Hms Bullen

Destroyer-(1944)

What is recorded here

HMS Bullen was a United States-built Captain-class frigate transferred to the Royal Navy in 1943. U-775 torpedoed her amidships off northern Scotland on 6 December 1944, breaking the ship apart. Seventy-one people died and 97 survived; one regional record gives 72 dead. This general saved pin lies far east of the…

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The vessel and voyage

Bullen began as American destroyer escort DE-78, built by Bethlehem Steel at Hingham, Massachusetts. She was transferred and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 25 October 1943 as a Captain-class frigate, pennant K469. These ships escorted Atlantic traffic and hunted submarines using guns, a forward anti-submarine mortar and depth charges. On 6 December 1944 Bullen was serving with the 19th Escort Group off the north coast of Scotland.

How it was lost

German submarine U-775 torpedoed Bullen west of Strathy Point on 6 December 1944. The torpedo struck amidships and the frigate broke rapidly into separate forward and after parts. Other escort ships attacked the submarine, while HMS Hesperus took survivors onward to Scapa Flow. The accepted loss area is around Cape Wrath and the surveyed bow lies near 58 degrees 43.75 minutes north, 4 degrees 51.37 minutes west, not at this general pin far to the east.

Deaths and survival

Uboat.net records 71 dead from a company of 168 and 97 survivors. The Highland historic record gives 72 deaths, a one-person disagreement that should be settled from the final naval casualty list rather than hidden. The large survivor group reflects rescue by nearby escorts, but the central torpedo hit still killed more than two-fifths of those aboard. The protected wreck is therefore both evidence of the attack and the resting place of people who could not escape the broken ship.

What remains

This national record gives a one-metre grid point but that point is roughly 38 kilometres east of the modern surveyed bow. Separate records in this batch hold the bow and a probable stern position. The general pin should not be used to describe visible guns, boilers or a complete hull. Bullen's known remains are split and the wreck is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act. The map difference needs correction rather than a fourth invented wreck section.

Why it mattered

Bullen embodies wartime cooperation: an American-built escort passed to Britain and used to protect the northern convoy routes. Her loss also shows that submarines remained deadly late in 1944, even when Allied escort groups had become skilled and numerous. The separated wreck records matter because the torpedo physically divided the ship, while poor map inheritance divided its story again. Bringing the general record, bow and probable stern together restores the event without merging their coordinates.