Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 20

ProjectXplore Finds HMS Tiger Wreck 118 Years After 1908 Sinking Off Isle of Wight

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 20

ProjectXplore Finds HMS Tiger Wreck 118 Years After 1908 Sinking Off Isle of Wight

Q: What frozen clues on a sunken 1908 warship finally reveal the shocking truth behind its catastrophic final seconds?

The decisive clues were the wreck’s own control instruments, preserved on the seabed since 1908. Divers found the rudder indicator still showing a slight turn to starboard, around five to 10 degrees, and the engine telegraph still set to full ahead. Taken together, those “frozen” settings indicate HMS Tiger neither slowed nor made a meaningful evasive turn in the seconds before HMS Berwick struck it. That is the key finding that helps explain the disaster’s final moments and resolves a long-standing question about whether the destroyer tried to avoid the collision. The physical layout of the wreck supports that account. ProjectXplore found HMS Tiger in two separate sections about 140 meters apart at roughly 62 meters depth off the Isle of Wight, matching historical reports that Berwick hit the much smaller destroyer amidships and cut it in two during dark, unlit naval exercises on April 2, 1908. Other identifying evidence included torpedo tubes, gun fittings, boilers, compasses, the rudder assembly, propeller shaft and a ship’s bell with “HMS” still visible under marine growth. But the most revealing artifacts were the helm and engine controls, because they preserved the ship’s last commands. That evidence points to a stark truth: when impact came, Tiger was still effectively on course and at speed. The collision killed 35 of the 57 crew, including the captain, and the wreck is now being treated as both a historical site and a war grave.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 20

Aug. 10 brought the first confirmed discovery of HMS Tiger, a Royal Navy warship lost off the Isle of Wight in 1908 after a collision.
Five years of archive work and data analysis led ProjectXplore to the site, where divers documented the twisted wreck and laid a wreath for the dead.
More than half of the ship's 57 crew were killed when HMS Tiger sank after striking the 10,000-ton HMS Berwick.
The find lands as Britain advances Armed Forces Bill changes that would protect newly discovered military wrecks immediately, while still allowing divers to visit on a look-but-don't-touch basis.
HMS Tiger joins a recent run of historic wreck discoveries in British waters, including Northumberland off Kent and a merchant ship believed to be The Fame.