HMT Arfon 1917
Marker: recorded wreck position (First World War).
Key facts
| Name | HMT Arfon | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1917 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | First World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | fishing trawler, naval trawler | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 50.5430, -2.0593 | Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1432595 | Historic England |
| Designated | 2016-08-17 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 0.79 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | SY9589371474 | Historic England |
About the wreck
HMT Arfon was a trawler requisitioned by the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom at the beginning of the First World War. She sank after striking a mine on 30 April 1917 south of St Alban's Head, Dorset, England. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 17 August 2016. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
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.
The wreck of Arfon is well preserved on the seabed, it sits upright. The bow section was destroyed when the mine exploded, the stern and amidships sections remain.
The wreck was identified in 2014 after having previously been misidentified on the seabed elsewhere in 1998.
Location
- Recorded position: 50.5430, -2.0593 (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 HMT Arfon (revision 1311083975), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “The wreck”, “Discovery and investigation”; 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. Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS A3 1912 · 9 km
- Mortar Wreck 16 km
- Swash Channel Wreck 16 km
- Studland Bay Wreck 17 km
- SS Binnendijk 1939 · 19 km
- HMS Warrior 1940 · 22 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · English Channel · First World War