Divers discover Royal Navy warship HMS Nottingham 110 years after it was lost in action
The warship's wreck was located in the North Sea by a team of international divers from the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Spain.
The team, operating under the banner ProjectXplore, extensively researched ships' logs, telegrams and charts before sonar scans revealed a wreck with similar dimensions, layout and position 60 miles offshore.
Technical divers found HMS Nottingham lying on the seabed at a depth of 82 metres.
On board, they found white dinner plates stamped with a Royal Navy blue crown emblem, depicting alternating stern and sail motifs as well as the embossed lettering "NOTTINGHAM" across the top of the stern.
The Project Xplore crew said it had "no doubt" the wreck is that of HMS Nottingham, because of the ship's name stamp, her dimensions, main armament, anchor equipment, armour, propulsion and the fact that her condition on the seabed today closely matches reports of the circumstances of her loss.
The Royal Navy warship, a Town-class light cruiser, was struck by three torpedoes on the port side and subsequently sunk on 19 August, 1916, after an encounter with German submarine U-52, part of the German high seas fleet.
The captain, 20 officers and 357 crew were rescued by two Royal Navy destroyers, but 38 British soldiers were killed, some of whom were just teenagers.
Despite numerous attempts over the past century to locate the ship's final resting place, the wreck had remained elusive until now.
The divers found that much of the wreck's superstructure is still in place above the ship, which in some places rises eight to 10 metres high from the seabed.
They also located a clear break forward of the bridge on the port side, which matches reports that two of the torpedo explosions struck there.
HMS Nottingham is "remarkably intact" despite her battle scars, according to ProjectXplore.
The ship is the best-preserved Town-class cruiser in the world, due to the vast majority of the others being sold for breaking up in the 1920s-1940s.
Until her discovery, HMS Nottingham was the last missing Royal Navy cruiser of World War I.
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