The Sinking of the HMS Audacious
—Jason

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The outbreak of the First World War forced the world’s two largest navies, the British Grand Fleet and German High Seas Fleet, at time into conflict.  An increasingly expensive naval building race had been conducted by the British and Germans since the 1880s.  Each nation believed the tremendous financial investment for these warships would ensure victory. 

The British Royal Navy had sought to maintain a fleet of more battleships than the next two navies combined and had kept to this goal throughout the end of the nineteenth century.  Since the British Empire scattered across the globe, command of the sea was the vital element of their security and power.  Battleships, cruisers, and other surface warships were the most important elements of strategy.

The expected through the nineteenth century were France and Russia, however, the unification of Germany in 1871 prompted new worries.  The German Empire sought to gain colonial territories overseas and this required the construction and maintenance of a navy.  The German High Seas Fleet was created to challenge British power in the North Sea. 

For almost three decades, the British were able to expand their battleship squadrons and maintain their advantage.  However, in 1900 Admiral Jackie Fisher and Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill envisioned a new type of battleship that would outclass all others: the Dreadnought-class.  Previous classes of battleships had reached the largest size possible; this new class of warship would be able to outgun and outrun any contemporary battleship while also better protecting her crew.  Heavy guns would run along the centerline of Dreadnought in double turrets to overwhelm enemy warships.  Secondary armament, bristling from segments of the hull, could target smaller warships.  Heavy armor protected the ship’s bridge, engine rooms, and magazines against enemy fire.  The Dreadnought had the most advanced engine system of the day and later versions of the class would switch from coal- to oil-burning capacity.

The construction of the HMS Dreadnought in 1906 by the British upset the balance of power that was a keystone of their national defense policy.  The overwhelming technological edge and sheer power of this ship represented forced every other naval power to switch from constructing pre-dreadnought battleships in favor of the new type, thereby nullifying the Royal Navy’s advantage.  Britain was forced to rebuild its numerical advantage at exorbitant prices and quantities. 

Germany shifted production over to its own versions of the dreadnought-type battleship.  Britain responded by building a minimum of two new dreadnoughts to every German one.  The price for each new warship grew more and more expensive as each battleship slid out of the shipyards.  Within a few years of its completion, even the HMS Dreadnought itself was outclassed by each new improved battleship.  One of these ships was the HMS Audacious, a member of the King George V-class of dreadnought, which came into service in 1912.

By the time World War I began in August 1914, the British had managed to keep their numerical advantage.  This allowed them to control the majority of the North Sea, restricting the German High Seas Fleet to conducting small raids or keeping them bottled up in port.  Despite the sheer number of this type of battleship across the world’s navies, no major engagement had ever been conducted with them.  For decades, the British public had been waiting to see their fleet destroy the German dreadnoughts and they felt confident that one afternoon’s battle would ultimately helped end the war. 

The Germans had not just expanded their surface battlefleet during peacetime, they had also constructed a fearsome number of submarines.  The German U-boats were designed for several purposes which included scouting, sinking warships and merchant ships, as well as laying mines near enemy ports.  The British were aware of these submersibles and the damage they could cause.  Scapa Flow, Scotland, was chosen as the homebase for the British Grand Fleet because it was believed to be beyond the range of the German U-boats.

HMS Audacious was part of the Second Battle Squadron and joined the fleet at Scapa Flow in August 1914.  However, repeated reports of U-boats in the area caused Admiral John Jellicoe worry about the safety of his dreadnoughts.  His fear was justified as one type of weapon was not initially viewed as too dangerous or commonplace for British warships to run afoul: sea mines.  This would prove to be a costly error within the first few months of the Great War.  Both the British and Germans converted surface ships to clandestinely lay minefields near enemy shipping lanes.

Beginning on 16 October 1914, the Audacious and her squadron mates were conducting gunnery practice near Tory Island, Ireland.  Everything seemed to be perfect until 8:45 am on 27 October, when HMS Audacious struck a mine.  Captain Cecil Dampier believed that his ship had been hit by a U-boat’s torpedo and so raised the submarine warning signal.  The other dreadnoughts in the squadron immediately departed to avoid also being attacked and left Audacious with smaller escorts to protect her.  Captain Dampier failed to order the watertight doors around the damaged sections to be sealed.

Captain Dampier’s ship was badly damaged, but there was the possibility of saving it: if Audacious could sail the 25 miles to Lough Swilley she could potentially be beached.  The mine had denotated under the waterline, immediately flooding the port engine room, and shortly thereafter, the center engine room.  To prevent the ship from listing and potentially overturning, Captain Dampier ordered counterflooding to balance the ship.  The added weight water combined with the destruction of the engine rooms ultimately spelled doom for the Audacious.

Captain Dampier managed to nurse the wounded battleship for 15 miles before 10:50 am when the starboard engine room had to be abandoned.  The remaining battleships of the Second Battle Squadron and sped off and were not available to tow the Audacious.  With the loss of internal power, the escort ships were not powerful enough to tow the battleship.  The RMS Olympic, sistership of the tragic Titanic, arrived on the scene and started to evacuate non-essential personal from the dreadnought.

Captain Dampier and his remaining crew fought to save their stricken ship, but to no avail.  Between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm the reduced crew of the Audacious attempted to reach any of the engine rooms to restore power.  A towline was attached to the Olympic to pull the sinking battleship towards land, this ultimately failed when the lines repeatedly broke under the strain.  Finally, at 8:15 pm Captain Dampier ordered the emergency crew to evacuate the ship.

At 8:45 pm that night, the Audacious rolled over and capsized where she briefly floated before three explosions tore through the ship.  The one favor in the slow-moving catastrophe that claimed the Audacious was that the entire crew survived the sinking.  Admiral Jellicoe ordered that the survivors not report the loss of the dreadnought, and it was not officially announced as lost until November 1918.