Last year we posted about warships from World War II that had vanished after illegal scrappers literally cut them up and hauled the steel away. Here is a news item on theft on a different scale and with a better outcome. … Continue reading
Tag Archives: world war I
After being lost for 103 years, the wreck of Australia’s first submarine, HMAS AE1, has finally been located in almost 1,000 feet of water east of Rabaul, not far from Duke of York Islands in Papua New Guinea. The submarine, built in the Vickers … Continue reading
The almost intact wreck of a German submarine that sank during World War I has been located in the North Sea off Belgium, in 98 feet of water. The type UB-II submarine is said to be in good condition, with … Continue reading
Engineers laying subsea power cables off Stranraer, Scotland have discovered the wreck of a World War I German UBIII-Class submarine, which may be either the UB-85 or the UB-82, both of which were sunk in the area. The possibility that … Continue reading
At around 2 a.m. on the Sunday morning of July 30, 1916, one hundred years ago today, explosions on Black Tom Island rocked New York harbor. The blasts lit the night sky and shook the earth with the force of … Continue reading
One hundred years today, on June 5, 1916, Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, drowned when the HMS Hampshire sank in the North Sea off the Orkneys. Of the 655 crewmen and 7 passengers, including Lord Kitchener, aboard … Continue reading
Perhaps no warship is unsinkable, but the several USS Recruits came close, primarily because they were based entirely on land. In 1917, the 200′ USS Recruit, also known as the Landship Recruit, was built in Union Square, in the middle of … Continue reading
In the US, today is Veteran’s Day, when we honor those who have served in the military. It coincides with Armistice Day, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I, on the 11th hour of the … Continue reading
Recently, the BBC published an article titled WW1: The indestructible warship. The article refers to the Graf Goetzen. Calling her the “indestructible warship” seems to be a bit of an exaggeration. As warships go, she was not very impressive and … Continue reading
Just over 100 years ago, the World War I hospital ship, SS Rohilla, ran aground in a gale less than a mile off the North Yorkshire coast, near Whitby, with the loss of 85 crew and passengers. SS Rohilla had left Scotland on 30 October … Continue reading
Seventy five years ago this month, the Donaldson Line passenger liner SS Athenia became the first British ship to be sunk by a German U-boat in World War II. The 13,465 gross ton liner sailed from Glasgow bound Montreal. On September 3, 1939, only … Continue reading
The Atlantic Monthly has a wonderful feature this month — World War I in Photos: The War at Sea by Alan Taylor. Moving troops and supplies by sea was vital to all armies involved in the war. The battle for … Continue reading
When the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine during World War I, on May 7, 1915, with the loss of 1,198 passengers and crew, the Germans claimed that the ship was carrying high explosives, which the British … Continue reading
On April 27, 1915, at the height of the the World War I Gallipoli campaign, Lt-Cdr Edward Courtney Boyle piloted the submarine HMS E14 beneath the minefields, guns and search lights of the the Narrows, the heavily defended entrance to the Dardanelles, the … Continue reading
There was no actual battle at the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth off Scotland. Nevertheless, on the night of January 31st and the morning of February 1st, 1918, 270 sailors of the Royal Navy lost their lives off the Isle of May … Continue reading