I write regarding the loss of HMS Laurentic on January 25, 1917. She was on her way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying 35 tons of gold ingots (worth in excess of £250m today) in payment to America for munitions and armaments, but she struck two German mines and sank off the coast of Ireland.

Her lifeboats had to be launched in the dark in bitterly cold weather and it is recorded that all the men still alive got safely into the boats, although only 120 out of the complement of 470 survived.

My personal interest in this tragedy lies in the fact that my father, Leading Seaman William James Prior, of 7 Park Terrace, Saltash, was in charge of one of the lifeboats. I am the last surviving member of his immediate family and, at the age of 87, I am trying to collect together any available information about the event to pass on to his other descendants in the hope that they too will be interested (and proud of him).

For most of my life we had among my father's papers a newspaper cutting describing his involvement, probably of local interest because his wife and two young sons were living during World War One with his parents in Saltash. Sadly, this treasured document disappeared at some stage and I would dearly love to have a copy of it and anything else relating to the loss of the Laurentic.

My father never talked about the incident much, no doubt because of the horror of losing 350 shipmates, most of them frozen to death in the lifeboats during the night from exposure to the bitter weather. All that he said was that he owed his life and that of the men for who he was responsible to his returning to his cabin in the dark for a small torch, which he shone briefly from time to time after the lifeboat flares were exhausted, and thus enabled them to be seen and picked up fairly quickly before they too froze to death.

I would be grateful for any information.

J M PRIOR

56 Dalcross

Bracknell

Berks, RG12 OUJ

(For more letters see this week's Cornish Times)