Wave Shape
Wave Shape

HMS Flirt

Wave Shape

HMS Flirt

The British Destroyer HMS Flirt, a small 380 Gross Tonne steel 30 Knotter built in 1897 by Palmers of Jarrow, Armed with 1 x 12 Pounder and 5 x 6 Pounder’s, plus 2 x Torpedo Tubes, she was powered by steam turbine with 3 boilers and 2 screws. The ship is very narrow with dimensions of only 65m length and only a very narrow 6.2m beam.

The ship was sunk on the night of 27 October 1916 when the German Navy mounted a raid in the Dover straights against the ships of the awesome Dover Patrol who were maintaining the Dover Barrage (Minefield). 12 German Destroyers in 2 divisions of 6 broke into the barrage and sunk 7 of the attendant trawlers and drifters.

HMS Flirt investigated this and though she sighted the enemy they mistook them for Allied Destroyers returning to Dover. Flirt stopped to rescue survivors of the drifters in the sea and put her searchlight on to do this. Meanwhile the Germans returned and a well aimed torpedo struck her amidships, she sunk immediately with a loss of most of the crew, the only survivors being those in the lifeboat picking up the other survivors.

Diving: the centre of the ship is quite proud standing a good 4m proud in 38m, however it has a lot of fishing net on it, this is big old rope net that covers most of the centre and is easy to lift and look under. The wreck drops down to seabed level as you move forward and kinda peters out.

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