The Destruction of HMS Pathfinder There is no known surviving official report on the destruction of Pathfinder, one of the most historically significant of European wrecks. The only file at Kew refers to the casualty list. Maritime historians Bob Baird and Clio assembled a cohesive account from a mosaic of personal accounts and official fragments. Hersing spotted Pathfinder at periscope depth at 1530. He had observed the ship earlier on the day in her outward journey but the distance had been too great to make an attack. At 1543 Otto Hersing fired a single 19.69” Type G torpedo. September 5 was a sunny afternoon. At 1545 lookouts spotted a torpedo wake heading towards the starboard bow at a range of 2,000 yards. The officer of the watch Lt Cdr Favell gave orders for the starboard engine to be put astern and the port engine to be set at full ahead while the wheel was fully turned in an attempt to take avoiding action. At 1550 the torpedo detonated beneath the bridge. What happened next remains a matter of conjecture but there is reason to believe that cordite charges may have ignited leading to a flash causing a second, massive explosion within the fore section of the ship as the magazine blew up. The fore mast and No 1 funnel collapsed then toppled over the side. The forensic evidence of the wreck is that everything before the first funnel disintegrated. The majority of the crew below decks in the forward section had neither the time nor the opportunity to escape. Although the explosion was well within sight of land, Captain Martin-Peake knew it was essential to attract attention. He ordered the stern gun to be fired (see painting). The king-pin must have been fatally damaged by the explosion because after firing a single round, the gun toppled off its mounting, rolled around the quarter deck, struck the after screen then careered over the stern, taking the unfortunate gun crew with it. There was no list but there was insufficient time to lower boats. Indeed the remains of a lifeboat davit and rope can still be seen on the wreck. The propeller belonging to the ship’s boat lies forlornly on the deck nearby. Lt (E) Stallybrass recalled that the bulkheads held firm until five minutes after the big explosion:

Adrian Cox