Divers have located the wreck of HMS Tiger, a Royal Navy destroyer sliced in half in a collision 118 years ago, at the bottom of the English Channel. The 400-tonne warship sank without trace 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight during a night exercise in April 1908, after taking a wrong turn into the path of the 10,000-tonne British cruiser HMS Berwick.
The collision cut Tiger in two and killed 35 of her crew. The disaster was first revealed by the Daily Mail at the time, sparking debate in Parliament and sympathy from King Edward VII. Tiger had been launched at Clydebank in 1900.
The wreck was found by the shipwreck hunting organisation ProjectXplore after four years of research. An initial sonar survey was carried out in April last year, but it was only in November that analysis of the data revealed the outline of the wreck.
Stern and bow located weeks apart
In June this year, divers found the stern, the back section of the ship, wedged into sand and shingle on the seabed. A fortnight later, they found the bow, or front section, resting on large boulders 450 feet away.
By the time divers reached it, the ship's bell had corroded so that only the letters HMS remained legible. Experts confirmed the wreck was Tiger not only from its location and the fact it had been sliced in half between its second and third funnels, but from evidence including four notable compasses.
Thirteen saved from the sinking
On the night of the 1908 collision, the bow sank in seconds, and all hands aboard it were lost. The stern took three minutes to go down, allowing 13 crew aboard to be saved, along with another nine pulled from the water.
A court later heard that Tiger had taken a "suicidal", but accidental, wrong turn into Berwick's path. The Daily Mail's first full report on the disaster ran under the headlines "Crew's splendid discipline", "Facing death in silence" and "Noiseless tragedy in the dark". A court martial concluded within ten days of the tragedy, controversially ruling that "no blame can be attributed" to the crew of either ship.
Wreck left undisturbed
The wreck and its victims have been left undisturbed at the bottom of the Channel, and the coordinates of the site are being kept secret. Divers laid a wreath at the wreck in memory of those who died. The discovery features in the latest episode of Dan Snow's History Hit podcast.
