RN ship losses @rnshiplosses.bsky.social

Recording ship losses of the Royal Navies of Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand day by day, remembering the fallen and honouring all who served. Corrections and additions welcome. No official affiliations. No AI used here! Also at Twitter/X.

10 Apr 1940 // Submarine HMS Thistle was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U.4 (which she had earlier unsuccessfully attacked) off Stavanger when caught on the surface recharging her batteries. All Thistle's 59 crew were lost. (Imperial War Museum image FL 4997) #RoyalNavy #WW2
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10 Apr 1940 // Submarine HMS Tarpon was lost with all 53 crew on or soon after this date, probably sunk by depth charges while attacking a German anti-submarine vessel in the North Sea. Her wreck was found off Thyborøn, Jutland, in 2016. #RoyalNavy #WW2
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10 Apr 1940 // Destroyer HMS Hunter, already damaged during combat with German destroyers, was accidentally struck from behind by HMS Hotspur off Narvik, and capsized and sank. 107 of her crew were lost, a further 5 later died of wounds. (Imperial War Museum FL 10190) #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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10 Apr 1940 // Destroyer HMS Hardy was heavily damaged fighting to her last torpedo and shell against German destroyers off Narvik, and capsized after being beached. 32 men died. Captain B A W Warburton-Lee was awarded a posthumous VC. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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10 Apr 1780 // 16-gun brig HMS Active was captured off New Jersey by 20-gun American privateer General Pickering. She was in no state to resist: she was severely battered and leaking badly after enduring a storm, during which seven of her guns had been heaved overboard. #RoyalNavy #NavalHistory
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The Salisbury battled two French ships, both of 46 guns, for two hours, until the arrival of two more enemy ships brought about her surrender. By this time she had 17 dead and her masts and rigging were wrecked. Eight ships from the convoy were taken by the French. [2/2] #RoyalNavy #NavalHistory
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10 Apr 1703 (O.S.) // 50-gun 4th-rate HMS Salisbury was one of three escorts for a merchant convoy which left the River Maas for London on 9 April. One day after departure a squadron of seven French ships chased and overhauled the convoy off the Dutch coast, and engaged the escorts. [1/2]
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9 Apr 1942 // Destroyer HMS Lance was severely damaged by air attack while docked for repairs at Malta. She had already been damaged in a raid on 5 April. She was salvaged and towed to back to Britain but was declared a total loss. (Imperial War Museum image A 7266) #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1942 // Corvette HMS Hollyhock was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Ceylon. She was hit by three bombs and sank in under a minute with the loss of 54 crew. Survivors were picked up by a boat from the tanker Athelstone, which she had been escorting (also sunk). #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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Vampire's bow section sank immediately, but the stern remained afloat for some minutes until it was sunk by a magazine explosion. Eight men were killed in the attack. Her survivors and those of Hermes were rescued by hospital ship Vita. [2/2] #RoyalAustralianNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1942 // Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire was escorting aircraft carrier HMS Hermes off Ceylon when the two came under Japanese air attack, both being sunk. Vampire was bombed and broke in two. [1/2] (Photograph of HMAS Vampire in March 1942: Australian War Memorial 106665)
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9 Apr 1942 // Aircraft carrier HMS Hermes was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Ceylon. She had left Trincomalee the previous day without her aircraft, in company with HMAS Vampire (also sunk). 307 men from Hermes died. (Images: IWM A 30464, Australian War Memorial 30243) #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1941 // Paddle minesweeper HMS Marmion and HM Drifter D'Arcy Cooper were moored together at Harwich during an air raid when the latter was sunk by a direct hit with four men killed. The Marmion was set on fire and damaged beyond repair, with one man killed. #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1940 // Destroyer HMS Gurkha was sunk off Stavanger by German aircraft during the Norway Campaign with the loss of 16 of her crew. 190 survivors were rescued by light cruiser HMS Aurora. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1918 // HM Trawler Lord Hardinge, a Grimsby boat in naval service as a minesweeper, sank off the entrance to Cork harbour near the Daunt Lightship after colliding just after midnight with HM Trawler James Johnson. No lives were lost. #RoyalNavy #WW1 #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1918 // HM Drifter Annie Smith, an Inverness boat in naval service as a net barrier tender, sank in the Bristol Channel after colliding with merchant ship SS Ballycotton off Lundy. No lives were lost. #RoyalNavy #WW1 #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1917 // HM Trawler Orthos, an Aberdeen boat in naval service as a minesweeper, was sweeping off Lowestoft when she struck a mine laid on the previous day by submarine UC.14. The mine exploded beneath her bows, and she sank with one man lost. #RoyalNavy #WW1 #NavalHistory
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Investigations established that the fire had been started deliberately by the Europa's cook and bosun's mate. Disliking their lonely and uncomfortable posting, they had decided to desert, and had set fire to the ship to cover their escape. Both men were caught and hanged. [2/2] #NavalHistory
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9 Apr 1676 (O.S.) // Hulk HMS Europa was destroyed by fire at Malta. She was a former Dutch vessel captured in 1673, initially used as a storage hulk at Tangier and transferred to Malta in May 1675 to support #RoyalNavy warships operating against the Algerine corsairs. [1/2]
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8 Apr 1942 // HM Whalers Svana and Thorgrim were sunk in an air raid on Alexandria harbour. Nearby bomb blasts heavily damaged both boats which flooded and settled on the harbour bottom. No lives were lost but both vessels were written off as total losses. #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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8 Apr 1941 // Mooring vessel HMS Moor struck a mine off Grand Harbour, Malta, while returning from checking net barriers at the mouth of the harbour, and sank with the loss of 28 men, all Maltese. #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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8 Apr 1940 // Destroyer HMS Glowworm sank off Norway after a valiant and tenacious attack on German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. 109 of her crew were lost. CO Lt Cdr Gerard Broadmead Roope was posthumously awarded the first VC of #WW2 for this action. (IWM FL 1973) #RoyalNavy #NavalHistory
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8 Apr 1918 // HM Submarine E.19, which had been operating as part of a British submarine flotilla in the Baltic, was scuttled at Helsinki. The Navy did not want her captured by the advancing Germans, nor did they want her to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks. #RoyalNavy #WW1 #NavalHistory
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8 Apr 1864 // Screw steam gunboat HMS Magpie struck rocks at Crab Island off Doolin, Co. Clare, Ireland, in thick fog. She could not be refloated and was wrecked by the pounding of the sea. Her stores were removed and all 35 crew were safely evacuated. #RoyalNavy #Shipwreck #NavalHistory
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8 Apr 1782 // Ship sloop HMS General Monk was captured by American privateer Hyder Ally, surrendering after a fierce fight that left her with heavy damage and 8 killed. She had been attacking American shipping in Delaware Bay with two consorts, which both ran aground. #RoyalNavy #NavalHistory
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7 Apr 1943 // Minesweeper HMNZS Moa was bunkering from a US Navy oil barge at Tulagi, British Solomon Islands, when the harbour came under Japanese air attack. She received a direct hit and sank within four minutes with the loss of five of her crew. #RoyalNewZealandNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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7 Apr 1942 // HM Tug Hellespont, based at Malta, was wrecked by a direct hit during an air raid. She had been laid up at Sheer Bastion since being damaged in an air raid in September 1940. Following the latest damage she was taken out of Grand Harbour and scuttled. #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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7 Apr 1942 // HM Tug Emily was sunk in Grand Harbour, Malta, during a heavy air raid. No lives were lost. Her name is sometimes given as 'Emilia', her name when launched on Clydeside in 1933. She was bought by the #RoyalNavy in 1934 and subsequently known as 'Emily'. #WW2 #NavalHistory
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7 Apr 1941 // HM Trawler Roche Bonne was bombed and sunk off the Lizard by a lone German aircraft, with the loss of 11 of her crew of 19. #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
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7 Apr 1917 // Minesweeper HMS Jason (built as a torpedo gunboat 1892, converted to a minesweeper in 1909) struck a German submarine-laid mine off Coll in the Inner Hebrides and sank with the loss of 25 of her crew. (Imperial War Museum image: Q 43299) #RoyalNavy #WW1 #NavalHistory
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