Hms Nessus: Pentland Firth, North Sea

ND66NE 8001 6978 6998

N58 37.025 W2 31.217

NLO: Duncansby Head [name: ND 406 733]

Pentland Firth [name centred ND 35 81]

Pentland Skerries [name centred ND 470 775].

Formerly entered as ND67NE 8001 at cited location ND 6803 7693 [N58 36 W2 33], and as Unlocated, within quasi-administrative area designated as Maritime - Orkney.

Quality of fix = PA

Evidence = Estimated

Horizontal Datum = OGB

General water depth = 67

Circumstances of Loss Details

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The destroyer HMS NESSUS sank after a collision with the cruiser AMPHITRITE in dense fog, whilst patrolling in the North Sea.

Source: Dictionary of Disasters at Sea.

Surveying Details

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16 September 1918. The wreck's position is reported as approximately 58 36 00N, 002 33 00W.

Report by Commander in Chief, Grand Fleet.

30 September 1980. The wreck is now charted as an unsurveyed wreck with a safe water clearance of 50 metres.

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

Nessus: pre-1919.

(Location of loss cited as N58 36.0 W2 33.0).

[Not described in detail or classified as a warship].

I G Whittaker 1998.

Ridley notes what is apparently the same wreck under two entries. The accuracy of the location stated by the Hydrographic Office is unclear.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 18 November 2002.

G Ridley 1992; Hydrographic Office record (1995).

Length: 271-6 ft (82.6 - 84.1m)

Beam: 26ft 9ins (8.2m)

Displacement: 994-1022 tons

Propulsion: steam turbines, three screws, 25,000 hp, 34 kts.

Guns: 3 x 4 ins (102mm); 1 x 2 pdr

Torpedo tubes: 2 x twin 21 in (533mm)

Complement: 80/98

This 'Admiralty' M-class destroyer was built on the Tyne by Swan Hunter as part of the Emergency War Programme. She was completed in 1915 and sunk in 1918, when in collision in the North Sea.

A wreck wire-swept to 50m depth is charted at N58 36 W2 33, 15nm (28km) ESE of Duncansby Head.

(Individual units within this class vary in dimensions, complement and displacement: the 'Admiralty' variant was distinguished by having three small round funnels).

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 16 December 2002.

H M Le Fleming 1961; [Jane] 2001.

HO chart no. 115 (1978, revised to 1993).

Plans (but not photographs) of this vessel are held in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Information from Ms G Fabri (NMM), 7 November 2003.

The map sheet assigned to this record is essentially tentative, being derived from the unverified location of loss that is cited by UKHO.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 25 February 2004.

Nessus: M-class destoyer. Built Swan Hunter [Tyneside], 24 August 1915. Sunk in collision with cruiser HMS Amphitrite, North Sea, 8 September 1918.

J J Colledge and B Warlow 2006.

(No accurate location specified). A team of technical divers has found the wreck of HMS Nessus, sunk in 1918 off Orkney, in Scotland. Operating from Andy Cuthbertson's Orkney-based Jean Elaine, they located the M-class destroyer 13 miles south-east of the Pentland Skerries, using information gleaned by Orkney researcher Kevin Heath from naval records, the National Archive at Kew and survey material held by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Led by Leigh Grubb, the divers descended to find the wreck sitting at a depth of 68m. Observations made for what Heath described as a ‘positive identification’. The noting of three 4in guns by one of the divers, Mark Leicester, identified the wreck as a WW1 destroyer and, by necessity, Nessus. The only other destroyer wrecks in the area are a couple of WW2-vintage ships, HMS Daring and HMS Imogen. The divers raised shell-cases carrying the dates 1901, 1902 and 1912; crockery, bearing naval crests; and a number of other artefacts, including the ship's wheel, compass binnacle and a navigation light unit.

Nessus, which two years earlier had fought at the Battle of Jutland, sank after being rammed by another British warship. Nessus and the destroyer HMS Maenad were escorting a cruiser, HMS Amphirite, as she laid mines in the Northern Barrage. Zig-zagging to avoid German submarines, the ships entered a fog bank and, when Nessus accidentally got ahead of the cruiser, the collision occurred. Holed in the engine-room, Nessus was put under tow first by Maenad and then by another destroyer, HMS Paladin, but sank as weather worsened. No crew were lost.

Source: Divernet [Diver magazine], 17 November 2008.

[Re-entered as ND66NE 8001]. This wreck is located at N58 37.025 W2 31.217, 12.128 nm SE of the Pentland Skerries.

Information from Mr R Forbes, 19 November 2008.