What was the significance of World War I? To carry out a search of our records you will need to visit The National Archives to consult books in our library and view original documents in our reading rooms. In the summer of 1921, U-140 and U-117 were selected as target ships. Other reports of inquiries into losses and accidents from 1867 are in MT 15. Though mainly concerned with UK territorial waters the database includes information on a small number of wrecks in other areas. IWM collections. The Battle of Jutland (31 May - 1 June 1916) was the largest naval battle of theFirst World War. Torpedoes were also very capable of sinking battleships. Records of the Ministry of Shipping from 1917-1921 contain references to war losses and include a complete list of British merchant and fishing vessels sunk or damaged by enemy action for 1914-1920 (MT 25/83-85). Soon after, the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure and Rutland was forced to land. Over 6,000 British sailors lost their lives. On June 21, 1921, U-117 was sunk by aerial bombing tests led by Army Air Force General Billy Mitchell to demonstrate the value of naval airpower against capital ships. The bomb blast stripped away the fabric covering the aircraft's fuselage. As German destroyers closed in, Jones ordered his men to don lifebelts. Larn, R and Larn, B, Shipwreck Index of the British Isles (London, Lloyds Register of Shipping, 1995-ongoing). While submarines were invented centuries ago, development of self-propelled torpedoes in the latter half of the 19th century dramatically increased the effectiveness of military submarines. He's the co-author (with Martin J. Smith) of Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. But the fortunes of the war on the high seas were reversed when, on December 8, the German squadron attacked the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands in the South Atlantic, probably unaware of the naval strength that the British, since Coronel, had been concentrating there under Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee: two battle cruisers (the Invincible and Inflexible, each equipped with eight 12-inch guns) and six other cruisers. During the battle,Sharkbecame entangled in a close-range and chaotic fight between British and German. Yet, whereas the Allied blockade was preventing almost all trade for Germany from reaching that nations ports, the German submarine campaign yielded less satisfactory results. [8] HMSBarham was struck by three torpedoes fired from German submarineU-331. Scheina, Robert L. "Latin America's Wars Volume II: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900-2001" Potomac Books, 2003. p. 161. Similar records from the Second World War. To the north of Scotland, however, there was an area of more than 200,000 square miles (520,000 square kilometres) to be patrolled, and the task was assigned to a squadron of armed merchant cruisers. McLaughlin gives a death toll of 470 men. At the Battle of Jutland,Engadinelaunched a Type 184 seaplane flown byFlight Lieutenant Frederick Rutland, with Assistant Paymaster G S Trewin on board as an observer. But the U.S. government clung to its policy of neutrality and contented itself with sending several notes of protest to Germany. Four of these men in particular were crucial to the events that took place. Office of War Information. "More Maritime Disasters of World War II", "List of sunken ships in Pacific War ()", "Laconia (British Troop transport) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net", "HIJMS Submarine I-27: Tabular Record of Movement", "IJN Submarine Tender Yasukuni Maru: Tabular Record of Movement", "La Morte Eroica del Salsese Don Alberto Carozza", "La vera storia dell'affondamento dello Scillin", "Roster of Allied Prisoners of War believed aboard Shinyo Maru when torpedoed and sunk 7 September 1944", "IJA Hospital Ship/IJN Transport AMERICA MARU: Tabular Record of Movement", "IJA Transport TAMAHOKO (ex-YONE) MARU: Tabular Record of Movement", "IJA Landing Craft Depot Ship NIGITSU MARU: Tabular Record of Movement", "The Sinking of RMS Leinster and SS Dundalk", "Ritrovato il relitto dell'incrociatore Diaz", "IJN Light Cruiser Tama: Tabular Record of Movement", "HIJMS Nagara: Tabular Record of Movement", "The sinking of the ARA General Belgrano", "Centaur (Hospital ship) | Australian War Memorial", "09/12/1971 Submarine PNS Hangor Sinks INS Khukri", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_ships_sunk_by_submarines_by_death_toll&oldid=1151764065, Transport ship serving as prisoner transport, Coastal merchant ship serving as POW ship, Ocean liner serving as child evacuation ship, This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 02:34. The intention was that Germany would never again be able to pose such a serious threat to British trade. The ship was the largest ship sunk during the war, though only 30 of the 1,066 people on board were lost. One of Germanys most feared and effective weapons during World War I was its fleet of submarinesknown as U-boatsthat roamed the Atlantic, sneaking up underwater on British merchant ships and destroying them with torpedoes. Very few records of wrecked or sunken merchant ships exist from before the 19th century. Table of Contents. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from Commander Jones' body washed ashore in Sweden a few days later. Otto Weddigen in U-9 sank three Royal Navy cruisers that appear on the listAboukir, Hogue, and Cressyin a little more than an hour during the action of 22 September 1914. The tactic was abandoned on 1 September 1915, following the loss of American lives in the torpedoed liners Lusitania and Arabic. During the First World War, U-boats of the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) and the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: Kaiserliche und Knigliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Capsized and blown in half under 1,000 meters (3,300ft). This list contains the approximately 100 ships over 10,000 tons that were either damaged or sunk by U-boats by torpedoes, submarine-laid mines, gunfire, or other means. The event further strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany.. Only six survived to be rescued by a neutral Danish steamer late at night. Sharkwas hit repeatedly. A number of other sinkings followed, and the Germans soon became convinced that the submarine would be able to bring the British to an early peace where the commerce raiders on the high seas had failed. List of maritime disasters in World War I, List of hospital ships sunk in World War I, List of maritime disasters in the 18th century, List of maritime disasters in the 19th century, List of maritime disasters in the 20th century, List of maritime disasters in World War II, List of maritime disasters in the 21st century, List of accidents and disasters by death toll, List by death toll of ships sunk by submarines, "Ships hit during WWI: Armed merchant cruiser Gallia", Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea, "Ships hit during WWI: Troopship Sequana", "BRITISH MERCHANT SHIPS LOST to ENEMY ACTION Part 1 of 3 - Years 1914, 1915, 1916 in date order", "Evidence That Germans Fired on Hospital Ship Boats", "une torpille allemande qui va changer la face du monde", "WWI British Destroyers at Naval-History.net", "List of Hospital Ships Destroyed by Submarines or Mines", "Austro-Hungarian Hospital Ships of World War I", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_maritime_disasters_in_World_War_I&oldid=1151181427, This page was last edited on 22 April 2023, at 12:13. The commissioning and putting to sea of HMSDreadnought, in part inspired by the results of the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905,[2] marked the dawn of a new era in naval warfare and defining an entire generation of warships: the battleships. The Battle of Jutland involved around 100,000 men from both the British and German navies. It was exploiting the limited view of the periscope, Behrens explains. The registration system established by the Merchant Shipping Acts of 1786, 1825 and 1854 required a ships loss to be officially recorded. Several thousand losses before and including 1825 are listed and briefly described, Pickford, N, The Atlas of Shipwreck & Treasure (London, Dorling Kindersley, 1994), Hepper, D J, British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail 1650-1859 (Sussex, Jean Boudriot Publications, 1994). Tree search All record sets. Ships Sunk or Damaged by Enemy Torpedo, Gunfire, or Bombs. [7] Between October 1916 and October 1918, Kptlt. Kriegsmarine) sank over 6,000 Allied and neutral ships totaling over 14,200,000 tons. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Thirty-four British cruisers fought at Jutland and three were sunk. During theFirst World War, the use of aircraft in naval warfare was in its infancy. Sea charts may be useful in establishing the location of a wreck, but usually not in identifying it. On the old game show "What's My Line?" Following a new U.S. protest, the Germans undertook to ensure the safety of passengers before sinking liners henceforth; but only after the torpedoing of yet another liner, the Hesperia, did Germany, on September 18, decide to suspend its submarine campaign in the English Channel and west of the British Isles, for fear of provoking the United States further. [3] Southland was seriously damaged by UB-14 in September 1915 and sunk by SMU-70 in June 1917. Upright under 1,000 meters (3,300ft) of water. Enter a year or a ship name to search these records and . This isHMSLion. Recent work on the ADM 137, ADM 136 and BT 165 series have improved these records accessibility, while BT 110/426/2 is now available to download free of charge as part of the Digital Microfilm project. [6], Four U-boat commanders appear four or more times on the list. On 23 April 1918, British naval forces attacked U-boat bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge. How many ships did Britain lose in WW1? On 4 February 1915, Germany declared a war zone around Britain, within which merchant ships were sunk without warning. This battle was fought between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet on 31 May and 1 June 1916, during the First World War. Hans Rose in U-53 sank two ships and damaged two others between June 1917 and April 1918,[7] while Kptlt. [3] 27 are listed; in addition HMSCarlisle(D67) was severely damaged by German air attack on 9 October 1943, not fully repaired, and became a base ship at Alexandria, Egypt. By covering ships hulls with startling stripes, swirls and irregular abstract shapes that brought to mind the Cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso or Georges Braque, one could momentarily confuse a German U-boat officer peering through a periscope. The National Archives is often not the best place to begin a search for records of sunken and wrecked ships. The Admiralty Register of Wrecks is found among the Parliamentary Papers held at The Parliamentary Archives. On November 1, in the Battle of Coronel, it inflicted a sensational defeat on a British force, under Sir Christopher Cradock, which had sailed from the Atlantic to hunt it down: without losing a single ship, it sank Cradocks two major cruisers, Cradock himself being killed. Meanwhile, Admiral von Spees main squadron since August had been threading a devious course in the Pacific from the Caroline Islands toward the Chilean coast and had been joined by two more cruisers, the Leipzig and the Dresden. Since 1914, all British warships that have sunk are classified as both war graves and sovereign territory, which means that they have to be treated with respect. From the start of theFirst World Warin 1914, Germany pursued a highly effective U-boat campaign against merchant shipping. [2] For the following months the Germans in European or British waters confined themselves to submarine warfarenot without some notable successes: on September 22 a single German submarine, or U-boat, sank three British cruisers within an hour; on October 7 a U-boat made its way into the anchorage of Loch Ewe, on the west coast of Scotland; on October 15 the British cruiser Hawke was torpedoed; and on October 27 the British battleship Audacious was sunk by a mine. [7] Kptlt. A guide to contemporary accounts of losses, Grocott, T, Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Eras (London, Chatham Publishing, 1997). The list is in chronological order of the time of sinking. [Note 1]. Leaving the shattered bridge,Shark's wounded captain, Commander Loftus Jones, helped man the only remaining gun. The British ships, which had fought at long range so as to render useless the smaller guns of the Germans, sustained only 25 casualties in this engagement. Capsized 185 meters (607ft) of water with pagoda mast snapped off. When the US Navy adopted Wilkinson's scheme for both merchant and fighting ships there is statistical evidence to support Wilkinson's technique, Forbes says. A torpedo struck and exploded amidships on the starboard side, and a heavier explosion followed, possibly caused by damage to the ship's steam engines and pipes. For four months this fleet ranged almost unhindered over the Pacific Ocean, while the Emden, having joined the squadron in August 1914, was detached for service in the Indian Ocean. ADM 137/3089 ADM 137/3832 is an organised collection of such reports. Records include: The 1854 Act empowered the Board of Trade to conduct inquiries into the loss of British merchant ships, though this power was very seldom used. 09:00 to 17:00. Lothar von Arnauld de la Perire (three times) who sank the most tonnage of any submarine commander ever,[8] and Linienschiffsleutnant Georg Ritter von Trapp of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (two times), known as the patriarch of the family made famous in The Sound of Music and its subsequent film adaptation.[9]. Unknown, under 180 meters (590ft) of water. These records are often the most detailed narratives of a loss available, but the courts purpose was to establish the circumstances of the loss and to apportion any blame, so it did not necessarily take an interest in the exact position of the wreck. July 21, 2013 -- British archaeologists recently discovered more than 40 German U-boats sunk during World War I off the coast of England. Search the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust database of Royal Navy lost list, undertaken to assess of international spread of UK sovereign wrecks. By the time of the Battle of Jutland, older 'armoured cruiser' designs were giving way to newer types known as light cruisers. Capsized under 64 meters (210ft) of water. v3.0, except where otherwise stated, Courts martial held between 1680 and 1839, out-letter books of the Board of Trade Marine Department, reports of inquiries into losses and accidents, a complete list of British merchant and fishing vessels sunk or damaged by enemy action, Information aboutmerchant shipping losses, India Office Records at the British Library, Friends of The National American artist Abbott Thayer, for example, advocated painting ships white and concealing their smokestacks with canvas in an effort to make them blend into the ocean, according to Smithsonian. Battleships carried the heaviest guns and the thickest armour. Gustav Sieresponsible for sinking the largest ship on the list, the hospital ship Britannic struck a mine and sunk (the younger sister ship of Titanic and Olympic)topped the list with five entries, four (including Britannic) sunk in U-73 and a fifth sunk in U-33, all between April 1916 and April 1917. The Germans began their submarine campaign against commerce by sinking a British merchant steamship (Glitra), after evacuating the crew, on October 20, 1914. [3], The Royal Navy lost 10 frigates, 22 corvettes, 10 sloops, 15 auxiliary cruisers and 1,035 smaller units, including those lent to Commonwealth and other allied naval forces.[2]. [15], Those battleships belonging to the Central Powers that survived World War I often did not survive its aftermath. The British werent sure what to do. The Lloyds Marine Collection is a major source of information about merchant shipping losses, based at the Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC 2. Writing in his memoirs, Goodenough remembered: 'We saw ahead of us first smoke, then masts, then [German] shipssixteen battleships with destroyers around them on each bow'. On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania was en route from New York City to Liverpool, England when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. The Royal Navy lost 50,758 men killed in action, 820 missing in action and 14,663 wounded in action. Records of the Ministry of Shipping from 1917-1921 contain references to war losses and include a complete list of British merchant and fishing vessels sunk or damaged by enemy action for. The battleship was the key strategic weapon of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The German civilian statesmen had temporarily prevailed over the naval high command, which advocated unrestricted submarine warfare. On December 15 battle cruisers of the German High Seas Fleet set off on a sortie across the North Sea, under the command of Admiral Franz von Hipper: they bombarded several British towns and then made their way home safely. Some of the other archives listed in section 6 may prove to be better places to start this kind of research. [17] On 27 November 1942 the Vichy French government scuttled the majority of the French fleet at Toulon.[18]. By the end of the war, more than 2,300 British ships had been decorated with dazzling camouflage. [16] On 1 November 1918, as the Austrian battleship Viribus Unitis was being transferred to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, she was mined and sunk at Pola by two Italian frogmen, Raffaele Paolucci[it] and Raffaele Rossetti, who were unaware of the transfer. As Forbes explains, a postwar commission concluded that it probably only provided a slight advantage. The List of ships sunk at the Battle of Jutland is a list of ships which were lost during the Battle of Jutland. Surface ships caused the loss of 63 warships, comprising: Enemy submarines sank 54 warships, including: Enemy aircraft sank 77 warships, including: Mines caused the loss of 54 warships, including: Shore defenses sank two destroyers, while one carrier, three cruisers, 15 destroyers and nine submarines were lost to accidents or unknown causes. On the morning of 21 June 1919, the British fleet took advantage of good weather to steam out of the harbour on exercise. Though these tests did not impress his contemporaries, they forced the US Navy to begin diverting some of its budget towards researching the matter further. Details of the collection are published in D. T Barraskills A Guide to the Lloyds Marine Collection and Related Marine Sources at Guildhall Library (London, 1994), which includes records of official inquiries and a list of further sources of information about marine losses. This left U-boats vulnerable to attack, especially after the British introduced Q-ships disguised warships with hidden guns intended to lure U-boats in close and then sink them. And that no one can disturb. Since submarines didn't contain enough people to comprise a boarding party, and revealing their. Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: February 5, 2019. research. Partially salvaged, reported to be extant albeit sinking into, Her aft main turret was removed and placed at. See our research guide for more information. The Royal Navy lost 132 destroyers, according to Roskill[2] and 153 including Commonwealth/Dominion ships, according to the Naval-History project. AtJutland, the Royal Navy deployed 28 battleships, all of which survived the battle. The idea had precedent in nature, with the pattern disruption in the coloration of animals, Behrens says. This isHMSSouthampton, a light cruiser. The same office holds an extensive collection of British Admiralty Charts and other hydrographic charts. This was the sinking by a German submarine on May 7, 1915, of the British liner Lusitania, which was on its way from New York to Liverpool: though the ship was in fact carrying 173 tons of ammunition, it had nearly 2,000 civilian passengers, and the 1,198 people who were drowned included 128 U.S. citizens. During the course of the war, they sank more than 5,700 vessels, killing more than 12,700 non-combatants in the process. Russian battleship Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya. The first significant encounter between the two navies was that of the Helgoland Bight, on August 28, 1914, when a British force under Admiral Sir David Beatty, having entered German home waters, sank or damaged several German light cruisers and killed or captured 1,000 men at a cost of one British ship damaged and 35 deaths. When he returned to the Royal Navys Devonport dockyard, he went straight to his superior officer with his idea. German forces sank 162 warships, including: Italian forces sank 58 warships, including: Japanese forces sank 19 warships, including: A further destroyer and two sloops were lost to Vichy French shore batteries and warships.[3]. The British ships, which had fought at long range so as to render useless the smaller guns of the Germans, sustained only 25 casualties in this engagement. Seventy-nine British destroyers took part in the Battle of Jutland and eight were sunk. The heaviest toll was suffered by HMSMalaya, whose crew sustained 63 dead and 68 wounded. Capsized under about 32 meters (105ft) of water. Few of these reports have been preserved, though the Board of Trade Marine Department in series MT 9contains those which have. Participated in Operation Crossroads, but was sunk by naval aircraft. "None of the camouflaged fighting ships were sunk, he says. The Transcripts of Registration transmitted to the Registrar of Shipping for 1786 onwards (BT 107 BT 108,BT 110, indexes inBT 111) show when the registry was closed on a vessel which had been declared lost or missing. Seconds later, he collapsed and died. During the early months of the war, only absolute contraband such as guns and ammunition was restricted, but the list was gradually extended to include almost all material that might be of use to the enemy. WW1 Ships Lost At Sea, 1914-1919. At first, U-boats obeyed 'prize rules', which meant that they surfaced before attacking merchant ships and allowed the crew and passengers to get away. Also see our guidance on. According to the War Shipping Administration, the U.S. In 1917, in recognition of his leadership, Jones was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. In August 1914 Great Britain, with 29 capital ships ready and 13 under construction, and Germany, with 18 and nine, were the two great rival sea powers. Tel: 01823 337900. In August 1915, a German submarine sunk the British ocean liner S.S. Arabic and claimed self-defense. Though the British Admiralty probably didnt include too many modern art enthusiasts, the losses from U-boat attacks were so devastating that they soon authorized Wilkinson to set up a camouflage unit at the Royal Academy in London. When the First World War ended in 1918, much of the German High Seas Fleet was escorted to Scapa Flow, where almost all of the fleet was scuttled to prevent its being divided amongst the victorious Allies. Lists all ships and what happened to them, Rohwer, J, Allied Submarine Attacks of World War Two: European Theatre of Operations 1939-45 (London, Greenhill, 1997), Rohwer, J, Axis Submarine Successes 1939-45 (Cambridge, Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1993), Hooke, N, Modern Shipping Disasters 1963-1987 (Colchester, Lloyds of London Press, 1989), For quick pointersTuesday to Saturday It was just beginning by German submarines, however. Neither of them at first wanted a direct confrontation: the British were chiefly concerned with the protection of their trade routes; the Germans hoped that mines and submarine attacks would gradually destroy Great Britains numerical superiority, so that confrontation could eventually take place on equal terms. Records of wrecked or sunken Royal Navy and merchant ships are held separately and the Royal Navy records are generally more detailed and extensive. Using a stokers' bathroom as an operating theatre, the ship's doctor spent the next eleven hours treating the wounded. List of Merchant ships wrecked, broken up or sold abroad, 1908-1918, Naval officers reports describing the loss of ships under their command, Records of naval forces stationed around the world, Letters sent to and by the Admiralty and the Navy Board, which may deal with wrecks or attempts at salvage, Reports on naval ships lost during both world wars, and occasionally on merchant vessels sunk while under escort, Ships logs and Admiralty charts, which can be useful under some circumstances. Its usually best to begin by consulting one of the many books about shipwrecks, as its important to have some background knowledge and much useful research has been published. They had to use that tiny bit of visual data to calculate where in the water to aim the torpedo so that it would arrive at that spot at the same moment as the ship they were trying to sink. Capsized under 110 meters (360ft) of water. Destroyers were the lightest warships to fight at Jutland. Two ofShark's guns were knocked out, their crews killed. How successful dazzle actually was in thwarting U-boat attacks isnt clear. See also List of ships of the Royal Navy. The loss of Royal Navy ships usually resulted in an inquiry with the Captain or surviving officers court martialled, though these trials often did not take place where ships were lost to enemy action or where none of the officers survived. Laying on her starboard side under 68 meters (223ft). The naval combat of World War II saw many battleships belonging to the various nations destroyed as air power began to be realized as being crucial to naval warfare, rather than massive capital ships. The battleship was commandeered by the British Government and joined the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet as HMS Agincourt Ongoing cataloguing projects are helping to make ships records easier to find and use. Both U-boats were sunk off . This, coupled with the Zimmermann Telegram, brought the United States into the war on 6 April. Otto Steinbrinck in UC-65 did the same between March and July 1917. Harvey's quick thinking saved his ship and the lives of hundreds of his shipmates. Despite being shot at, Trewin was able to report their sightings back toEngadine. On 21 November 1944, USSSealion sank Kong with over 1200 casualties. The loss of the liner and so many of its passengers, including the Americans, aroused a wave of indignation in the United States, and it was fully expected that a declaration of war might follow. Britain Ship Losses 1914 - 1919 This page records the details of every British ship lost during the two world wars, including pictures where possible. IWM collections. [1] Many additional ships that are not included in those totals were damaged, but were able to return to service after repairs. A maritime disaster is an event which usually involves a ship or ships and can involve military action. This campaign intensified over the course of the war and almost succeeded in bringing Britain to its knees in 1917. This is a list of Royal Navy ships and personnel lost during World War II, from 3 September 1939 to 1 October 1945. When a German shell started a fire in one of the ship's turrets, Major Francis Harvey of the Royal Marines was mortally wounded. Between the wars, the Washington Naval Treaty and the subsequent London Naval Treaty limited the tonnage and firepower of capital ships permitted to the navies of the world. Many large ships sank without their crews being able to alert friendly forces in time, and the submarines which sank them were too small to rescue more than a few survivors.[1]. Includes reports from flag officers and captains on the loss of ships under their command from about 1698 onward. This battle was fought between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleetand the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleeton 31 May and 1 June 1916, during the First World War. Over 500 British Royal Navy ships were lost at sea during the First World War. Salvaged. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. At first the British press agreed, but the truth was not so clear-cut. New Year's Day 1915 was welcomed by SM U 24 (Kptlt.Rudolf Schneider) with a very special kind of fireworks, when it sank the old battleship HMS Formidable (15,000 tons) in the Western Channel..
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