Survey uncovers hidden wrecks of First World War sea battle
SCANS of ships destroyed in the Battle of Jutland 99 years ago have been made for the first time using 21st-century technology.
The Royal Navy’s survey ship HMS Echo has created the colourful three-dimensional images of HMS Invincible, which was one of 25 ships – 14 British – destroyed in a single day of action during the First World War off the coast of Denmark.
Ahead of the battle’s centenary on May 31 next spring – which will form the focal point of the Royal Navy’s World War One commemorations – HMS Echo spent a week scouring the floor of the North Sea with its state-of-theart sonar suite.
Nick Hewitt, a historian with the National Museum of the Royal Navy who was on board HMS Echo, said the week surveying the battlefield of 1916 had helped to “build a picture of one of the greatest naval battles in history”.
He said: “The condition of the wrecks varies enormously. Some have suffered badly from post-war attempts to salvage them, but others are astonishingly intact.
“HMS Defence in particular was ‘reduced to atoms’ according to one contemporary account, but the wreck was complete, upright and immediately recognisable by the distinctive profile of her secondary armament, still trained outboard towards her foes.”
During the Battle of Jutland 250 warships from the British and German navies clashed from the afternoon of May 31, 1916, until the small hours.
When it was over, 25 ships were at the bottom of the North Sea and more than 8,500 men were dead, three-quar ters of them Britons.
More than 1,000 of those Royal Navy dead were killed when the battle-cruiser HMS Invincible was torn apart by a German shell that plunged through the roof of Q turret.
The resulting fire detonated her magazines. A dozen miles from the wreck of HMS Invincible, HMS Echo also surveyed the remains of cruiser HMS Defence – with its bow now separate from its hull – and the wreck of HMS Queen Mary.
Commander Phillip Newell, commanding officer of HMS Echo, said: “The week has been a poignant reminder of the sacrifices the Royal Navy made in protecting our nation during World War One.
“The loss of nearly 10,000 sailors over two days seems unbelievable today.
“And I’m very humbled to have surveyed the wrecks of both British and German warships where so many men lost their lives.”