- HMS Pathfinder (1904)
HMS "Pathfinder" was the
lead ship of the "Pathfinder" classscout cruiser s, and was the first ship ever to be sunk by atorpedo fired bysubmarine (theAmerican Civil War ship USS "Housatonic" had been sunk by aspar torpedo ). She was built byCammell Laird ,Birkenhead , launched on16 July ,1904 , and commissioned on18 July ,1905 . She was originally to have been named HMS "Fastnet", but was renamed prior to construction.Career
Not long after completion, two additional 12 pounder guns were added and the 3 pounder guns were replaced with six 6 pounders. In 1911-12 they were rearmed with nine 4 inch guns. "Pathfinder" spent her early career with the
Atlantic Fleet ,Channel Fleet (1906) and then theHome Fleet (1907). At the start of theFirst World War she was part of the 8th DestroyerFlotilla , in theFirth of Forth ."Pathfinder" was sunk off St. Abbs Head,
Berwickshire ,Scotland , on Saturday5 September ,1914 by the German "U-21", commanded by "Leutnant zur See"Otto Hersing . Typical of the scout cruisers' poor endurance, she was so short of coal whilst on patrol that she could only manage a speed of 5 knots, making her an easy target. The ship was struck in a magazine, which exploded causing the ship to sink within minutes with the loss of 259 men. There were 11 survivors.The explosion was seen by
Aldous Huxley (while staying at Northfield House, St. Abbs) who recorded the following in a letter to his father sent on14 September 1914:I dare say Julian told you that we actually saw the "Pathfinder" explosion — a great white cloud with its foot in sea.
The
St. Abbs ' lifeboat came in with the most appalling accounts of the scene. There was not a piece of wood, they said, big enough to float a man—and over acres the sea was covered with fragments—human and otherwise. They brought back a sailor's cap with half a man's head inside it. The explosion must have been frightful. It is though to be a German submarine that did it, or, possibly, a torpedo fired from one of the refitted German trawlers, which cruise all round painted with British port letters and flying the British flag.References
*Colledge
*Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/light-cruiser/hms-Pathfinder.html Pathfinder class in World War I]
* [http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_pathfinder_class_cruisers.html History of the Pathfinder class]
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