HMS Invincible
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Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Invincible | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | battlecruiser | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Fire or explosion | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| 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 |
| Nearest coast | Norway | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 120 km from land |
| Position | 57.0444, 6.1208 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Invincible was the lead ship of her class of three battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the first decade of the twentieth century and the first battlecruiser to be built by any country in the world. During the First World War, she participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight in a minor role, as she was the oldest and slowest of the British battlecruisers present. During the Battle of the Falkland Islands, Invincible and her sister ship Inflexible sank the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau almost without loss to themselves, despite numerous hits by the German ships.
She was the flagship of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron during the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The squadron had been detached from Admiral Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet a few days before the battle for gunnery practice with the Grand Fleet and acted as its heavy scouting force during the battle. She was destroyed by a magazine explosion during the battle after the armour of one of her gun turrets was penetrated.
Diving & visiting
After the war, the Invincible was located by a Royal Navy minesweeper lying on a sandy bottom at a depth of 180 feet (55 m) at 57°02′40″N 06°07′15″E. The battlecruiser's stern is right-side up and the bow upside-down.
Examination of the wreck has found that the 12 inch guns in the aft turret remain loaded although its roof is missing. A contemporary photograph of the explosion that destroyed Invincible shows flame and smoke erupting from 'X' turret. Coupled with the aft turret's missing roof, it implies that 'X' magazine also caused a low-order explosion within the ship.
Location
- Recorded position: 57.0444, 6.1208 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: North Sea
- Nearest coast: Norway
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 Invincible (1907) (revision 1379623295), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck site”; 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 Shark 1916 · 6 km
- SMS Wiesbaden 1916 · 15 km
- HMS Defence 1916 · 20 km
- HMS Indefatigable 1916 · 36 km
- HMS Queen Mary 41 km
- HMS Ardent 1916 · 41 km
Other wrecks of the World War I
- HMS Aboukir 1914
- HMS Bulwark 1914
- HMS Cressy 1914
- HMS Good Hope 1914
- HMS Hawke 1914
- HMS Niger 1914
- HMS Pathfinder 1914
- SM U-11 1914
- SM U-13 1914
- SMS Emden 1914
All 163 wrecks of the World War I →
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Norway · North Sea