During the winter of 1914–15, two aspects of the war became apparent at a time when Dublin’s presence on the Western Front was still through the regulars and reservists. The first, seen through the war at sea, was that losses could strike far from the Western Front and close to home. Dubliners died as the HMS Viknor hit a mine off the coast of Donegal on 13 January 1915. HMS Bayano was torpedoed by a U-Boat in the Irish Sea while heading to Liverpool on 11 March 1915.2 A traditional enemy of the sailor, the weather, accounted for the Clan McNaughton which foundered in a gale off the coast of north-west Scotland on 3 February 1915.3 Eight Dubliners died on the HMS Formidable, another U-Boat victim, off Portland on the English south coast on New Year’s Day 1915. It was the first battleship to fall victim to a U-Boat in the war and the sinking caused Vice-Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly to be relieved of his command of the Channel Fleet.