HMS PATHFINDER, Off St Abbs Head, Forth

68metres

 

HMS PATHFINDER

 

On 5th September 1914 , the submarine U-21 commanded by Leutnant Otto Hersing was approaching the Firth of Forth on the lookout for Leith-bound merchantmen to sink. Suddenly, a British warship appeared in her periscope. It was the cruiser HMS Pathfinder . One single torpedo from U-21 sufficed. Striking Pathfinder in the area below her magazine, the German torpedo caused a fire which exploded Pathfinder's ammunition supply, sending her swiftly to a watery grave. This was the first U-boat success. Others swiftly followed.

 

THE DIVE

 

Lying in 68m 16 miles from shore she can be a difficult wreck to Dive as she is in a very exposed area of the Forth. The deck is at 60m and she is intact and upright from the Stern to just foward of the Bridge, where she is a collapsed scrapyard. This would be consistent with a torpedo hit to the magazine. Shell cases and warheads are scattered about, and all the Deck Guns are still in place, the Torpedo Tubes are still in place and Portholes and other artefacts are scattered about.

There is a large old net over the Bow area which looks very like  Cargo Netting, Fisherman tell stories og the Navy putting Nets on the wrecks to stop the Sailors Bodies floating out and being washed up. This loss was kept very quiet and the Fishing Boats were banned from the area for a long time, they do tell of Sailors Bodies being found in their nets in this area months later.

It is a sobering experience to Dive her are Seaboots and articles of clothing litter the decks, and ropes from the unused lifeboat davits still float free, recently Divers report finding a Brass Divers Helmet on the wreck. She still needs to be surveyed further to see what still remains of this Ship.

 

 

HMS Pathfinder, A 3000 ton Scout Class Light Cruiser,

Built Cammell Laird, laid down August 1903, completed July 1905.
cost £279,000.

Size:
Length 370 feet pp 379 feet overall, beam 38 feet 6 inches, draught 13 feet, displacement 2,900 tons load.

Propulsion:
2 shaft TE engines, 16,500 ihp, 25 knots

Trials:
Pathfinder 14,330 ihp = 25.22 knots

Armour:
2in belt,1.5-0.5in decks

Armament:
10 x 12 pounder QF (10 x 1), 8 x 3 pounder QF (8 x 1), 2 x 18in TT

Comments:
One of four pairs of Scouts ordered to a general specification with the exact design left up to the individual builders.  Not long after completion the two additional 12 pounder guns were added and the 3 pounder guns were replaced with 6 x 6 pounders.  In 1911-12 they were reamed with 9 x 4 inch guns.  Crew 268.

World War 1 Service:
Pathfinder
8th Destroyer Flotilla Nore.
5 September 1914 Sunk by German submarine U 21.

 

U21

 

 

U21 was a U19 Class Submarine - one of only 4 of this class she was launched in 1913

length of 64m, beam of 6.10m and a draught of 3.5m, 650 tons displacement,

with 2 Bow Tubes and 2 Stern Tubes and a 105mm Deck Gun she was well armed, and had a Top Speed of 15.4 knots on the surface and 9 knots submerged

Her Skipper was Otto Hersing and was known amongst his collegues as the "Zerstörer der Schlachtschiffe" - destroyer of battleships. His first victim  HMS Pathfinder, a light cruiser of 2940 tons which he torpedoed off St. Abb's Head on the east coast of Scotland on the 5th September 1914 with U21.

In early 1915 he was ordered to the Mediterranean to give a hard time to British who had landed at Gallipoli. Hersing's first victim was the battleship HMS Triumph of 11.985 tons which he sank off Gaba Tepe on the 25th May, while the ship was bombarding the Turkish lines. Two days later he sank the HMS Majestic, anorther battleship conducting fire support off the Gallipoli peninsula. For these actions awaited him on his return to the fatherland the Pour le Mérite. On the 4th of July he sank the Carthage, a French auxiliary cruiser of 5.601 GRT near Cap Helles, Turkey. On the 8th February 1916, U21 sank the French cruiser Amiral Charner of 4750 tons off the Syrian coast. Hersing survived the war and seems to have started cultivating potato's in the countryside!