HMS Indefatigable 1916
Marker: recorded wreck position (First World War).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Indefatigable | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1916 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | First World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | heritage site, battlecruiser | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Wikidata P828 has cause (on P793 event): bombardment |
| 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 | 56.8500, 5.6500 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Indefatigable was the lead ship of her class of three battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the first decade of the 20th century. When the First World War began, Indefatigable was serving with the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS) in the Mediterranean, where she unsuccessfully pursued the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau of the Imperial German Navy as they fled toward the Ottoman Empire. The ship bombarded Ottoman fortifications defending the Dardanelles on 3 November 1914, then, following a refit in Malta, returned to the United Kingdom in February where she rejoined the 2nd BCS.
Indefatigable was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Part of Vice-Admiral David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, she was hit several times in the first minutes of the "Run to the South", the opening phase of the battlecruiser action. Shells from the German battlecruiser Von der Tann caused an explosion ripping a hole in her hull, and a second explosion hurled large pieces of the ship 200 feet (60 m) in the air. Only three of the crew of 1,019 survived.
Diving & visiting
Indefatigable, 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 1,016 men. Mount Indefatigable in the Canadian Rockies was named after the battlecruiser in 1917. The wreck was identified in 2001, when it was found to have been heavily salvaged sometime in the past. The most recent survey of the wreck by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney revealed that the initial hits on the ship by Von der Tann caused 'X' turret magazine to detonate, blowing off a 40 m-long (130 ft) portion of the ship from forward of the turret to the stern.
Location
- Recorded position: 56.8500, 5.6500 (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 Indefatigable (1909) (revision 1376027836), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck”; 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
- HMS Defence 1916 · 17 km
- HMS Ardent 1916 · 21 km
- HMS Queen Mary 23 km
- SMS Wiesbaden 1916 · 23 km
- HMS Shark 1916 · 30 km
- HMS Invincible 36 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 Defence 1916
- HMS Falmouth 1916
- HMS Hampshire 1916
- HMS Nottingham 1916
All 163 wrecks of the World War I →
Browse more: Open ocean wrecks · North Sea · First World War