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| HMS Formidable Before the War |
The Ship
HMS Formidable was was the third of four Royal Navy ships to be so named, being the lead ship of the Formidable Class, a pre-dreadnought class of battleships. Launched on 17 November 1898 and commissioned on 10 October 1901, she served with the Channel Fleet from 1908 after a stint in the Mediterranean. In World War I she was stationed with the 5th Battle Squadron to guard against possible German invasion.
On the 28 of December 1914 she transferred to Portland but was lost to enemy action just five days later. The loss was tragic in human terms: only 199 men survived out of a total of 747–751 on board. Moreover, to lose such a capital asset so early in the war was damaging to the national morale. Contemporary reports concentrate on the heroism exhibited in the rescue and avoid the strategic significance of the loss. However, despite some reports she was the first British battleship to be lost in the war, she was the third, with HMS Audacious mined in Lough Swilly and HMS Bulwark, blown up by her magazine whilst loading. Formidable was the first battleship sunk in the war.
Formidable had a nominal complement of 758 and weighed 15,805 tons fully laden. Her main armament was four 12-in and 12 6-in guns, together with 16 12-pounders, two Maxim machine guns, and four underwater torpedo tubes. She was armored by a belt of Krupp and Harvey armor mid-ships and was fitted with a raked, strengthened bow for ramming.
Formidable carried several boats which had various functions as tenders for supply, crew comings and goings, military and ceremonial purposes. These could be swung over the side on davits or cranes and would function in adversity as lifeboats. The boats carried comprised three steam pinnaces, a sail pinnace, a sail launch, three cutters, a galley, three whalers, a gig, a skiff, a dinghy, and a balsa raft. In storm conditions, with a list and without light and power, launching these boats was almost impossible and only one of them made landfall.
The events of Thursday, 31 December 1914, New Years Eve
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| In the Area: U-24 |
After gunnery exercises off Start Point (the westernmost point of Lyme Bay), the fleet, with HMS Formidable, remained on patrol instead of returning to Portland Harbour for the night. This was despite reports of German submarines in the area. In any case she was too late to return—the Portland anti-submarine boom would have been closed by the time she could have got back.
The rough sea conditions, increasing wind and approaching storm were thought to make submarine attack too difficult, so no significant threat was perceived that night. It was on this point that Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, in charge of the 5th Battle Squadron, was later criticized for not taking proper precautions during the exercises. He would cleared of the charge of negligence but was relieved of command for failing to take adequate precautions against submarine attack. He was denied the court martial that he requested to clear his name. The board of inquiry from the Admiralty into the sinking also determined that the risk of conducting training exercises in the Channel without destroyer protection was excessive and should not be continued.
Formidable was in the so-called “coffin position,” steaming at the rear of a line of ships, each two cables (400m) apart, behind HMS London, Prince of Wales, Implacable, Queen, and Agamemnon with Admiral Baylys’s flagship, HMS Lord Nelson leading. The fleet was followed farther astern by two faster light cruisers, HMS Topaze and Diamond. These ships could have been used, by virtue of their speed of 22kts, to foil submarine attack by steaming outside the line of ships.
At 7 p.m., a 16-point turn was made off the Needles to throw off any stalking German submarines, the fleet now returning west. All was well as the Navy’s traditional 16-bells salute to the New Year sounded. A further 16-point turn was planned for 3 a.m., when the fleet was expected to be 15 miles off Start Point. It was not to be.
The events of Saturday 1 January 1915, New Year’s Day
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| Depiction of the Sinking That Appeared in the German Press |
At 2:20 a.m., a torpedo from German submarine U-24 exploded in the No. 1 Boiler Room on her port side about 23 miles east of Start Point, fired at a range of 360 metres. Formidable, being at the rear of the line was not protected by the faster, lighter ships. Formidable’s top speed was 18kts, whereas U-24’s top speed was 16.4kts when diesel-driven on the surface (9.7kts submerged on electric motors and batteries). U-24 had been stalking the fleet all day, and it should be noted that snorkels to enable diesel engines to be used when submerged were not fitted until WWII, so the slow U-24 must have really been fortunate to get into a firing position without being seen, as the fleet was steaming at about 10kts.
Captain Arthur Noel Loxley, in command of the Formidable, attempted to make for the coast, but she was soon without steam and starting to settle in the water. Within 20 minutes, she had developed a 20-degree list to starboard. With no electrical power for control, lights, or working the ship’s wireless, Loxley was forced to give the order to abandon ship. Standing orders were for unaffected ships to steam on to avoid themselves being torpedoed.
Commander Law on HMS Topaze noticed that Formidable was out of line and rushed to the scene but was able to rescue only 43 men from a ship's boat before she was ordered away by Loxley, once to try and bring a liner to help, which sailed on without stopping, and then because a submarine was spotted. The cruiser Diamond picked up a further 37 men.
All the while Loxley and his second in command, Commander Charles Frederick Ballard, remained calm on the bridge giving instructions, telling the sailors “that there’s life in the old ship yet” and to “be British.” The Chaplain, Rev. George Brooke Robinson, went below in the darkness, at great personal risk, and returned with cigarettes for the men to boost morale. Robinson had been a curate of Burton Bradstock. He was not recovered.
Admid the chaos another torpedo rams into Formidable
Around 3:05 a.m., Formidable was torpedoed again, this time on the port side in the No. 2 Boiler Room from a range of only 160m. Around 4:45 a.m., she rolled over and sank quickly about 41 miles SSW of Lyme Regis, 37 miles from Portland Bill, and 48 miles from Guernsey in 32.6 fathoms (60m) of water.
The wreck was found in 1981, her exact position is 50 13.14N; 03 03.99W, which is a point over the horizon from the Devon and Dorset coasts. She remains more or less complete, apart from two massive holes, one each side. As a war grave and a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act, 1986, she cannot be entered, although an unsuccessful attempt has been made to steal one of her propellers.
U-24 and Kapitänleutnant Rudolf Schneider
U-24 was one of 329 German U-boats in World War I, being one of the first diesel-powered versions; the earlier petrol driven ones were less reliable and slower. Commanded by Kapitänleutnant Rudolf Schneider, Formidable was her second kill. She damaged her conning tower and periscope, either by passing too close under the keel of Formidable after the second attack or from debris which rained down on her. She was repaired and survived the war, being surrendered and broken up at Swansea in 1922.
Rudolf Schneider was a successful U-boat commander, with 44 sinkings to his credit, but he died on 13 October 1917 age 33 after being washed overboard from the conning tower of U-87. Although he was recovered from the sea in ten minutes, he could not be resuscitated.
The Rescue
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| Some of the Rescued Crewmen in Civilian Dress |
Darkness, worsening weather, squalls, a 30ft (9.1m) swell, and the increasing list made launching the ship’s boats difficult; some were smashed, killing the occupants, others capsized. Wood and even a piano were thrown overboard as life rafts. Men were said to be calmly smoking on deck awaiting their fate. Captain Loxley remained on the bridge with his Airedale terrier Bruce, Cdr. Ballard, and a signaler to oversee the evacuation and were lost along with many others when Formidable finally rolled over and sank.
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| Funeral Procession at Lyme for the Six Men Lost in the Rescue Effort |
Of the total crew on board, between 747 and 751 men, 199 were saved. Captain Noel Loxley (age 42) and his executive Commander Ballard (age 35) went down with the ship. The body of Loxley’s dog Bruce came ashore on Chesil Beach below Abbotsbury Castle some three weeks later and was buried in a marked grave in the Fox-Stran cemetery at Abbotsbury Gardens nearby. Almost all the others must have gone done with the ship: only a handful of bodies of the men who were left in the water ever came ashore, one at Dieppe and some on Chesil Beach.
Seaman Tom Walker had a remarkable escape being picked up by one of the escorts after 14 hours in the water, having temporarily found refuge on the up-turned bottom of the Formidable before she finally sank. Grabbing a floating spar, he avoided being sucked down with the ship, despite being struck on the foot by one of her propellers.
The Brixham sailing trawler Provident picked up 71 men from one before it sank 15 miles off Berry Head, Brixham, one sailor having plugged a hole in the pinnace by sitting over it for the whole time they were at sea. The men were landed at Brixham, and the Provident’s crew were lauded for their bravery considering the storm conditions they endured. Another small trawler had also taken off 71 men, just before the second torpedo struck, blowing wreckage over it. It dropped astern, hoping to pick up more men, but after it sank into a big wave trough the sailors did not see Formidable again. From that vessel, 51 men reached Lyme alive, 48 surviving. In the conditions it was a miracle that this second small boat reached Lyme 22 hours later.
Six sailors who died during the rescue effort were brought ashore and given funerals and burial at Lyme. The memorial to Formidable and the six sailors shown above sits in the town's Regis Cemetery.
Sources: The History of Lyme in Objects, No.16
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