HMT ''Arfon'' was a trawler requisitioned by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

of the United Kingdom at the beginning of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She sank after striking a mine on 30 April 1917 south of

St Alban's Head St Alban's Head (corruption of St Aldhelms Head) is a headland located southwest of Swanage, on the coast of Dorset, England. It is the most southerly part of the Isle of Purbeck, Purbeck peninsula, and comprises an outcrop of Portland Stone fr ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, England. The site was designated under the

Protection of Wrecks Act The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides protection for designated shipwrecks. Section 1 of the act provides for wrecks to be designated because of historical, archaeological or ...

on 17 August 2016. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

History

''Arfon'' was built in 1908 in

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

for the Peter Steam Trawling Company of

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( cy, Aberdaugleddau, meaning "mouth of the two Rivers Cleddau") is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has ...

, South Wales. She was a 227-ton trawler. In 1914 ''Arfon'' was requisitioned by the Royal Navy for war duties and was armed and converted to a mine-sweeper. In 1917 she struck a mine and sunk in two minutes, ten lives were lost, and only three members of the crew survived having been blown off the vessel upon explosion of the mine. The loss of the ''Arfon'' was credited to .

The wreck

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.

Discovery and investigation

The wreck was identified in 2014 after having previously been misidentified on the seabed elsewhere in 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arfon Shipwrecks in the Solent Trawlers Minesweepers of the United Kingdom Protected Wrecks of England Ships built in Goole