Divers find lost Royal Navy warship 109 years after WW1 sinking

Divers have found the wreckage of a Royal Navy warship in the North Sea – more than 100 years after it was sunk during World War One.

HMS Nottingham was identified 60 miles off the coast of Scotland by a team of ten divers led by ProjectXplore, an international project that aims to locate historically-significant shipwrecks around the UK.

Thirty-eight crew members were killed when the 457ft ship was torpedoed by a German submarine on 19 August 1916.

Its resting place, at a depth of 82 metres, remained a mystery until ProjectXplore documented the site this month.

The team said it had “no doubt” about the ship’s identity due to its name stamp, dimensions, equipment and condition, which matched reports about the circumstances of the attack.

Divers also found white dinner plates stamped with a Royal Navy blue crown emblem, as well as the embossed lettering “Nottingham” on the top of the stern.

HMS Nottingham was struck three times on its port side while on a reconnaissance mission. The German U-boat had been spotted earlier that morning, but a crew member mistook it for a small fishing vessel.

The captain, 20 officers and 357 other crew were rescued by two Royal Navy destroyers and survived.

Multiple attempts were made to locate the ship over the following century, but all failed.

ProjectXplore began investigating in September 2024, researching records such as ships’ logs, telegrams and charts.

In April, it surveyed the area with sonar cameras, finding evidence of a wreck with similar dimensions, layout and positioning to HMS Nottingham.

Three months’ later, it carried out an expedition to the site, confirming the identity of the ship.