HMS Audacious
A colossal hull comes into view in front of me, every bit as spectacular as I had imagined in the eager months building up to this trip. At the time of her sinking in 1914, this was one of the most powerful warships the world had ever seen, a Super Dreadnought-class battleship. She is the wreck of HMS Audacious, once the pride of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet. In October 1914 the German liner SS
Berlin mined the shipping lane near Malin Head, unaware that the British Grand Fleet was temporarily based nearby whilst the defences of their regular base at Scapa Flow were improved. Audacious struck one of these mines and started taking on water. Aid came from nearby ships including the SS Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic; however, by dusk towing had to be abandoned and the battleship capsized. A series of huge explosions in the forward magazines finished off this mighty ship, also killing an unlucky sailor who was looking on from the HMS Liverpool, the only
casualty of the incident. The sinking was such a serious blow to the British that they covered it up, not admitting to her loss until after the war. We’ve descended near a huge
cylindrical mass of metal. Measuring 50 feet (15m) across, this was the giant barbette of turret armour that once protected one of five main gun turrets with 8 ½ inches (22cm) of reinforced steel. It’s enormous! We move on, swimming over a seabed at 210 feet (65m) that is littered with torn and twisted evidence of the explosion that sunk the ship. The bow was blown off with such force that it now lies some distance away and in the debris field we find a solitary 4-inch (10cm) secondary gun, one of sixteen that enabled this massively armed ship to engage fast, manoeuvrable enemies. ‘Super’ Dreadnoughts were an
evolution of the original Dreadnought design. First seen in 1906, the design had rendered all other battleships
obsolete and fuelled the arms race between Great Britain and Germany in the lead up to World War I. Huge guns were one of the design principles and we soon encounter two 13.5 inch (340mm) gun barrels, still attached to the main turret. This 23,400 GT ship had ten main guns and, within two years of Audacious’s loss, the true horror of Dreadnought-to-Dreadnought combat was seen as her sister ships went toe- to-toe with the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland. Thousands of men died on both sides as huge explosive shells rained down from guns such as these. With only a little bottom time remaining
we head towards the main wreck of the ship. She lies upside down, a common way for this type of warship to settle due to the weight of the guns and deck armour. Soon the wreck of HMS Audacious fades into the blue gloom beneath us, but the memories of seeing this revolutionary warship design will never be forgotten.
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