23 October 1958

A Westland Whirlwind helicopter ditched in the Mediterranean after losing power on 23 October 1958, and the aircrew were successfully rescued. The Whirlwind HAS 7 anti-submarine aircraft of 820 Naval Air Squadron (XL871) was operating from aircraft carrier HMS Albion around 80 miles west of Malta was in a low hover over the sea when water was drawn into the air intake from the crest of a swell which caused the engine to cut out. The three-man crew was rescued by another Whirlwind helicopter. Albion had left Portsmouth on 16 October and arrived in Malta three days after the accident, continuing on to Port Said at the end of the month. The ship, which was already undertaking the duties of a commando carrier and was converted to the role three years later, had already lost a Whirlwind HAS 7 in the Mediterranean two months earlier when the aircraft went out of control during a resupply mission north-west of Cyprus, and once again the crew – this time four-strong – were lifted to safety.

24 October 1942

Submarine HMS Unique was presumed lost on 24 October 1942 west of Gibraltar while on passage from the UK. Despite her name, the boat was not unique – she was the third vessel of that name in the Royal Navy, and one of 49 smaller (730-ton) U-class submarines built by the Royal Navy in the first two years of World War 2. Unique was launched by Vickers at Barrow on 6 June 1940 and commissioned just over three months later. She spent most of her active career in the Mediterranean, enjoying some success – she sank two large Italian ships in 1941 and permanently disabled a third. She underwent a refit in the summer of 1942 and sailed from Holy Loch for a patrol in the Bay of Biscay on 7 October, parting company with her escort two days later off the Scilly Isles. That was the last that was heard of her. Sister boat HMS Ursula was in the same area, to the west of Germany, on 10 October and reported hearing underwater explosions, which were thought to be German depth charges being dropped on the British boat, though the Germans made no claims over sinking her. At around that time it is thought Unique carried out an attack on the German tanker Spichern, and from eyewitness accounts it seems possible the British submarine could have been sunk by the premature explosion of one of her own torpedoes. Whatever her fate, she was reported overdue at Gibraltar, having failed to arrive on schedule and not having responded to signals for several days. She had a crew of 34 on board when she was lost.

25 October 1941

Fast minelayer HMS Latona was sunk in an air attack off the coast of North Africa on 25 October 1941. The 3,400-ton Abdiel-class ship, launched onto the Itchen at the Thornycroft yard on 20 August 1940, had a brief but busy active service career. She commissioned on 4 May 1941, survived for less than six months and never actually laid a single mine – instead she ran vital resupply missions in the Mediterranean. She reached Alexandria via the Cape of Good Hope and the Suez Canal on 21 June 1941, joining sister ship HMS Abdiel, and the very next day she sailed for Cyprus carrying RAF personnel to reinforce the island’s garrison. She was back in Alexandria on 25 July, and the following month, with an Australian escort, she and Abdiel ferried troops and supplies to Tobruk. On 25 October 1941 Latona and her escorting force were attacked by German dive bombers to the north of Bardia, in Libya, and one Junkers Ju 87 Stuka put a bomb into the minelayer’s engine room. Destroyers HMS Hero and HMS Encounter came alongside the minelayer and took off most of the 1,000 Polish troops on board, as well as part of her ship’s company. A fire started by the bomb soon raged out of control, and Latona’s aft magazine exploded around two hours after she was hit, sinking the ship and killing 27 men, seven of them Polish troops.

26 October 1944

Norwegian corvette HNoMS Rose sank in mid-Atlantic after a collision with HMS Manners while escorting convoy ON 260. The 1,040-ton Flower-class corvette was transferred to the Norwegian navy on completion by Simons and Co of Renfrew, and was commissioned on 31 October 1941. She joined the Liverpool Escort Force on 24 November 1941 and remained with it until her loss. She undertook some escort work, and also joined numerous anti-submarine exercises as tactics were honed and new equipment introduced in a bid to turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic. On 26 October 1944, during Convoy ON 260, outbound to Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1,160-ton Captain-class frigate HMS Manners accidentally rammed Rose, causing the smaller ship to sink with the loss of three of her crew of 85. Manners herself did not survive the war – exactly three months later, while involved in a group attack on submarine U-1051 in the Irish Sea, a torpedo from the German submarine broke the frigate’s back, and although the forward section remained afloat and was towed to Barrow, her stern sank and almost 40 ratings died. She was declared a constructive total loss and struck from the books, being nominally returned to the Americans on 8 November 1945 and scrapped in 1947 in Greece.

27 October 1927

Sailors from HMS Wild Swan stood down from defending the major Presbyterian Mission hospital in Swatow, China, on 27 October 1927, following threats from Chinese Communist forces. Wild Swan was one of seven Modified W-Class destroyers completed after World War 1, completed on 14 November 1919 by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on Tyne after which she joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in the Baltic. The 3rd Flotilla assisted in the evacuation of Greeks from Turkish territory after the end of the Greco-Turkish war in 1923, then in 1926 Wild Swan and her Flotilla compatriots were sent to the China Station to protect British interests as the Chinese Civil War raged, and it was during this time that the destroyer intervened to defend the mission hospital in Swatow. In the turbulence of the Chinese civil war, a splinter group of the struggling Communists (the ‘Front Committee’) had set off on their so-called ‘Southern Expedition’ in the summer of 1927, occupying cities and towns as they went, and their approach to Swatow – now Shantou – caused panic, with rich merchants and foreigners fleeing on steamers bound for the safety of Hong Kong while local Communist sympathisers caused mayhem with bombs, forcing the imposition of martial law and the rapid collapse of the local currency. The van of the Communist force reached Swatow on 23 September 1927 and took control the following day, though foreign interests around the commercial harbour were defended by military forces – the British and Japanese had three warships in situ, the Americans two. On 8 October armed Communist troops forced entry to the Presbyterian mission hospital and threatened administrators, ordering them to obey the military authorities. A doctor managed to smuggle a message to Wild Swan, which sent a party of armed sailors to the site to defend the hospital, while the British consul told Chinese authorities that the guard would not be withdrawn until guarantees were made that there would be no more interference. After a spell in reserve Wild Swan was reactivated and returned to the China Station in 1931. The Abyssinian Crisis and Spanish Civil War saw the flotilla back in the Mediterranean, and the destroyer was attacked by Nationalist bombers on 23 July 1936. Another spell in reserve was followed by an extensive refit at Chatham, and the upgraded warship joined the 19th Destroyer Flotilla at Dover in April 1940. She played an active role in Channel operations in 1940, including the rescue of Dutch troops from the bombed ferry SS Juliana, and in Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Later that year she took on escort duties with the 7th Escort Group, based in Liverpool. In June 1942, while escorting Convoy HG 84 in the Western Approaches, she detached to refuel and, while passing through a fleet of Spanish trawlers, was attacked by German aircraft who mistook the vessels for an Allied convoy. Wild Swan shot down six aircraft – a record for a single ship in one action – but was seriously damaged and collided with a trawler, which sank. The destroyer picked up the crew, but was then herself sunk; 31 sailors died of exposure, but the remaining crew and the Spanish fishermen were rescued by HMS Vansittart.

28 October 1915

Armoured cruiser HMS Argyll was wrecked on the Bell Rock, on the east coast of Scotland, on 28 October 1915. The 11,000-ton warship was launched at Scotts of Greenock on 3 March 1904 and served in the Channel and Atlantic Fleets in the first decade of the century before escorting the Royal Yacht for King George V’s visit to India in 1911-12. Her squadron was attached to the Grand Fleet at the outbreak of World War 1, but she never saw combat. She patrolled between Shetland and the Norwegian coast, at one stage capturing a German merchant vessel, but on the night of 27/28 October 1915 she came to grief. As Argyll sailed off Dundee she signalled a request to turn on the lamp of the Bell Rock lighthouse – lighthouses had been darkened during the war to prevent U-boats making use of them for navigation purposes, and could only be lit with special permission. However, the Bell Rock lighthouse had no radio and could only be contacted by signal lamps or boat, so the request was never received. Argyll assumed the request had been acted on, but in the foul weather ran aground at 0430, badly damaging the hull and starting a fire. Two destroyers, HM Ships Hornet and Jackal, rushed to the scene and managed to pick up the entire ship’s company of around 600 without any deaths or major injuries. Over the subsequent weeks much of the equipment on board Argyll was salvaged, including her guns, and the wreck was demolished by the salvage team. Bell Rock lighthouse is considered a wonder of the industrial age – it was completed in 1810, and was so well-built of interlocking granite stones that it has never required rebuilding, and remains the oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse in the world. Its value is incalculable – before it was built, it is thought an average of six ships were lost each year on Bell Rock, which is submerged for much of each day. Since 1810, only two ships have perished on that rock – one being Argyll, the other a cargo ship called Rosecraig that ran onto the rock in September 1908, and again the entire crew (of seven) were saved.

29 October 1918

Destroyer HMS Ulysses was lost in a collision with the SS Ellerie in the Firth of Clyde on 29 October 1918. The 1,100-ton modified R-class destroyer was launched at the shipyard of William Doxford and Sons at Sunderland on 24 March 1917 and joined the 15th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow, escorting convoys between Britain and Scandinavia. Despite joining anti submarine sweeps in the North Sea, the destroyer did not score any successes against U-boats. On 29 October 1918 Ulysses was steaming in fog in the Firth of Clyde when she collided with merchant ship SS Ellerie. Although the destroyer sank, her entire crew of more than 80 sailors were rescued by the drifter Ivy III.

30 October 1844

Steam paddle frigate HMS Gorgon was refloated on 30 October 1844, having been aground since 10 May near Montevideo in the mouth of the River Plate. Modest ship though she was – displacing 1,640 tons, bearing six guns with a ship’s company of 160 – Gorgon had a varied and interesting Naval career. She was the first ship with direct-acting engines, making her two power plants very compact and light for the time, as well as efficient and smooth-running. She also had a full schooner sailing rig as well, and with a capacity of 400 tons of coal she could steam for 16 days before the need to refuel. Her armament was not as specified in her design – she should have carried 18 guns, but when launched she rode so low in the water that her gun deck ports had to be permanently closed, so the heavy guns from that deck were removed. Gorgon was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched on 31 August 1837, commissioning one day short of a year later. In 1840, along with three other paddle sloops (Vesuvius, Stromboli and Phoenix) bombarded the city of Acre (now part of Israel) during the Second Egyptian-Ottoman War, and either she or third rate HMS Benbow fired the one single shot that changed the course of the action, detonating the city’s powder magazine and causing an explosion that wrecked the city’s defensive plans. In 1843 she joined the Royal Navy squadron operating on the River Plate protecting British interests during the Uruguayan Civil War, but ran aground on 10 May. She remained stranded until she was refloated on 30 October, almost six months later. In February 1855 she assisted with the refloating of HMS Hecla at Gibraltar, but was in more destructive mood when, seven months later, she collided with the Prussian barque Mentor in the Channel off Beachy Head, badly damaging Mentor which was on the verge of foundering when he was towed to safety at The Downs, off Deal in Kent. Between 1856 and 1857 Gorgon was employed in transporting ancient artefacts from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos near Bodrum, in Turkey, to the British Museum during Sir Charles Thomas Newton’s excavations. The following year brought another high-profile mission, this time surveying the route of the first transatlantic telegraph cable which was laid by converted warship HMS Agamemnon – once the link was completed in New York, the crew of the paddle sloop were feted as heroes by the citizens of the Big Apple. In 1863 she was deployed to Madagascar to help keep the peace on the death of the highly influential King Radama II. She arrived back at Spithead in January the following year, at which point she was decommissioned, though she still had one more role to play – that of isolation ward, accommodating the crew of former Royal Yacht HMY Osborne, seven of whom had been diagnosed with smallpox. The hulk was eventually dismantled at Woolwich in 1864.

31 October 1914

Converted seaplane carrier HMS Hermes was sunk by U-27 off the Outer Ruylingen shoal in the Straits of Dover Strait on 31 October 1914. The ship was originally built as a Highflyer-class protected cruiser by Fairfields of Govan and launched on 7 April 1898, though she wasn’t completed for another 18 months. Her first assignment was on the North America and West Indies Station, though engine and boiler problems meant she had to undertake extensive repairs in Jamaica. She went on to serve as flagship on the station until late 1901 when she had her unreliable boilers replaced in Belfast. She served with the Channel Fleet until 1905 when she sent into reserve, but the following year she was recommissioned as the flagship of the East Indies Station, then the Cape of Good Hope Station, where she spent six years before she returned to England and another spell in reserve. Soon after, work began on converting her to carry a modest force of three seaplanes in an experiment to assess the viability of aircraft supporting the fleet at sea. Her forward 6in gun was removed and a launch platform with tracks built in its place, while a flimsy canvas hangar was built at the start of the tracks to provide some protection for the aircraft. A derrick attached to the foremast was used to recover the plane from the water. More guns were removed aft to provide room for another aircraft, while a third was squeezed in amidships. Fuel (petrol) was carried in tins in storage lockers on deck. Hermes was recommissioned on 7 May 1913 and carried out trials using a variety of aircraft, including a Borel Bo11, a Short Folder and a Caudron G2 Amphibian. As part of the trials an aircraft was used to search for ‘enemy’ ships reporting details back to Hermes on a small, short-range transmitter, which would retransmit the information using her more powerful equipment. Overall, the trials were deemed a success, and pointed the way to crucial developments of using aircraft at sea. Hermes paid off again in the last days of 1913 but was recommissioned on 31 August 1914 and put straight to work ferrying aircraft and supplies to France. On 30 October she delivered a load of seaplanes to Dunkirk and set out the following morning on her return passage but was recalled because of the reported presence of a U-boat. Zig-zagging as she went, Hermes retraced her path but was torpedoed by U-27 and sank off the Ruylingen Shoal in the Straits of Dover with the loss of 21 of her ship’s company. Her wreck lies upside down in around 30 metres of water. U-27 had gained notoriety earlier the same month when she torpedoed and sank HMS E3 in the North Sea, becoming the first submarine to sink another in battle. U-27 was sunk by gunfire from Q-ship HMS Baralong, killing all on board in controversial circumstances – a dozen surviving German sailors were reported to have been shot in the water in a ‘take no prisoners’ scenario.