HMS Defence 1916
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Marker: recorded wreck position (First World War).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Defence | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1916 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | First World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | armored cruiser | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War I, Battle of Jutland | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | North Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Position | 56.9672, 5.8306 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Defence was a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was stationed in the Mediterranean when the First World War began and participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and light cruiser SMS Breslau. The ship was transferred to the Grand Fleet in January 1915 and remained there for the rest of her career.
Defence was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Escorting the main body of the Grand Fleet, the ship was fired upon by one German battlecruiser and four dreadnoughts as she attempted to engage a disabled German light cruiser. She was struck by two salvoes from the German ships that detonated her rear magazine. The fire from that explosion spread to the ship's secondary magazines, causing them to explode in turn. The entire crew is believed to have been killed, although newspapers of the time made unverified claims of possible survivors.
Diving & visiting
At the time, it was believed that Defence had been reduced to fragments by the explosion, but the wreck was discovered in mid-1984 by Clive Cussler and a NUMA survey of the North Sea and English Channel at coordinates 56°58′02″N 05°49′50″E. It was dived upon in 2001 by a team led by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney and found to be largely intact, despite the violence of her sinking. Defence, along with the other Jutland wrecks, was belatedly declared a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, to discourage further damage to the resting place of approximately 900 men.
Location
- Recorded position: 56.9672, 5.8306 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: North Sea
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Defence (1907) (revision 1375007825), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Defence today”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- SMS Wiesbaden 1916 · 6 km
- HMS Shark 1916 · 14 km
- HMS Indefatigable 1916 · 17 km
- HMS Invincible 20 km
- HMS Ardent 1916 · 30 km
- HMS Queen Mary 30 km
Other wrecks of the World War I
- SM U-12 1915
- SM U-7 1915
- SM UC-9 1915
- SMS Königsberg 1915
- SS Ancona 1915
- HMS Ardent 1916
- HMS Falmouth 1916
- HMS Hampshire 1916
- HMS Indefatigable 1916
- HMS Nottingham 1916
All 163 wrecks of the World War I →
Browse more: Open ocean wrecks · North Sea · First World War