When you think about it the UK has a pretty poor record of preserving its naval history. Having been the principle naval power for a period of more than 300 years there are only a handful of vessels that have been preserved as museum-ships, and most of them only by chance.
Of the dozens of battleships and aircraft carriers built none have been saved – largely owing to the post-war financial realities. The country was broke and scrap metal is valuable.
This may have been short sighted. The result is that shipwrecks are one of the best ways to experience and directly interact with the UK’s naval history.
The ships on this list were significant for either the historical importance of their design or the manner and implication of their sinking. Scuttling or artificial reefs (e.g. HMS Scylla) can make an excellent dive site but it doesn’t make the wreck significant. Crucially, all are in a depth available to divers and be legally dived (so no HMS Hood at 2,800m).
HMS Victoria
Location: Lebanon
Depth: 140m
HMS Victoria suffered an ignominious fate, sinking during peacetime fleet manoeuvres in the Mediterranean in 1893. As flagship, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tyron ordered an impossible manoeuvre, that was duly followed, that led to a collision with HMS Camperdown – Victoria sank in under 15 minutes.
A pre-dreadnought battleship, she was in the awkward teenage stage of warship design, having many recognisable features of 20th century ships: large breech loading guns and triple-expansion steam engines but still somewhat ornate compared to what came next.
The wreck was discovered in 2004 by Mark Ellyatt and Christian Francis off the coast of Lebanon and is one of the most unusual in the world. She lies almost perfectly vertical. Her bow burrowed into the seabed and her propellers forming the shallowest point of the wreck.
This highly unusual position is believed to have been caused by the huge twin 16-inch guns she carried towards her bow – effectively dragging the ship bow first into the seabed. At a depth of 140m this may be stretching the criteria that the wrecks be dive-able…
HMS Hermes
Location: Sri Lanka
Depth: 42m
The development of the modern aircraft carrier began in the early part of the 1900s. As you’d expect with any new technology there was a lot of experimentation, trial and error until a coherent design was reached. The first recognisable aircraft carriers, with the characteristic flat-top and through deck, were either converted merchant vessels or warships. HMS Hermes has the honour of being the first purpose built aircraft carrier to be laid down in the world.
Entering service in 1924, she was too late to see action in WW1 and spent much of the interwar period in the Far East with a notable attack on a Chinese pirate base (yes really). As the Second World War started she found herself, at around 11,000 tonnes, undersized compared to her contemporaries and with the ever increasing size of aircraft her capabilities were relatively limited. Based out of Sri Lanka she was preparing for the invasion of Madagascar when she was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Unfortunately, Hermes had already disembarked her air-group and was promptly sunk.
The wreck was inaccessible to divers until relatively recently due to the civil war in Sri Lanka. The wreck sits at approximately 52m close to the town of Batticaloa. Given her size and relatively shallow depth she is in excellent condition with next-to no signs of salvage. You can count the aircraft carrier wrecks that can be dived on one hand and this is the only one to have been sunk in battle.
HMS Repulse & HMS Prince of Wales
Location: Malaysia
Depth: 35-70m
The battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were dispatched to the Far East to counter the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1941. The Royal Navy ships sailed alongside four destroyers, forming Force Z, but crucially did not include an aircraft carrier to provide protection from air attacks. The ships were subsequently sunk by long-range Japanese bombers.
The apocryphal story of their sinking is often told as one of poor planning, the rise of air power and the decline of the big gun battleship. The truth is somewhat more complex.
Unfortunately, both wrecks have long been victims to illegal salvages that made the news (again) recently. They are still vast and impressive wrecks.
The Prince of Wales is at around 70m and HMS Repulse is slightly shallower at 54m. These wreck are significant both as prime examples of capital ship design and, perhaps more crucially, for the strategic importance of their loss.
HMS M2
Location: Portland, UK
Depth: 30m
The M-Class submarines were odd, experimental and unsuccessful vessels. They were large submarines for their time, displacing almost 2,000 tonnes when submerged, and were armed with a frankly bizarre single 12-inch gun for surface engagement. The battleship sized gun was swiftly removed as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty after the end of the First World War. The M2 was then modified and her gun replaced with a seaplane hangar making her an underwater aircraft carrier.
M2 never saw active service, sinking with all hands during an exercise in 1932. The M2 now sits upright in 30m of water in Lyme Bay, Dorset, and is a popular dive site.
The Germans had proved the effectiveness of the submarine as an ambush-predator hunting merchant vessels in WW1 so the M2 concept is an interesting oddity.
HMS Audacious
Location: Malin Head, Ireland.
Depth: 63m
A modern King George V ‘super’ dreadnought that entered service in 1913, shortly before the start of the First World War. Armed with 5 twin 13.5 inch guns she was a perfect example of the ships that would do battle at Jutland in 1916. However, Audacious would never make it. She struck a mine off the coast of Ireland in October 1914 while conducting gunnery trials. Suffering extensive flooding she did not sink immediately allowing her crew to be rescued before eventually capsizing and sinking.
The Admiralty went to great lengths to conceal her sinking, censoring the press and including her on all public lists of ships until the end of the war. This drew ridicule as the sinking had been witnessed (and photographed) by many Americans onboard an attending rescue vessel who were not subject to the censor.
The wreck is comfortably in the range of technical divers, at approximately 63m, and unusually for Northern Europe it can be blessed with excellent visibility. A huge amount of the wreck remains with the stern largely intact, 13.5 inch guns and a turret barbette easily accessible.
