Researchers have located what they believe is the wreck of HMS Stephen Furness, a WW1 armed boarding steamer sunk in 1917 in the Irish Sea.
The discovery forms part of the “Towards a National Collection” project from the UKRI Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), an initiative designed to link separate collections in UK museums, galleries, libraries and archives into a permanent network.
Tracking down Stephen Furness featured in one of five sub-projects: the three-year, £2.9 million Unpath’d Waters collaboration of 25 UK organisations led by Historic England (HE).
The 88m steamer had been built in West Hartlepool as a passenger vessel for the Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Co, named after its chairman and launched in 1910 to carry up to 370 passengers between Newcastle and London.
The Stephen Furness became a Royal Navy armed boarding steamer when WW1 broke out, serving on the route to Murmansk in Russia. The task of such ships was to enforce blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels.
She was heading from Lerwick to Liverpool for repairs on 13 December, 1917, when she was spotted by the German submarine UB-64 in the North Channel, 16km east of the entrance to Strangford Loch and west of the Isle of Man.
A single torpedo caught her between bridge and funnel, resulting in a boiler explosion. The vessel sank in only three minutes, before her lifeboats could be launched, causing the deaths of 95 crew and six officers. Only 12 men survived.
90m deep
Multibeam sonar-scanning data collected by Bangor University’s research vessel Prince Madog was used to analyse the dimensions of a number of wreck-sites in the region, and this information was combined with archival resources such as the war-logs of German U-boats.
The team also studied simulations of wind and tidal conditions at the time of the sinking to trace the ship’s last moments, based on the dispersal of four bodies that had been found far away along the coast of North Wales.
The results suggested that meteorological records and hindcast models could be used more often to help pinpoint missing vessels when other positional information was limited.
The wreck lies 90m deep and was previously thought to be that of the Swedish cargo vessel Maja, torpedoed with the loss of nine lives a month before the war ended. The researchers now believe they have located Maja’s remains a few miles further south.
“The likely identification of HMS Stephen Furness is a brilliant and moving example of the potential of the UK’s maritime heritage data and a testimony to the Unpath’d Waters’ team’s collaboration and excellent detective work,” commented HE’s Barney Sloane, Unpath’d Waters’ principal investigator.
“The UK’s maritime heritage is incredibly rich, and our project aimed to explore how we can access, link and search this heritage in new ways to create new knowledge and stories. This result is a remarkable example of just how important such an endeavour will prove to be.”
Dissolved barriers
“This remarkable discovery demonstrates what can be achieved when cultural heritage organisations come together to push forwards the development of an inclusive, unified, accessible, inter-operable and sustainable UK digital collection,” said Towards a National Collection’s programme director Rebecca Bailey.
“Towards a National Collection is about connecting and opening access to UK heritage – for everyone, not just academic researchers. We want to dissolve the barriers between people, collections and research – big and small, scientific and cultural, national and regional.
“The four sailors that washed up on the coast of North Wales provided an opportunity to use innovative scientific analysis to inform our theory about the wreck. However, it is important to look at the bigger picture here; no matter where the wreck of HMS Stephen Furness ended up, these were four men out of over a hundred that lost their lives when the ship sank.
“It is easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of searching for a lost shipwreck, but it is also important to remember the human tragedy that is inextricably linked.”
Remembrance weekend with PADI
Training agency PADI is inviting divers to explore the wrecks of WW1 and WW2 wrecks on guided dives with partnered dive-centres around the UK this weekend, with Remembrance Sunday on 10 November and Remembrance Day on the Monday.
Participating centres including Aquanaut Scuba & Snorkelling Centre, Dive Rutland, DiveUK, DV Diving, Gatwick Scuba, Indigo Elite Divers, Ocean Turtle Diving, Old Harbour Dive Centre, ORCA Scuba Diving Academy, Oyster Diving and Teign Diving Centre have committed to supporting the creation of experiences that “connect divers with both the past and the ocean’s future”, says PADI.
The dives are promised to “combine respectful remembrance with the opportunity to understand these historic sites from a new perspective”. Contact your nearest PADI dive-centre for more information.
Also on Divernet: HOW WE DISCOVERED THE WRECK OF A TORPEDOED WW1 BRITISH SHIP, THAT’S NO SUB: HMS MERCURY WRECK IDENTIFIED, ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY OF WWII LCT 326 ALTERS BRITISH NAVAL HISTORY
