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Fish merchant Matthew Stevens recalls a war time story discussed around the family supper table. After surviving an attack by a German submarine; a St Ives skipper battled with insurers to claim for his losses and won. On 8 February1917, Matthew’s great grandfather and grandfather were fishing 18 miles off St Ives in their fishing boat, the Mary Ann, when a German U-boat, the UC 65 captained by Otto Steinbrinck came up next to them, took the full crew of seven fishermen out of the boat, set them adrift in a tender then proceeded to bomb the Mary Ann until she sank. The little sailboat registered SS 495 is among the scores of fishing vessels targeted by German submarines, the enemy determined to scupper any sea going craft as they stepped up their campaign to stop Britain’s supplies and starve her into submission. Matthew describes his Cornish ancestors as “good Christian local people”. They apparently said a prayer as they got into the tender. Some hours later the crew of the Mary Ann were picked up by a carrier, a coaster called the SS Sheerness and taken to Plymouth. The curator of St Ives Museum Brian Stevens can find no reference to the incident in newspaper archive - he suggests due to war time censorship. The museum does have a first-hand account of the incident, the story retold at a Methodist meeting in 1959 where Matthew ‘Gentry’ Stevens used it to help preach the Gospel. His sermon was recorded on tape. “And the submarine he peered down upon us like a streak of lightening. He said: ‘I’m going to sink your boat’. And he did sink her. He sunk our little boat 18 miles out in the Channel and we are seven men and four brothers in the blinkin’ breakin’ bread and we had to get in that little 12 foot dingy and from three o’clock in the afternoon when the job ‘appened and after six in the evening and the sun was gone and we thought all hope was gone and you can look down in the sea and I thought several times well if I’ve got to go there I’m also going up there.” (Matthew ‘Gentry’ Stevens, 1959) Insurance documents from the ‘Cornish Fishing Vessels Insurance Society, Limited’ held at St Ives Museum reveal how the Stevens family fought to get insurance money for their loss. The following is from the initial letter written by Matthew Stevens senior, registered owner of the Mary Ann to his insurers – short but to the point: Dear Sir I regret to report that while on my way to the fishing grounds my boat the ‘Mary Ann’ SS495 was stopped by an enemy submarine. The Germans then sunk the boat by means of bombs and left the whole crew of 7 in a small boat but fortunately we were rescued by a passing steamer and landed at Plymouth. Yours faithfully Matthew Stevens (owner) (source: St Ives Museum) The Stevens family later had another boat built in Porthleven, naming her the ‘Sheerness’ and registered with a new number ‘SS 10’ after the steamer which rescued them. Staunch Methodist Matthew Gentry vehemently believed in the ‘Hand of God’: “Then the smoke on the ‘orizon arose and the steamer bore down upon us and as the darkness was settling down dear friend we was rescued from a watery grave.” (Matthew ‘Gentry’ Stevens, 1959) And almost a century after the sinking by submarine; Matthew ‘Gentry’ Steven’s great, great grandson, who’s just 16 and also called Matthew, now has a fishing boat moored in St Ives harbour registered SS10. Location: 65 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HE Presented by Matthew Stevens