Battleships carried the heaviest guns and the thickest armour. By maintaining a blockade of enemy ports it hoped to cut off supplies from the outside world. For this exploit, Rutland was nicknamed 'Rutland of Jutland'. The list is in chronological order of the time of sinking. "None of the camouflaged fighting ships were sunk, he says. Battlecruisers were a novel design concept. Before being purchased by the Greek government and renamed, The number of casualties that resulted from the explosion of the, After being raised and put into Japanese service, the, After being captured by the Japanese, the, Jeremy Black, "Jutland's Place in History,", Reid, John Alden. Cambank (Formerly Raithmoor) a steam screw with a gross tonnage of 3,111, registry closed on March 3, 1915. During the first week of the campaign seven Allied or Allied-bound ships were sunk out of 11 attacked, but 1,370 others sailed without being harassed by the German submarines. The Germans continued to sink neutral ships occasionally, and undecided countries soon began to adopt a hostile outlook toward this activity when the safety of their own shipping was threatened. research. This isHMSLion. Between the wars, the Washington Naval Treaty and the subsequent London Naval Treaty limited the tonnage and firepower of capital ships permitted to the navies of the world. The largest readily accessible collection of printed Admiralty charts is held by the Map Library of the British Library. These high losses were partly due to the unexpected sinking of three large ships: HMS Invincible, HMS Queen Mary and HMS Indefatigable. From the start of theFirst World Warin 1914, Germany pursued a highly effective U-boat campaign against merchant shipping. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from [15], Those battleships belonging to the Central Powers that survived World War I often did not survive its aftermath. Despite his injuries Harvey had the presence of mind to order the turret's magazine to be flooded as a safety measure. After the Battle of Port Arthur,[7] a number of Russian and Japanese vessels were struck by mines and either sank or were scuttled to prevent their capture. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The first battleship to be sunk by gunfire alone,[4]the Russian battleship Oslyabya, sank with half of her crew at the Battle of Tsushima when the ship was pummeled by a seemingly endless stream of Japanese shells striking the ship repeatedly, killing crew with direct hits to several guns, the conning tower, and the water line or below it, which Thirty-four British cruisers fought at Jutland and three were sunk. We also hold a digest, which is a summary record of the contents of each letter or paper, for 1822 to 1832 (ADM 106/2153 ADM 106/2177). [17] On 27 November 1942 the Vichy French government scuttled the majority of the French fleet at Toulon.[18]. [8] HMSBarham was struck by three torpedoes fired from German submarineU-331. Although many records contain incidental references to the loss of merchant ships, almost no systematic attempts were made to collect information about them until the 19th century. ADM 137/3089 ADM 137/3832 is an organised collection of such reports. This information will help us make improvements to the website. Having counted the German ships, noted their formation and course, and relayed this information, Goodenough turned his squadron away. The German civilian statesmen had temporarily prevailed over the naval high command, which advocated unrestricted submarine warfare. After the Armistice, all surviving German U-Boats were surrendered under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Though mainly concerned with UK territorial waters the database includes information on a small number of wrecks in other areas. Despite this, the Germans persisted in their intention and, on August 17, sank the Arabic, which also had U.S. and other neutral passengers. A maritime disaster is an event which usually involves a ship or ships and can involve military action. Tree search All record sets. Just a month later on July 22, U-140 was sunk by the destroyer USS Dickerson. Salvaged. Discover how they were destroyed and how many casualties there were. He led his squadron closer to the enemy. For the Germans, a worse result than any of the British countermeasures imposed on them was the long-term growth of hostility on the part of the neutral countries. The British ships, which had fought at long range so as to render useless the smaller guns of the Germans, sustained only 25 casualties in this engagement. The Germans could thus threaten not only merchant shipping on the British trade routes but also troopships on their way to Europe or the Middle East from India, New Zealand, or Australia. v3.0. Otto Steinbrinck in UC-65 did the same between March and July 1917. Some of the other archives listed in section 6 may prove to be better places to start this kind of research. Lionwas lucky to avoid the same fate. The British Government is announcing today (28 November) the following shipping losses that have occurred from the start of the war to the end of 1943: ", scuttled the majority of the French fleet, Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 19061921, "Kapitnleutnant Freiherr Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen", "HMS Royal Oak Ship's Bell and Book of Remembrance", "Pearl Harbor Raid, 7 December 1941, USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor Attack", "Flagship of the Fleet: Life and Death of the USS Arizona", "USS Arizona Memorial: Submerged Cultural Resources Study (Chapter 2)", "Death of a Battleship: A Reanalysis of the Tragic Loss of HMS, "Celebrated British warships being stripped bare for scrap metal", "IJN Subchaser CH-9: Tabular Record of Movement", "IJN Repair Ship Asahi: Tabular Record of Movement", "Wreck of First Japanese Battleship Sunk By U.S. Navy in WWII Found", "Divers locate wreck of battleships sunk on way to Malta", "The Sinking of the 'Scharnhorst', Wreck discovery", "IJN Battleship MUSASHI: Tabular Record of Movement", "Explorers find 'most famous' Japanese WWII battleship off Romblon's Sibuyan Island", "Microsoft's Allen Says WWII Battleship Musashi Found", "Japanese WWII battleship Musashi Exploded Under Water, New Footage Suggests", "IJN Shinano: Tabular Record of Movement", "Bristol garden's WW1 German battleship bell sells for 5,000", "Kladbische korablei ( )", "The battleship that started World War II", "The Naval Bombing Experiments: Bombing Operations", "USS Iowa (Battleship # 4), 18971923. It was exploiting the limited view of the periscope, Behrens explains. Capsized under 1,100 meters (3,600ft) of water. Participated in Operation Crossroads, but was sunk by naval aircraft. This guide contains information about researching wrecked or sunken ships at The National Archives. Todays electronic surveillance technology makes dazzle pretty much obsolete for protecting ships, but as Forbes points out, the concept of visually disruptive patterns is still used in military uniforms. Since submarines didn't contain enough people to comprise a boarding party, and revealing their. On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) erupted across Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New . Though the British Admiralty probably didnt include too many modern art enthusiasts, the losses from U-boat attacks were so devastating that they soon authorized Wilkinson to set up a camouflage unit at the Royal Academy in London. [3], The Royal Navy lost 10 frigates, 22 corvettes, 10 sloops, 15 auxiliary cruisers and 1,035 smaller units, including those lent to Commonwealth and other allied naval forces.[2]. One officer remembered: 'I can truthfully say that I thought each moment would be our lastwe seemed to bear a charmed lifehow we escaped amazes everyone from [Commodore Goodenough] downwards'. This is the British battleshipHMSIron Duke, which was the flagship ofAdmiral Sir John Jellicoe. Capsized under 900 meters (3,000ft) of water. At Jutland,Sharkwas part of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron, a force of three battlecruisers, the light cruisersChesterandCanterbury, and three other destroyers. New Year's Day 1915 was welcomed by SM U 24 (Kptlt.Rudolf Schneider) with a very special kind of fireworks, when it sank the old battleship HMS Formidable (15,000 tons) in the Western Channel.. Few of these reports have been preserved, though the Board of Trade Marine Department in series MT 9contains those which have. Their design favoured high speed and heavy armament, at the cost of sacrificing armour protection. During the early months of the war, only absolute contraband such as guns and ammunition was restricted, but the list was gradually extended to include almost all material that might be of use to the enemy. Although almost every sea battle in World War II involved gunfire between surface warships to some degree, their time as the senior ship of a nation's fleet had run its course. Partially salvaged, reported to be extant albeit sinking into, Her aft main turret was removed and placed at. IWM collections. These are not available to download or view online. [16] On 1 November 1918, as the Austrian battleship Viribus Unitis was being transferred to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, she was mined and sunk at Pola by two Italian frogmen, Raffaele Paolucci[it] and Raffaele Rossetti, who were unaware of the transfer. As the battleship began to fall out of favor, some captured capital ships were decommissioned, stripped, and deliberately sunk in nuclear weapons tests. How many ships were sunk in ww2? All Rights Reserved. Letters sent to the Navy Board, or by that board to the Admiralty, which occasionally deal with wrecks, particularly those which occurred in the vicinity of dockyard ports or where salvage was attempted. How successful dazzle actually was in thwarting U-boat attacks isnt clear. This brief flight, lasting little more than half an hour, was the only contribution by aircraft to the Battle of Jutland. Reports dealing with ships lost during the First World War, both British and international, and including some transports, auxiliaries and merchant vessels under naval escort. A total of 1,256 merchant and fighting ships, were camouflaged between March 1 and November 11, 1918. After failing to seize control of the sea from the British at theBattle of Jutlandin 1916, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare on 1 February 1917. Since the start of the twentieth century, Britain and Germany had been locked in a bitter rivalry to build bigger and better warships. They could chase down and destroy slower and weaker ships, and their speed allowed them to stay out of range of a battleship's heavy guns. The Germans similarly sought to attack Great Britains economy with a campaign against its supply lines of merchant shipping. Capsized under about 45 meters (148ft) of water. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. In the summer of 1921, U-140 and U-117 were selected as target ships. During the battle,Sharkbecame entangled in a close-range and chaotic fight between British and German. IWM collections. U.S. In addition, merchant ships were painted in dazzle camouflage, aircraft and shore-based direction finding stations were introduced to locate U-boats, and warships acquired new weapons such as an early form of sonar and depth charges. These may give the position of a sinking, but its important to remember that logbooks were often lost with the ship, and that many ships were wrecked because their officers did not know where they were. Nevertheless, our records can contain useful information and should be considered among the range of different sources. By October 1917, British officials were sufficiently convinced of dazzles effectiveness that they ordered that all merchant ships should get the special paint jobs, according to this 1999 article by Behrens. Ninety-nine members of her crew were killed, the highest number of fatalities of any British ship that survived the battle and returned to port. There is no subject index to these records before 1793, so to locate a report you would need to know the name of the writer and where he was stationed. Lothar von Arnauld de la Perire (three times) who sank the most tonnage of any submarine commander ever,[8] and Linienschiffsleutnant Georg Ritter von Trapp of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (two times), known as the patriarch of the family made famous in The Sound of Music and its subsequent film adaptation.[9]. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. With the exception of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War and Jutland, which would be one of the last large-scale battles between capital ships,[3] no decisive naval battles between battleships were fought. Though sinking a German cruiser with a torpedo,Southamptonwas set on fire. This list covers those disasters in which 30 or more lives were lost during World War I. At the. Sunken battleships are the wrecks of large capital ships built from the 1880s to the mid-20th century that were either destroyed in battle, mined, deliberately destroyed in a weapons test, or scuttled. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The Lloyds Marine Collection is a major source of information about merchant shipping losses, based at the Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC 2. Abroad on the high seas, the Germans most powerful surface force was the East Asiatic squadron of fast cruisers, including the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, and the Nrnberg, under Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. Hans Rose in U-53 sank two ships and damaged two others between June 1917 and April 1918,[7] while Kptlt. Later renamed Coast Battleship # 4", "Ex-USS New Jersey | Monitor National Marine Sanctuary", "Ex-USS Virginia | Monitor National Marine Sanctuary", "Nagato's Last Year: July 1945 July 1946", "French Battleship Blown up in Toulon Harbor", Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_sunken_battleships&oldid=1135084631, Articles containing Russian-language text, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Its important to remember that ships didnt just rely upon dazzle camouflage for protection from U-boats, Behrens explains. See also List of ships of the Royal Navy. July 31, 1918 . The hardening of their outlook began in February 1915, when the Norwegian steamship Belridge, carrying oil from New Orleans to Amsterdam, was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel. Comprehensive listing of all wrecks by UK coastal area, Marx, R, Shipwrecks of the Western Hemisphere, (New York, World Publishing Co, 1971). Apart from its lack of positive success, the U-boat arm was continuously harried by Great Britains extensive antisubmarine measures, which included nets, specially armed merchant ships, hydrophones for locating the noise of a submarines engines, and depth bombs for destroying it underwater. A comprehensive database of wrecks containing over 60,000 records, of which approximately 20,000 are for named vessels, is maintained by theUK Hydrographic Office, Admiralty Way, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 2DN. Several thousand losses before and including 1825 are listed and briefly described, Pickford, N, The Atlas of Shipwreck & Treasure (London, Dorling Kindersley, 1994), Hepper, D J, British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail 1650-1859 (Sussex, Jean Boudriot Publications, 1994). This was the sinking by a German submarine on May 7, 1915, of the British liner Lusitania, which was on its way from New York to Liverpool: though the ship was in fact carrying 173 tons of ammunition, it had nearly 2,000 civilian passengers, and the 1,198 people who were drowned included 128 U.S. citizens. The majority of British loss of life came from Vice-Admiral, This page was last edited on 11 October 2022, at 00:04. OnLion'sbridge, Beatty is reported to have remarked to his flag captain 'there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today'. This list contains the approximately 100 ships over 10,000 tons that were either damaged or sunk by U-boats by torpedoes, submarine-laid mines, gunfire, or other means. Chronological list which details the circumstances of the loss, Huntress, K, Checklist of Narratives of Shipwrecks & Disasters at Sea to 1860 (Iowa State University Press, 1979). Immediately after the outbreak of war, the British had instituted an economic blockade of Germany, with the aim of preventing all supplies reaching that country from the outside world. The Royal Navy lost 50,758 men killed in action, 820 missing in action and 14,663 wounded in action. [1] Many additional ships that are not included in those totals were damaged, but were able to return to service after repairs. Seventy-nine British destroyers took part in the Battle of Jutland and eight were sunk. The Royal Navy lost 28 cruisers according to Roskill,[2] and 34 including Commonwealth/Dominion ships, according to the Naval-History project. Sultan Osman I: One of two battleships under construction in British shipyards in 1914 sold to the Turkish navy, one of these ships financed by Turkish public subscription. Sharkwas hit repeatedly. From the bridge of this ship, Jellicoe made critical tactical decisions. It was later adapted to become a seaplane carrier, able to launch and retrieve light aeroplanes, called seaplanes, that can take off and land on water. According to the War Shipping Administration, the U.S. The Royal Navy deployed nine battlecruisers at Jutland. In the second half of April, an average of 13 ships were sunk each day. Over 500 British Royal Navy ships were lost at sea during the First World War. Justicia was damaged by UB-64 on 19 July 1918 and sunk while under tow the following day by UB-124. This isHMSEngadine. Ongoing cataloguing projects are helping to make ships records easier to find and use. Alphabetical listing by war years, Brown, D, Warship Losses of World War Two (London, Arms & Armour Press, 1995), Lenton, H T, British & Empire Warships of the Second World War (London, Greenhill, 1998). Larn, R and Larn, B, Shipwreck Index of the British Isles (London, Lloyds Register of Shipping, 1995-ongoing). As part of a battle fleet, cruisers worked as scouts and protected battleships from torpedo attacks by destroyers. [12] One pioneer of aviation in a naval role was US Army General Billy Mitchell, who commandeered SMSOstfriesland for testing of his theory in July 1921. Similar reports from about 1850. List of ships sunk by submarines by death toll, List of ships sunk by submarines by death tolls exceeding 150, Giuseppe Fioravanzo, "La Marina italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale Volume II La guerra nel Mediterraneo Le azioni navali Tomo Secondo: dal 1 aprile 1941 all8 settembre 1943", Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare italiana. [11], Although mines and torpedoes constantly threatened the battleship's dominance, it was the refinement of aerial technology and tactics that led to the replacement of the battleship with the aircraft carrier as the most important naval vessel. Later,Southamptonwas not so lucky. Gustav Sieresponsible for sinking the largest ship on the list, the hospital ship Britannic struck a mine and sunk (the younger sister ship of Titanic and Olympic)topped the list with five entries, four (including Britannic) sunk in U-73 and a fifth sunk in U-33, all between April 1916 and April 1917. List of Royal Navy losses in World War II 1 language The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinking after being torpedoed by a German submarine in November 1941, the assisting destroyer HMS Legion was sunk in 1942. This page is not available in other languages. Outward-bound trade from Germany was brought to a complete standstill. Many websites give information about shipping losses, and there are also many online forums for people to share information about ships, shipwrecks and salvage. Because of the nature of maritime travel, there is often a substantial loss of life. Yet, whereas the Allied blockade was preventing almost all trade for Germany from reaching that nations ports, the German submarine campaign yielded less satisfactory results. Heavily damaged and in multiple pieces under 1,000 meters (3,300ft) of water. By the end of the war, more than 2,300 British ships had been decorated with dazzling camouflage. In August 1915, a German submarine sunk the British ocean liner S.S. Arabic and claimed self-defense. One of Germanys most feared and effective weapons during World War I was its fleet of submarinesknown as U-boatsthat roamed the Atlantic, sneaking up underwater on British merchant ships and destroying them with torpedoes. Search our catalogueusing terms such as wreck or the name of the ship, while restricting the search to MT. The List of ships sunk at the Battle of Jutland is a list of ships which were lost during the Battle of Jutland. The intention was that Germany would never again be able to pose such a serious threat to British trade. The records of the Trade Division of the Naval Staff, contain much material on the losses of individual merchant ships. Lusitania In range of ten German battleships, the squadron immediately came under heavy fire. A wide range of warship types took part in the battle, and each played a different tactical role. Capsized under 108 meters (354ft) of water. Three shipsJusticia, Celtic, and Southlandappear on the list twice. The heaviest toll was suffered by HMSMalaya, whose crew sustained 63 dead and 68 wounded. Patrick J. Kiger has written for GQ, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, PBS NewsHour and Military History Quarterly. From four of the sunken destroyers, 173 British sailors were rescued by the German navy and taken prisoner. Still, the United States and the Japanese Empire experimented with offensive roles for aircraft carriers in their fleets. But it had occurred to him that if a black ship was broken up with white stripes it would visually confuse the enemy. [5][6] Battleships also proved to be very vulnerable to mines, as was evidenced in the Russo-Japanese War and both World Wars. It may be useful to consult the logs of any other ships which sailed in company with the lost ship. The two routes by which supplies could reach German ports were: (1) through the English Channel and the Strait of Dover and (2) around the north of Scotland. Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: February 5, 2019. In 1917, in recognition of his leadership, Jones was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. A torpedo struck and exploded amidships on the starboard side, and a heavier explosion followed, possibly caused by damage to the ship's steam engines and pipes. At first the British press agreed, but the truth was not so clear-cut. The Scharnhorst, with Admiral von Spee aboard, was the first ship to be sunk, then the Gneisenau, followed by the Nrnberg and the Leipzig. The registration system established by the Merchant Shipping Acts of 1786, 1825 and 1854 required a ships loss to be officially recorded. After unrestricted submarine warfare began in February 1915, any ship could unexpectedly sink rapidly from the heavy underwater hull damage inflicted by torpedoes. Cruisers were a type of warship designed to spend long periods at sea, for roles such as commerce protection in far-flung parts of Britain's empire. Heavily damaged as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor. John Alexander Cruickshank isthe last living recipient to have been awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War. In April 1917, 430 Allied and neutral ships totaling 852,000 tons were sunk, and it seemed likely that the German gamble would succeed. It pitted 151 British warships against 99 German ships and was the first and only time the two battle fleets confronted each other. Three ships Justicia, Celtic, and Southland appear on the list twice. An art-lover today might assume that dazzle camouflage was the brainchild of a cubist painter, not someone such as Wilkinson, a representational artist who liked to paint ships and seascapes. On December 15 battle cruisers of the German High Seas Fleet set off on a sortie across the North Sea, under the command of Admiral Franz von Hipper: they bombarded several British towns and then made their way home safely. Unknown, under 180 meters (590ft) of water. Buried at sea after the battle, Harvey was later awarded a posthumousVictoria Cross. Includes reports from flag officers and captains on the loss of ships under their command from about 1698 onward. Capsized under 110 meters (360ft) of water. Records of the Ministry of Shipping from 1917-1921 contain references to war losses and include a complete list of British merchant and fishing vessels sunk or damaged by enemy action for 1914-1920 (MT 25/83-85). Flying over the North Sea, Rutland and Trewin were able to spot approaching German ships. Goodenough knew that up-to-date information on the German fleet was vital. Commander Jones' body washed ashore in Sweden a few days later. Russian battleship Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya. Dazzle camouflage, as Wilkinsons concept came to be called, appeared to be counter-intuitive, explains Roy R. Behrens, a professor of art and Distinguished Scholar at the University of Northern Iowa, who writes Camoupedia, a blog thats a compendium of research on the art of camouflage. It was the only time that the British and German fleets of 'dreadnought' battleships actually came to blows. Destroyers were the fastest class of warship, but were unarmoured and vulnerable to gun fire. If you can't hide from the enemy, confuse them. Sailing withBeatty'sBattle Cruiser Fleet,Southamptonwas the first British ship to sight the German High Seas Fleet. This 'unrestricted submarine warfare' angered neutral countries, especially the United States. Works published by Thomas Tegg can be particularly useful. Following a new U.S. protest, the Germans undertook to ensure the safety of passengers before sinking liners henceforth; but only after the torpedoing of yet another liner, the Hesperia, did Germany, on September 18, decide to suspend its submarine campaign in the English Channel and west of the British Isles, for fear of provoking the United States further. Reported to have been heavily salvaged. TheSociety of Genealogists(14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London, EC1M 7BA) has a number of books on shipwrecks and shipping casualties. The Women's Royal Naval Service lost 102 killed and 22 wounded.[1]. Capsized and blown in half under 1,000 meters (3,300ft). The first significant encounter between the two navies was that of the Helgoland Bight, on August 28, 1914, when a British force under Admiral Sir David Beatty, having entered German home waters, sank or damaged several German light cruisers and killed or captured 1,000 men at a cost of one British ship damaged and 35 deaths. Much more serious was an action that confirmed the inability of the German command to perceive that a minor tactical success could constitute a strategic blunder of the most extreme magnitude. The bomb blast stripped away the fabric covering the aircraft's fuselage. At the request of the U.S. government, Wilkinson sailed across the Atlantic in March 1918 and met with Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, and then helped to set up a camouflage unit headed by American impressionist painter Everett Warner. During the First World War, U-boats of the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) and the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: Kaiserliche und Knigliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Despite being shot at, Trewin was able to report their sightings back toEngadine. May 15, 1918: Steamship Neches, gross 5,426 tons; sank in collision with unknown British patrol vessel 10 miles from Start Point Light and 30 miles east of Plymouth, England; 3 killed. Dozens of heavy shells fell close toSouthampton, but none hit the ship. On 4 February 1915, Germany declared a war zone around Britain, within which merchant ships were sunk without warning. July 21, 2013 -- British archaeologists recently discovered more than 40 German U-boats sunk during World War I off the coast of England. For four months this fleet ranged almost unhindered over the Pacific Ocean, while the Emden, having joined the squadron in August 1914, was detached for service in the Indian Ocean. Information about the loss of British East India Company ships may be found in theIndia Office Records at the British Library, 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB. On 4 February 1915, Germany declared a war zone around Britain, within which merchant ships were sunk without warning. Stream World War I videos commercial-free in HISTORY Vault. But the fortunes of the war on the high seas were reversed when, on December 8, the German squadron attacked the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands in the South Atlantic, probably unaware of the naval strength that the British, since Coronel, had been concentrating there under Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee: two battle cruisers (the Invincible and Inflexible, each equipped with eight 12-inch guns) and six other cruisers. On January 30, 1915, Germany carried the campaign a stage further by torpedoing three British steamers (Tokomaru, Ikaria, and Oriole) without warning. [2] Celtic was damaged by U-80 and UB-77 in separate incidents in February 1917 and March 1918, respectively. Lying upside down under 370 feet of water. Heavy personnel casualties continued through World War II, and there have been a few later sinkings.