James Macaulay Kane (1896 - 1917)

KANE, 4th officer James Macaulay, SS Bray Head, died after the sinking in the Atlantic of his vessel by U-Boat U44, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Paul Wagenfuhr, on the 14th March 1917. He perished on 15th March 1917 in Hoy’s lifeboat which foundered after leaving the ship.

Bray Head was on voyage from St. John's, Canada to the U.K. and she was attacked at 6-30 o'clock on Wednesday 14th March 1917. The only gun mounted by the armed merchant ship was a three-pounder, which was operated by two marines, but Captain Hoy personally assisted them until the ammunition ran out. The action had by then lasted for two hours: the ship was on fire, and following an on-board explosion, the 38 officers and crew took to the two life-boats. U-44 surfaced, sank the vessel with its deck gun, and Bray Head’s crew set a course for the Irish coast, the two boats thereafter keeping in touch with each other until, on the second night, during a rising wind and sea, they became separated. The captain's boat, with its complement of nineteen men, foundered. The other boat, in charge of the chief officer, was picked up by HMS Adventure on the following Sunday morning after almost four days, and the survivors were landed at Galway. Two of the occupants of this boat had died from exposure, one being Kane. Amongst the survivors were the 3rd officer, William Henderson, of Cloghfin (or Cloughfin, Islandmagee); and the boatswain, William Wilson, of Mullaghdoo (Mullaghdubh). James was the son of master mariner John Kane of Mullaghdoo, Islandmagee and his wife Katherine (sometimes Catherine) MacAulay (sometimes McAuley or McAuley) and he was born on the 30th November 1896. The parents, both from Islandmagee, had married in 1st Carrickfergus Presbyterian Church on the 7th August 1896. Both of their parents, John and James respectively, were farmers. Dixon Donaldson in History of Islandmagee, Co. Antrim (1927) gave John Kane’s address as, "The Heughs," Mullaghdoo’. He was a widower by the time of his son’s death, Catherine Ann Kane having died aged 32 years and due to a post-partum haemorrhage on the 3 March 1904. James also apparently lived with his grandmother, Mrs. Sarah J. Macauley, Thornhill, Mullaghdoo.