Let's Build the Tuscania Memorial!

In this centennial year, join the campaign to complete this long overdue memorial to the victims and rescuers of the WW1 Tuscania disaster.  Gifted sculptor Homer Daehn is in the final prepatory stages of creating a remarkable piece of art -- a 4 foot by 6 foot bronze relief that tells the story of that fateful night in 1918.

The memorial will remind citizens to be practitioners of peace and doers of good deeds. It will remember the American soldiers lost and thank our faithful friends of Great Britain who placed their lives on the line to save so many.

One hundred years since the single deadliest U-boat attack on U.S. forces in World War One.

One hundred years since the daring rescue of over 1,800 American troops by the British Royal Navy.

One hundred years since the Good Samaritans of the Isle of Islay, off the coast of Scotland, gave shelter to "our boys." 

One hundred years since twenty-one of our Baraboo boys survived.

One hundred years ago on the evening of 5 February 1918, the lives of more than 2,100 American soldiers would change forever when their troopship, the S.S. Tuscania, was torpedoed by a German submarine, the UB-77, off the northern coast of Ireland. As the ship sank into the water, and with the whereabouts of enemy submarines unknown, scores of "doughboys" rowed into the darkness of the frigid waters of an open sea. And in spite of the danger, three British warships pulled alongside the stricken Tuscania and undertook a feverish evacuation using heaving lines. By the hundreds, American soldiers slid down the ropes and into the safety of Allied vessels. 

More than 1,800 Americans -- the vast majority of those aboard -- were saved that night in one of the great rescue operations of World War One. Good Samaritans on the Isle of Islay, off the coast of Scotland, took many Americans into their care.

Though 20 young men from Wisconsin died that night, 426 survived, including 21 Sauk County, Wisconsin, boys who came to be known as the "Baraboo 21." It was the single deadliest U-boat attack on U.S. forces in World War One, yet there is no American memorial to honor our servicemen and British rescuers who so selflessly came to their aid.  

In this centennial year, please give your support to complete this long overdue memorial, one that celebrates the human spirit. Gifted sculptor Homer Daehn is in the final prepatory stages of creating a remarkable piece of art -- a 4 foot by 6 foot bronze relief that tells the story of that fateful night 100 years ago. 
This memorial will remind citizens to be practitioners of peace and doers of good deeds. It will remember the American soldiers lost and thank our faithful friends of Great Britain who placed their lives on the line to save so many.

This project, the National Tuscania Memorial, has been generously supported by community partners, including American Legion Post 26, Veterans of Foreign Wars (Post 4747 in Vernon, Texas; Post 1916 in Reedsburg, Wisconsin; and Post 987 in Baraboo, Wisconsin), the Green Bay Packers Foundation, the Daughters of the American Revolution (Fay-Robinson Chapter, Reedsburg, Wisconsin), the Greater Sauk County Community Foundation, among many others. 

Won't you please help our centennial campaign?

Future generations will thank you.

*Donors giving $500 or more will have their names included, as they wish, on the thank-you plaque to be erected at the memorial site.

*Donors gifting $250 or more will receive a signed 18" x 24" print of award-winning artist Renee Graef's painting "Attack on the S.S. Tuscania." (above)


National Tuscania Remembrance Association
c/o Sauk County Historical Society
P.O. Box 651, Baraboo, WI 53913
www.tuscaniamemorial.org

Steve Argo, Project Director