HMS Bergamot (1917)

HMS "Bergamot" was an Anchusa class sloop of the Royal Navy sunk on 13 August 1917 [cite web
title =HMS Bergamot
publisher =Flixco Pty Limited
url =http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/280064/8330/a0.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate =2007-06-11 ] , in the
Atlantic Ocean west of the harbour of Killybegs, by the German submarine U-84, commanded by Walter Rohr.

His war diary describes how he sighted a lone merchant ship, with no defensive armament (an unusual sight by 1917). Bergamot evidently sighted the sub's periscope, as she began to zig-zag at high speed. U-84 fired one torpedo, which hit, and "Bergamot" sank in 4 minutes. Surfacing, U-84 sighted an unusually large number of crew (70) and pieces of wood floating. The sub's log identifies the possibility of "Bergamot" being a 'trap ship'.

After a brief search of the area, in which no officers could be identified, the light diminished too much, and U-84 left the area to continue her patrol.

An interesting postnote is that the week before, "Bergamot" had experimented with towing a submerged submarine (HMS E48), thus resurrecting a 1915 method of trapping submarines.

Reference and note