HMS Holland 5 1912
Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Holland 5 | Historic England |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1912 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 50.6943, 0.5145 | Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1000081 | Historic England |
| Designated | 2004-12-09 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 12.56 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | TV 77685 91305 | Historic England |
About the wreck
Holland 5 was the last of the five Holland-class submarines ordered by the British Admiralty to evaluate the potential of the submarine with the Royal Navy. She was one of the first submarines to be accepted into Royal Navy service, and unique to her class, she carried one of the earliest periscopes. By the time she was launched, a number of A-class submarines had already been ordered to replace this class in navy service.
She had a single-hull design, built from "s" grade steel. She sank whilst under tow to the scrap yard in 1912, possibly caused by the torpedo hatch being left open. The wreck was rediscovered in 2000 and was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act in 2005. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
Damage has been caused to the site in recent years, and at some point between September 2008 and June 2010, the torpedo hatch was stolen off the wreck.
Diving & visiting
This is a designated Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Under the Act, diving on or otherwise interfering with the wreck inside its restricted area requires a licence; see the Historic England list entry for details.
In September 2000, the wreck of submarine Holland 5 was discovered at a depth of 98 ft (30 m) about 6 miles (9.7 km) off the British coast near Eastbourne. In April 2001, the Archaeological Diving Unit conducted a sonar scan and confirmed the identity of the wreck. The boat sits upright on the seabed.
On 4 January 2005, Andrew McIntosh, Minister for Tourism and Heritage of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, announced that the wreck was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act. This makes trophy hunting and vandalism of the site a criminal offence.
Location
- Recorded position: 50.6943, 0.5145 (Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: English Channel
- Nearest coast: England
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 Holland 5 (revision 1375687751), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck discovery and research”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Protected Wreck data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Nearby wrecks
- Wreck site of the Klein Hollandia 1672 · 10 km
- Unknown Wreck Site 10 km
- HMS Resolution 14 km
- Norman'S Bay 14 km
- HMS Ariadne 1917 · 16 km
- Amsterdam 1749 · 17 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · English Channel · Steam era
Further reading
- Historic England list entry 1000081 (official record)
- Wikipedia: HMS Holland 5