HMS ''Audacious'' was the fourth and last

dreadnought battleship The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

built for 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 ...

in the early 1910s. After completion in 1913, she spent her brief career assigned to the Home and

Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the F ...

s. The ship was sunk by a

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naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...

off the northern coast of

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, early during 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 ...

. ''Audacious'' slowly flooded, allowing all of her crew to be rescued and finally sank after the British were unable to tow her to shore. However, a petty officer on a nearby cruiser was killed by shrapnel when ''Audacious'' subsequently exploded. Even though American tourists aboard one of the rescuing ships photographed and filmed the sinking battleship, the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

embargoed news of her loss in Britain to prevent the Germans from taking advantage of the weakened Grand Fleet. She is the largest warship ever sunk by naval mines.

Design and description

The ''King George V''-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding s. They had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a beam of and a draught of . They displaced at normal load and at

deep load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...

. ''Audacious''s crew numbered 860 officers and ratings in 1914.Burt, p. 196 Ships of the ''King George V'' class were powered by two sets of

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...

direct-drive A direct-drive mechanism is a mechanism design where the force or torque from a prime mover is transmitted directly to the effector device (such as the drive wheels of a vehicle) without involving any intermediate couplings such as a gear train o ...

steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

s. The turbines were rated at and were intended to give the battleships a speed of .Parkes, p. 538 ''Audacious'' carried enough coal and fuel oil to give her a range of at a cruising speed of .

Armament and armour

Like the ''Orion'' class, the ''King George V''s were equipped with 10 breech-loading (BL) Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...

s. There were a pair of superfiring turrets fore and aft of the superstructure and another

amidships This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th ...

, all on the centreline. Their

secondary armament Secondary armament is a term used to refer to smaller, faster-firing weapons that were typically effective at a shorter range than the main (heavy) weapons on military systems, including battleship- and cruiser-type warships, tanks/armored ...

consisted of 16 BL Mark VII guns. Eight of these were mounted in the forward superstructure, four in the aft superstructure, and four in

casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...

in the side of the hull abreast of the forward main-gun turrets, all in single mounts. The ships were equipped with three 21-inch (533 mm) submerged

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 14 torpedoes were provided. The ''King George V''-class ships were protected by a

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...

armoured belt Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating t ...

that extended between the end

barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protectio ...

s. Their decks ranged in thickness between and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The

main battery A main battery is the primary weapon or group of weapons around which a warship is designed. As such, a main battery was historically a gun or group of guns, as in the broadsides of cannon on a ship of the line. Later, this came to be turreted ...

turret faces were thick, and the turrets were supported by barbettes.

Modifications

''Audacious'' was fitted with a fire-control director on the roof of the

spotting top Spotting may refer to: Medicine * Vaginal spotting, light bleeding that is not a menstrual period Photography: * Aircraft spotting * Bus spotting * Car spotting * Train spotting Pastimes: * Spots (cannabis), a method of smoking cannabis Phys ...

before her loss.

Construction and career

Ordered under the 1910–1911 Naval Estimates, ''Audacious'' was the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. The ship was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

by Cammell Laird at their shipyard in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

on 23 March 1911 and launched on 14 September 1912.Preston, p. 30 She was completed in August 1913 at a cost of £1,918,813, but was not commissioned until 15 October, joining her sister ships in the

2nd Battle Squadron The 2nd Battle Squadron was a naval squadron of the British Royal Navy consisting of battleships. The 2nd Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. After World War I the Grand Fleet was reverted to its original name, ...

. All four sisters represented the Royal Navy during the celebrations of the re-opening of the

Kaiser Wilhelm Canal The Kiel Canal (german: Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, literally "North- oEast alticSea canal", formerly known as the ) is a long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, but later widened, and links the ...

in Germany in June 1914.Burt, p. 205

World War I

Between 17 and 20 July, ''Audacious'' took part in a test

mobilisation Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories and ...

and fleet review as part of the British response to the

July Crisis The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, which led to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918). The crisis began on 28 June 1914, when Gavrilo Pri ...

. Arriving at the

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct fr ...

on 25 July, she was ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow off the coast of Scotland four days later to safeguard the fleet from a possible surprise attack by the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...

. Following the start of World War I in August, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the

, and placed under the command of Admiral Sir

John Jellicoe Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, (5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutlan ...

. The following month, the ship was refitted at HM Dockyard, Devonport, and rejoined the Grand Fleet at the beginning of October.

Sinking

Repeated reports of submarines in Scapa Flow led Jellicoe to conclude that the defences there were inadequate and he ordered that the Grand Fleet be dispersed to other bases until the defences were reinforced. On 16 October, the 2nd Battle Squadron was sent to

Loch na Keal Loch na Keal ( gd, Loch na Caol), meaning Loch of the Kyle, or Narrows, also Loch of the Cliffs, is the principal sea loch on the western, or Atlantic coastline of the island of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Loch na Keal ...

on the western coast of Scotland. The

squadron Squadron may refer to: * Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies * Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...

departed for gunnery practice off

Tory Island Tory Island, or simply Tory (officially known by its Irish name ''Toraigh''),Toraigh/Tory Island

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

at 08:45, laid a few days earlier by the German auxiliary

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine or military aircraft deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for installing control ...

. Captain Cecil Dampier, thinking that his ship had been torpedoed, hoisted the submarine warning; in accordance with instructions the other dreadnoughts departed the area, leaving the smaller ships behind to render assistance. HMS Audacious crew take to lifeboats

The explosion occurred under the bottom of the ship, approximately forward of the transverse bulkhead at the rear of the

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

engine room On a ship, the engine room (ER) is the compartment where the machinery for marine propulsion is located. To increase a vessel's safety and chances of surviving damage, the machinery necessary for the ship's operation may be segregated into var ...

. The engine room and the outer compartments adjacent to it flooded immediately, with water spreading more slowly to the central engine room and adjoining spaces. The ship rapidly took on a

list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...

to port of up to 15 degrees, which was reduced by counter-flooding compartments on the starboard side, so that by 09:45, the list ranged up to only nine degrees as she

rolled Rolling is a Motion (physics)#Types of motion, type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an Axial symmetry, axially symmetric object) and Translation (geometry), translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the ot ...

in the heavy swell. The

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

stood by, while Jellicoe ordered every available destroyer and tug out to assist, but did not send out any battleships to tow ''Audacious'' because of the supposed submarine threat. Having intercepted the stricken dreadnought's distress calls, the White Star ocean liner , arrived on the scene. Audacious Sinking Q 75585

The ship could make and Dampier believed that he had a chance of making the to land and beaching the ship, so he turned ''Audacious'' south and made for

Lough Swilly Lough Swilly () in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three glacial fjords ...

. The ship had covered when the rising water forced the abandonment of the centre and starboard engine rooms and she drifted to a stop at 10:50. Dampier ordered all non-essential crew to be taken off, boats from ''Liverpool'' and ''Olympic'' assisting, and only 250 men were left aboard by 14:00. At 13:30, Captain Herbert Haddock, the captain of ''Olympic'', suggested that his ship attempt to take ''Audacious'' in tow. Dampier agreed, and with the assistance of the destroyer , a tow line was passed 30 minutes later. The ships began moving, but the line snapped as ''Audacious'' repeatedly tried to turn into the wind. ''Liverpool'' and the newly arrived collier then attempted to take the battleship in tow, but the lines broke before any progress could be made. HMS Liverpool tows HMS Audacious

Vice-Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, commander of the

1st Battle Squadron The 1st Battle Squadron was a naval squadron of the British Royal Navy consisting of battleships. The 1st Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. After World War I the Grand Fleet was reverted to its original name, ...

, arrived on the scene in the

ocean boarding vessel Ocean boarding vessels (OBVs) were merchant ships taken over by the Royal Navy during the Second World War for the purpose of enforcing wartime blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels. Ships See also *Armed boarding steamer � ...

''Cambria'' and took over the rescue operation. Upon learning that two ships had been mined in the area the day before, and that there was no threat from submarines, Jellicoe ordered the

pre-dreadnought battleship Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protec ...

to sail at 17:00 for an attempt to tow ''Audacious''. Dampier ordered all but 50 men to be removed at 17:00 and Bayly, Dampier and the remaining men on the ship were taken off at 18:15 with dark approaching. Just as ''Exmouth'' was coming up on the group at 20:45, ''Audacious'' heeled sharply, paused, and then

capsized Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...

. She floated upside down with the bow raised until 21:00, when an explosion occurred that threw wreckage into the air, followed by two more. The explosion appeared to come from the area of 'B' magazine and was probably caused by one or more

high-explosive shell A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage ...

s falling from their racks and exploding, then igniting the

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...

in the magazine. A piece of armour plate flew and killed a

petty officer A petty officer (PO) is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotation OR-5 or OR-6. In many nations, they are typically equal to a sergeant in comparison to other military branches. Often they may be super ...

on ''Liverpool''. This was the only casualty in connection with the sinking.

Aftermath

Jellicoe immediately proposed that the sinking be kept a secret, to which the Board of Admiralty and the British Cabinet agreed, an act open to ridicule later on. For the rest of the war, ''Audacious'' name remained on all public lists of ship movements and activities. The many Americans on board ''Olympic'' were beyond British jurisdiction and discussed the sinking. Many photos, and even one moving film, had been taken. By 19 November, the loss of the ship was accepted in Germany. Jellicoe's opposite number in Germany,

Reinhard Scheer Carl Friedrich Heinrich Reinhard Scheer (30 September 1863 – 26 November 1928) was an Admiral in the Imperial German Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine''). Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as an officer cadet and progressed through the ranks, commandin ...

, wrote after the war, "In the case of the ''Audacious'' we approve of the English attitude of not revealing a weakness to the enemy, because accurate information about the other side's strength has a decisive effect on the decisions taken." On 14 November 1918, shortly after the war ended, a notice officially announcing the loss appeared in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'': A Royal Navy review board judged that a contributory factor in the loss was that ''Audacious'' was not at action stations, with water-tight doors locked and damage-control teams ready. Attempts were made to use the engine-circulating pumps as additional bilge pumps, but the rapid rise of water prevented this. Although hatches were open at the time of the explosion, it was claimed that all were closed before rising water reached them. Apart from the damage to the bottom of the ship, water was found to have spread through bulkheads because of faulty seals around pipes and valves, broken pipes and hatches which did not close properly. The wreck of ''Audacious'' was filmed for the television show ''Deep Wreck Mysteries'' on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

in 2008. The programme featured an investigation of the wreck and the circumstances of its loss by nautical archaeologist

Innes McCartney Innes McCartney (born 1964) is a British nautical archaeologist and historian. He is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University in the UK. Career McCartney is a nautical archaeologist specializing in the interaction of shipwreck archaeology ...

and

naval historian Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large la ...

Bill Jurens. The diveable wreck lies upside down at a depth of in clear water at , some north-east of Tory Island. 'B' turret and part of its barbette were blown clear of the wreck by the explosion.

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Maritimequest HMS ''Audacious'' Photo Gallery

{{DEFAULTSORT:Audacious (1912) King George V-class battleships (1911) Ships built on the River Mersey 1912 ships World War I battleships of the United Kingdom World War I shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Shipwrecks of Ireland Ships sunk by mines Maritime incidents in October 1914 Maritime incidents in Ireland Military deception Naval magazine explosions