Samuel Evans – Mercantile Marine - S.S. Borga

Fireman Samuel Evans – Mercantile Marine, S.S. Borga

Early Life and Family Background

Samuel Evans was born in 1890, in Morriston, Swansea, the son of Thomas Evans and Louisa Evans.

1891 Census

At the time of the 1891 Census, the family were residing at 4 Wern Pit Road, Llangyfelach, Swansea. Thomas Evans, aged 28, was born in Merthyr Tydfil and worked as a Mariner, while his wife Louisa, aged 23, was born in Cardiganshire. Their son Samuel, aged one, was their only child at the time.

1901 Census

By the 1901 Census, the family had moved to 24 Plough Road, Llangyfelach. Thomas, now 35, was employed as a Coal Miner, and Louisa, aged 33, managed the home. Their children were Samuel (12) and Louisa (7). Growing up in a household connected to both mining and maritime labour, Samuel’s upbringing reflected the industrial and seafaring spirit that defined early 20th-century Swansea.

Marriage and Service

Samuel Evans and Isabella Stephens
marriage certificate
Holy Trinity Church, Swansea

In November 1916, Samuel Evans married Isabella Stephens at Holy Trinity Church, Swansea. Not long after, he joined the Mercantile Marine, taking to sea as a Fireman — one of the most demanding and dangerous roles aboard ship.

A Fireman’s duties involved shovelling coal into the ship’s boilers to maintain steam pressure, working long hours in intense heat and soot-filled air deep within the ship’s engine room. During wartime, the position was even more perilous; if a vessel was struck by a torpedo or mine, the men below decks had little chance of survival.

The S.S. Borga

The S.S. Borga was a British merchant steamship of 1,046 gross register tons, built in 1907 by Nylands Mekaniske Verksted, Oslo, Norway. She was owned by Mann, Macneal & Co., of Glasgow, and employed in coastal trade and transport during the First World War.

On 1^st March 1918, while on a voyage through the English Channel, the Borga was torpedoed and sunk without warning by a German submarine, approximately nine nautical miles southeast by south of Beer Head, Devon. The attack occurred in British home waters at a time when U-boat operations were still claiming heavy losses among merchant vessels despite the growing Allied convoy system.

The ship went down rapidly following the explosion, and five lives were lost, including Fireman Samuel Evans. The sinking of the Borga was recorded among the long list of merchant ship losses for March 1918, a grim reminder of the ongoing intensity of the U-boat campaign even in the war’s final year.

The German Submarine U-55

The U-55 was a Type U-51 ocean-going submarine of the Imperial German Navy, commissioned in 1916 and active throughout the First World War. She was among Germany’s most successful U-boats, credited with the sinking of dozens of Allied merchant and naval vessels in European waters.

It was U-55 that launched the fatal torpedo which struck the S.S. Borga off the Devon coast on 1^st March 1918. The submarine operated under the command of Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Werner, a controversial and ruthless U-boat commander known for his aggressive tactics.

The U-55 conducted numerous patrols in the Atlantic and Channel areas, laying mines and attacking unescorted merchant shipping. Following the end of the war, she was surrendered to the Royal Navy on 26^th November 1918, and later broken up at Fareham, Hampshire, in 1922.

The destruction of the Borga by U-55 exemplifies the deadly effectiveness of the German submarine campaign, which targeted Britain’s merchant fleet in an effort to cripple its supply routes and morale.

Commemoration

S.S. Borga
Tower Hill Memorial, London
credit - Benjidog Historical Research Resources:
The Merchant Navy Memorial 

Fireman Samuel Evans is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial, London, which honours the men and women of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets who died at sea during the First World War and have no known grave but the ocean.

Legacy

At just 28 years of age, Samuel Evans was a young husband and seafarer whose service aboard the Borga embodied the courage and endurance of Swansea’s maritime community. His story, like those of thousands of other merchant seamen, reflects the quiet heroism of men who faced immense danger on the open sea to keep Britain alive during wartime.

His name, engraved on the Tower Hill Memorial, ensures that his sacrifice — and that of his shipmates aboard the Borga — will never be forgotten. Together, they stand among the countless mariners who met their fate at sea, their memory carried forward in the proud maritime heritage of Swansea.