HMS Natal (1915): Shipwreck Map, Location & Facts

Name	HMS Natal	Wikidata label
Year lost	1915	English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed)
Era	First World War	derived from year
Ship type	armored cruiser	Wikidata P31 instance of
Cause of loss	War action	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	Wikidata P607 conflict
Nearest coast	Scotland	Natural Earth (public domain)
Position	57.6874, -4.0893	Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0)

About the wreck

HMS Natal was a Warrior-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She escorted the royal yacht in 1911–1912 for the newly crowned King George V's trip to India to attend the Delhi Durbar. During World War I the ship was assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet, but did not participate in any battles. Natal was sunk by an internal explosion near Cromarty on 30 December 1915 with the loss of at least 390 crewmen and civilians. Most of her wreck was slowly salvaged over the decades until the remnants were demolished in the 1970s so they were no longer a hazard to navigation. The remains of her wreck are designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 as a war grave.

Location

Recorded position: 57.6874, -4.0893 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
Nearest coast: Scotland

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.

OpenStreetMap

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Natal (revision 1375007760), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.