Thanks to David Keys, archeology correspondent, for contributing to this article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two long-lost First World War German
warships have been rediscovered – forgotten for decades in Portsmouth Harbour.
Archaeologists found them by
examining aerial photographs from the 1940s – and by then searching through
local newspaper reports from the 1920s .
Researchers say that the two
destroyers are among the very few surviving vessels from the Imperial German
Navy that can still intermittently be seen above water anywhere in the world.
Archaeologists believe that the
vessels are the V44 and the V82 (both launched in the German port
of Kiel – in February 1915 and July 1916, respectively). The V44 is
particularly significant from an historical perspective – because it played a
crucial role in the strategically important escape of the German fleet after
the key phase of the Battle of Jutland at the end of May 1916. It was one of
the vessels which successfully used torpedoes to prevent the British pursuing
and destroying the 93 ships that remained of Imperial Germany’s High Seas
Fleet.
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| 1917 painting by German artist Willy Stower showing V44 firing torpedoes at British ships in Battle of Jutland 1916 |
Next month, archaeologists
from Britain’s Maritime Archaeology Trust, will carry out a detailed survey of
the two vessels, which are only visible at extreme low tide, and even then very
difficult to access because of highly hazardous quicksand-style mudflats. One
of the warships is thought to still have its boilers and some other machinery
intact.
Originally the two destroyers were
among the 70 German warships which surrendered to the Royal Navy in November
1918 and were subsequently interned in Scapa Flow Harbour in the Orkneys.
However, in June 1919, in violation of the Allied/German armistice agreement,
those German naval personnel, still on-board their ships in Scapa Flow,
hatched a plot to defiantly re-fly their battle ensigns and then scuttle their
entire fleet. Much of the plan worked – for they succeeded in sinking the
majority of their vessels (thus preventing the Royal Navy getting permanent
possession of them). They failed in only two dozen cases, two of which were the
V44 and the V82 – because Royal Navy officers managed to intervene on
those vessels to prevent the Germans opening the bilge valves and flooding
those particular ships.
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| 1920's painting of V82 aground in Portsmouth Harbor by English aritist William Wyllie |
The V44 and the V82 (and a
third ship, a cruiser called the Nürnberg) were then taken to Portsmouth and
subsequently used for naval ‘big gun’ target practice. The Nürnberg was sunk in
the English Channel - while the two destroyers were deliberately run
aground by the Royal Navy on tidal mudflats near Whale Island in the eastern
part of Portsmouth Harbour.
In the early 1920s, thieves looted
the two destroyers for loose scrap metal – and later in the same decade, both
ships were sold for scrap. However, only parts of the vessels were removed by
the scrap merchants. The substantial remnants – including much of the ships’
hulls – were then abandoned and rapidly forgotten. Eight decades then passed
before they were rediscovered by the archaeologists.
Obviously, a great deal of work remains to be done and as we learn of progress, we will post it here on Maritime Maunder.
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
