Emily Chan
After it was hit by a German torpedo during World War I, a British warship sunk to the bottom of the North Sea, where it has remained for more than 100 years.
Now, a team of divers from the United Kingdom has discovered the wreckage of the HMS Hawke, which sank off the coast of Scotland in October 1914.
It took a mere seven minutes for the ship to go under once it had been hit. Historians believe the ship’s magazine exploded, helping to speed up its demise.
As a result, 524 crew members lost their lives, including many who were younger than 18 years old. The youngest to perish in the shipwreck was only 14 years old. Of the entire crew, a total of 70 managed to survive.
To identify the wreck’s location, “Lost in Waters Deep,” an organization that searches for Scottish shipwrecks from World War I, examined the logbooks from the German U-boat that launched the torpedo and other ships in the area that had survived the attack. Then, they scanned the seabed in the local area to try to find the boat.
When the team located the wreck, divers descended 361 feet below the surface. They could only stay for 20 minutes since it was so deep underwater. They had to return for another exploratory dive.
The remains of the vessel are almost fully intact. It was lying on its starboard side. Even after meeting a violent end and lying unprotected for 110 years, its state of preservation is “unbelievable.” The depth of the wreck may have played a role in preserving it since it avoids the storms that the North Sea gets in winter.
“You can’t see personal human remains, but you can see crockery—cups and saucers, some of the bridge gear is still there and navigation equipment…She’s in surprisingly good condition; you can still see the teak decks, the wood is still there,” said Will Schwarz, one of the divers.
Additionally, some interior features, such as a clock and a wall-mounted barometer, were visible. There were also highly polished guns and other weapons that looked like they were still active despite spending more than a century on the sea floor.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
