles, and the shipwreck of the Tenadores. I am proud to be related to Michael O’Donnell — not only because of the adventures he had, but most importantly because of his selfless act of giving his life preserver to that boy. He had no idea what would happen on that fateful morning, but in the time of a life-and-death decision, he was selfless and kind.

Brady Clark; Missouri, USA

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