Torpedoed Ships

This American Liberty ship was torpedoed by U-1195 off Eddystone Reef in March 1945 — one of the very last U-boat kills of the war — and sank in Whitsand Bay after an unsuccessful tow, mercifully without any loss of life. The structure teems with life: pollack shoal around the superstructure, conger eels lurk in the hull plating, and spider crabs carpet the decking in season.

Ornate ironwork on the bow, intact after more than a century on the seabed. The SV Invercauld (III) was a 1,416 GRT three-masted steel barque, 237.5 feet long, attacked by the German submarine U-84 on 22 February 1917 while carrying timber from Gulfport, Mississippi, to Fleetwood. After sustaining damage approximately 22 miles southeast of Mine Head, she drifted and sank just south of the Coningmore Rocks near the Saltee Islands. The wreck sits remarkably upright at about 25 metres and is discernible throughout her entire length -- one of the most structurally intact wrecks in the Saltees group. The boilers rise 4 metres off the seabed.

Bound from Nantes for Bilbao, where she was to take on iron ore for Glasgow, the French steamer Longwy was off Corsewall Point in early November 1917 when the German submarine UC-75 torpedoed her. Captain Joseph Huet and twenty-eight of his men died, and the captain's body later came ashore at Girvan. Her masts still broke the surface, so a temporary Notice to Mariners went out and the Northern Lighthouse Board laid a lit buoy beside her as a warning to shipping; it was not lifted until October 1919. She now lies broken in the Firth of Clyde, her boilers, triple expansion engine and stern section still recognisable.

More than 564 people died when the RMS Leinster went down, a toll no other single sinking in the Irish Sea has matched, and one of the most devastating maritime disasters of World War I. Near the Kish Bank on 10 October 1918, UB-123 fired three torpedoes at her. The first went wide and the second hit her port side. Captain Birch was trying to bring her round toward Kingstown when the third almost cut her in two. Of the 22 postal sorters on board, 21 were killed. Built at Birkenhead in 1896 as a mail steamer for the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, she lies at 28 metres, around 4 nautical miles east of the Kish Light. Her bow stands proud of the seabed, while the rest has largely collapsed into the sand. Her anchor was raised in 1991 and is on display at Carlisle Pier, Dun Laoghaire. She is a war grave.

Originally launched in the closing months of World War I as War Buffalo, the Persier spent her interwar years under the Belgian flag before the next conflict caught up with her. In February 1945, a torpedo struck her port side while she sailed in convoy just three miles from Eddystone. She limped into Bigbury Bay and grounded on a reef, where she remains today between 18 and 28 metres.

The Gascony presents a puzzle that rewards patient exploration. Attacked by UC-75 on 18 January 1918, this armed cargo steamer broke in two and sank the following afternoon near Selsey Bill, coming to rest upside down on the edge of the Owers — a notorious shallow bank that has claimed countless vessels over the centuries. Her inverted orientation makes navigation tricky: what should be the deck is buried, and you swim beneath the keel looking up at the hull plating. Among the scattered cargo, the wheels of army gun carriages poke through the wreckage, a reminder that she was doing war work when the torpedo found her.

Father and son died together. Quartermaster Timothy Buckley of Blarney Street and his son Florence, a trimmer, were both serving aboard the SS Inniscarra when a German submarine torpedoed her on 12 May 1918, ten miles south-east of Ballycotton Island. Their deaths were part of a devastating pattern: in 1918 alone, the City of Cork Steam Packet Company lost the Inniscarra, the Innisfallen, the Imber, and the Serula. By the Armistice, only one ship remained and over 178 employees were dead. Built by Wigham Richardson & Sons Ltd, the Inniscarra carried cargo on the Cork routes. The wreck lies off the Cork coast near Ballycotton.

Built on the Clyde in 1903 as a luxury liner for the Australian run, she carried 286 passengers in considerable comfort before the Great War requisitioned her as a hospital ship tasked with evacuating wounded troops. On 26 May 1918, heading for Plymouth to collect a thousand injured Australians, a torpedo from UB-57 struck amidships and sent her to the bottom a mile off Anvil Point. Six men died. The boilers, engine room and stern section are highlights, and the marine life — from nudibranchs to cuttlefish — is outstanding for a Channel wreck.

Torpedoed, then shelled 20 times by the surfaced U-boat for good measure. The SS Castle Eden, a 1,949 GRT steam collier fitted with a 13-pounder stern gun, departed Glasgow at 3:30am on 4 March 1918 carrying 2,900 tons of coal and timber for the Royal Navy at Lough Swilly. SM UB-110 torpedoed her engine room, then surfaced and pummelled the stricken ship with 20 shells. Remarkably, all crew survived. The wreck at 31-32 metres in Culdaff Bay off Malin Head is broken to seabed level by Atlantic groundswell, but rewards patient exploration. INFOMAR has produced a 3D model. Featured in Divernet Wreck Tour No. 111.

On the night of 14 October 1939, Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien threaded U-47 through the supposedly impassable defences of Kirk Sound and put four torpedoes into a battleship at anchor. Eight hundred and thirty-five men — many of them boy sailors barely into their teens — died in the cold water of Scapa Bay. HMS Royal Oak now lies upturned in 33 metres, still weeping fuel oil after more than eight decades, marked by a green buoy bearing a simple request: respect their resting place. Every year, Royal Navy divers descend to replace the White Ensign on her hull, the only people authorised to visit a wreck protected under the highest classification of the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. The sinking transformed Scapa Flow's defences: Churchill ordered permanent causeways across the eastern approaches, and Italian prisoners of war built the barriers that still carry Orkney's roads today.

The Moidart's story is one of the most harrowing of the U-boat war. On 9 June 1918, this schooner-rigged steamer was carrying 1,550 tons of Welsh coal and 80 tons of steel plates from Cardiff to Le Havre when UC-77's torpedo struck to starboard near the stern gun. She went down by the stern in less than sixty seconds — so violently fast that not a single lifeboat could be launched. Fifteen of her twenty-one crew perished, many trapped below or thrown into the water alongside the ship. Only six men survived.

This former Cunard liner of 6,705 GRT was torpedoed by U-53 under the highly decorated Hans Rose on 11 March 1917, 4 nautical miles off Ram Head, Ardmore. The third officer spotted a periscope 150 metres away, then two torpedo wakes. U-53 surfaced, circled, shelled the ship four times, and fired a second torpedo. Seven crew died. Badly broken up at 33-38 metres, but bow, boilers, stern with rudder, and an anti-aircraft gun remain as high points. Spent artillery shells from her 4,400-tonne cargo litter the seabed. Licence required from National Monuments Service.

Two torpedoes, five minutes, twelve dead. On 26 January 1918 the SS Cork, built for the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company's cross-channel trade, was on her way across the Irish Sea from Dublin to Liverpool with sheep, horses and cattle aboard when SM U-103 attacked. One torpedo struck her engine room. A second hit close to the foremast and wrecked a lifeboat, taking away any margin for escape. Barely five minutes after she was hit she had gone, nine nautical miles northeast of Point Lynas, Anglesey, and seven passengers and five crew went with her. She lies upright and largely intact in the Irish Sea at 48 metres, a well-preserved record of cross-channel commerce in the early 20th century.

U-boat warfare in the First World War stripped the City of Cork Steam Packet Company of six ships, one after another, and the SS Ardmore was one of them; together the losses all but bankrupted the firm. The Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. had built her at Dundee in 1909, 79.3 metres long and 11 metres in the beam. She was on passage from London to Cork with general cargo when SM U-95 torpedoed her on 13 November 1917 in St George's Channel, 13 nautical miles west-southwest of the Coningbeg Lightship, and 19 of her 27 crew were killed. Once peace came the company rebuilt, and the SS Ardmore II took her place. Her wreck lies in St George's Channel, off the coast of Wexford.

Two ships. One U-boat. Two days. Eighty-three dead -- sixty-seven of them from a city of just 28,000 people. On 15 December 1917, U-62 torpedoed the SS Formby on the Liverpool to Waterford route. Bad weather delayed the news. Two days later, the SS Coningbeg sailed the same route, unaware her sister ship lay on the bottom. U-62 was still there. All 44 aboard the Coningbeg perished. Originally built as SS Clodagh by Ailsa Shipbuilders in Troon in 1903, the Coningbeg was a Clyde Shipping Company cargo vessel serving the Waterford trade. Together with the Formby, this twin tragedy remains one of the worst maritime disasters of WWI off the Irish coast.

Nobody in Waterford knew. Bad weather had cut the telegraph, and it was assumed the Formby had simply sheltered from the storm. In reality, U-62 had torpedoed the Clyde Shipping Company cargo vessel on 15 December 1917 while she carried cattle from Waterford to Liverpool, killing all 35 crew. Two days later, her sister ship SS Coningbeg sailed the same route into the same waiting U-boat. All 44 aboard the Coningbeg died too. Of the 83 killed across both sinkings, 67 were from Waterford and surrounding communities including Faithlegg and Cheekpoint. The double tragedy devastated the waterfront community and is commemorated as one of the worst maritime disasters of World War I off the Irish coast.

Barrels of Guinness saved their lives. When the SS W.M. Barkley -- the first vessel of the famous Guinness fleet -- was torpedoed by UC-75 on 12 October 1917, she broke in two and sank within minutes just seven miles east of the Kish Lightship. Five crew died including the captain. But eight survivors escaped in an open lifeboat, buoyed by floating hogshead barrels of stout from the breached cargo hold. Built in 1898 and sold to Guinness in 1913, the 569 GRT vessel was also the first Irish merchant ship defensively armed with guns against submarine attack during WWI. The wreck lies at approximately 55 metres about 16 miles east of Dublin Port. A historically significant wreck connecting Dublin's brewing heritage with the submarine warfare of the Great War.

A salvage officer, a Chief Petty Officer and two hands from the whaler Beluga went aboard the stricken Leonatus to save her, and only three of the four got clear. She had come north from Swansea with coal and was waiting off Lerwick to join a small convoy for Norway when an explosion aft of her well deck stopped her two miles south of Bard Head. Records disagree on whether a torpedo or one of the mines laid nearby by UC-40 was to blame. Captain James Fenton sent his crew to the boats, and the whalers Balaena and Beluga picked them up. The tug Peewit then took her in tow, but she was settling, and she sank soon after the tow was slipped; the Chief Petty Officer went down with her. Built at Stockton-on-Tees by Richardson Duck and Co Ltd in 1903, she lies upright in two main sections, her propeller and stern gun still visible; the recovery of her bell confirmed her identity.

On 5 September 1914, just weeks into the First World War, HMS Pathfinder made unwanted history as the first major warship ever sunk by a locomotive torpedo fired from a submarine. SM U-21, commanded by Otto Hersing, struck the scout cruiser's forward magazine, and the resulting explosion tore the bow clean off. Of her complement, 259 men were lost. She now rests upright in around 60 metres of water off St Abbs, her hull intact from stern to bridge area but the bow section scattered where the magazine detonated. A designated war grave under the Military Remains Act, she may be visited but not disturbed. Those who descend to her pay their respects to a moment that changed naval warfare forever.

Ninety seconds. That was all the time between the torpedo impact and the Pinto disappearing beneath the Atlantic. She was doing what rescue ships do -- stationary, picking survivors from the water after U-482 had torpedoed the SS Empire Heritage just 30 minutes earlier. The same U-boat fired again, and the 1,346 GRT convoy rescue ship sank almost instantly. Captain Lawrence Boggs, M.B.E., was among the dead. Built in 1928 and converted for rescue service in May 1942, the Pinto had sailed with 10 convoys before her loss on 8 September 1944 while stationed with Convoy HX 305. The wreck at approximately 66 metres lies near the Empire Heritage wreck site, north-northeast of Tory Island.

The steamship Lakemoor, under the command of Lieutenant K J Powers, was part of a convoy carrying war supplies from Newport, Virginia to Glasgow. Onboard were ten officers and fifty-seven ratings, including Lieutenant Kirk Thomas, the second in command. As the convoy passed through the North Channel on 11th April 1918, the German submarine UB-64, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Otto von Schrader, targeted the Lakemoor. A torpedo strike caused the ship to sink rapidly. Tragically, five officers and forty-two ratings perished, while twenty crew members survived. The wreck of the Lakemoor now rests in the Firth of Clyde. Her remains are scattered, with notable features including her anchor, cargo remnants, and a triple expansion engine.

Sherman tanks sit upright on the seabed at 67 metres, some perfectly intact, others still racked neatly in the holds three deep. The SS Empire Heritage was a 15,702 GRT tanker carrying aviation fuel, tanks, and half-track military vehicles from New York as part of Convoy HX-305 when U-482 torpedoed her on 8 September 1944 approximately 20 nautical miles northwest of Malin Head. She went down in under five minutes, killing 113. Thirty minutes later, the same U-boat torpedoed the rescue vessel Pinto as she picked up survivors. The wreck is a designated war grave.

It took two U-boats and two days to sink the Justicia, at 32,234 GRT and 237 metres long one of the largest vessels lost during World War I; accounts of how many torpedoes struck her range from four to six. Laid down as the Holland-America liner Statendam, she was completed as a British troopship. UB-64 torpedoed her northwest of Malin Head on 19 July 1918, but she stayed afloat and was taken in tow. The next day UB-124 found her and fired two more torpedoes, and by noon she had rolled over and gone down. She lies at 70 metres, more than 25 nautical miles offshore, and everything about her is built on a vast scale: oversized chains, derricks and capstans on the foredeck, and a massive anchor still in place on the broken-off bow.

Owned in New Zealand, pressed into service by Britain and sunk by a German torpedo, the SS Roscommon ended her days off the Irish coast. Workman, Clark & Co. built her in Belfast in 1902 for the Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand, a cargo steamship of 8,238 GRT. In the First World War she was taken up under the Liner Requisition Scheme, and on 21 August 1917, on passage from Manchester to Australia, she was caught about 20 miles northeast of Tory Island by U-53, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Hans Rose. No casualties were reported. Her wreck lies at 76 metres, among the deeper wrecks off Malin Head.

Eighteen minutes. That's all it took for the Lusitania to disappear beneath the Celtic Sea on 7 May 1915, taking 1,198 souls with her. A single torpedo from U-20, fired with the Old Head of Kinsale eleven miles to the north, struck the starboard side -- followed by a mysterious second explosion whose cause is still debated. The sinking turned American opinion against Germany and altered the course of World War I. Today the wreck lies on her starboard side at approximately 93 metres, heavily collapsed and continuing to degrade from corrosion and tidal currents. The wreck is protected under Irish law (National Monuments Acts; Underwater Heritage Order), and the Irish Examiner reported in 2024 that efforts are underway to document and recover artefacts before further collapse.

The sinking of the SS Armenian on 28 June 1915 had significant repercussions, particularly in the United States. The loss of 29 lives, including American citizens, heightened tensions between the US and Germany, following the earlier sinking of the RMS Lusitania. The Armenian, a British freighter, was torpedoed by a German submarine in the Celtic Sea, off the coast of Cornwall. At the time, she was transporting mules for the French Army. Despite efforts to escape, she was shelled and eventually torpedoed, leading to her swift sinking. Today, the wreck of the SS Armenian lies in the Celtic Sea, with notable features such as cargo remains and guns. The wreck was identified in 2008, sitting upright on the seabed, and is marked by the presence of animal bones, a reminder of her final cargo.

Only twenty-four of Captain Carr's crew on HMS Bayano were taken alive from two liferafts and an upturned lifeboat, hours after she went down, by Captain Foster of the Balmarino. Alexander Stephen and Sons had built her at Glasgow as a 5,948-ton banana carrier for Elders and Fyffes, and the Navy took her up as an armed merchant cruiser for the Northern Patrol. Heading back out of the Firth of Clyde before dawn, she was struck forward by a single torpedo from Bernd Wegener's U-27; her magazine exploded and she went down by the bow within minutes. The Belfast collier Castlereagh, first to reach the scene, steamed away when the same U-boat approached. ProjectXplore confirmed in 2025 that a deep wreck off Corsewall Point is hers.

Built in 1925 by Fairfield Shipbuilding in Glasgow for the Anchor Line, she was requisitioned in August 1939 and converted to armed merchant cruiser F56, serving on the Northern Patrol. On 10 August 1940, U-56 torpedoed her approximately 40 nautical miles northwest of Malin Head. Taken in tow, she later foundered. Approximately 300 officers and ratings were rescued by nearby trawlers. The wreck requires a 3-4 hour boat transit from the Donegal coast.