The wreck of the Royal Navy warship HMS Hawke which was sunk in October 1914 has been discovered by a team of divers about 70 miles east of Fraserburgh.
The wreckage of the Edgar-class protected cruiser was found by a team of divers from deep sea explorer group Lost in Waters Deep which searches for First World War shipwrecks in Scottish waters. The vessel lies at a depth of 360 feet (110 m).
While on patrol off the Aberdeenshire coast on 15 October 1914, HMS Hawke was hit by a torpedo fired from the German U-boat U-9. The ship caught fire and suffered an internal explosion which caused the vessel to sink in less than eight minutes with the loss of 524 men. Only 70 sailors survived.
Launched in 1891, HMS Hawke formed part of the Royal Navy’s 10th Cruiser Squadron (Cruiser Force B) which conducted blockade duties between the Shetland Islands and Norway following the outbreak of war with Germany in August 1914.
At 0930, Hawke stopped to collect mail from another vessel, which involved deploying a small cutter to transport the mail. Once the mail was delivered, Hawke quickly accelerated to catch up with the rest of the squadron, proceeding at a speed of 13 knots and without evasive manoeuvres in order to rejoin the other ships. At 1030, a single torpedo launched by U-9 struck HMS Hawke.
Speaking to BBC Scotland Steve Mortimer, a diver who is working alongside the Lost in Waters Deep project, said that finding the location of HMS Hawke took a lot of hard work and that the team’s research involved going back to data from the time such as the U-boat commander’s day journal which indicated where it had been when it fired the torpedo.
They also looked at the logs of other Navy cruisers which had “exchanged post” with HMS Hawke just before it was sunk, giving them a general area for where the ship might lie.
“It took years of research but the actual time on the ground was just a few hours,” Mr Mortimer said.
“Lots of the decking in still in place – teak decking,” he said.
“There is a wonderful captain’s walkway around the back of the stern. There’s loads of guns because obviously she was a warship.”
“There’s lots of Royal Navy crockery. It is fascinating. She clearly was taken completely by surprise because lots of the portholes are still open.”
“You can look into the portholes and see rooms with artefacts – teacups, bowls and plates just there on the floor.”
“It’s a really remarkable time capsule.”
It is hoped that the wreckage will be formally identified by the Royal Navy in the coming weeks.
