Hms Drake
Overview
HMS Drake was an armoured cruiser escorting a merchant convoy from America when German submarine U-79 torpedoed her north of Rathlin Island on 2 October 1917. Eighteen men died in a flooded boiler room. Damaged steering, a collision and rising water forced the ship into Church Bay, where the surviving company left before she rolled over and sank. The broken wreck remains a grave, a diving place and a protected monument.
The vessel and voyage
Drake was the first of four large armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy and entered full service in 1905. After earlier fleet and overseas duties she returned from reserve when the First World War began. By 1917 she was protecting merchant traffic against submarines. On her last morning she had just escorted convoy HH24, a group of ships arriving from America, through the dangerous north-western approaches. The convoy was dispersing near Rathlin when U-79 attacked.
How it was lost
A torpedo struck about five miles north-east of Rathlin's Altacarry light on the morning of 2 October. Water flooded the second boiler room and damaged steering. Captain Radcliffe tried to take Drake into shelter, steering with the engines, but near Rue Point she collided with the merchant ship Mendip Range. Drake reached Church Bay and anchored while destroyer Martin and sloop Delphinium removed survivors. The cruiser later rolled over and sank in the bay. U-79 also sank the merchant ship Lugano and broke destroyer Brisk in two that day, making the sound a scene of several losses.
Deaths and survival
Eighteen men in the second boiler room died when it flooded immediately after the torpedo hit. Captain Radcliffe's report says their bodies remained aboard, while all surviving members of the company were taken off before the ship capsized. Later diving guides have claimed the bodies were removed, but the archaeological study found no record showing when or how that happened. The wreck should therefore be treated as a likely resting place for the eighteen men. Brisk lost another 31 nearby, although those deaths were not part of Drake's own total.
What remains
Drake lies broken and upside down in Church Bay, generally between about 15 and 19 metres deep. Early salvage removed material from the upturned hull. Explosive clearance in the 1970s flattened high parts of Drake and the trawler Ella Hewett, which had struck the wreck and sunk across it in 1962; leaking fuel was also dispersed. Surveys still found a wide field of joined hull, armour, machinery and scattered fittings. Northern Ireland scheduled Drake in 2017, its first protected historic shipwreck on the seabed. Divers may look but must not disturb or remove anything.
Why it mattered
The wreck shows the reach of submarine warfare into Rathlin Sound and the danger faced by the warships guarding food, fuel and other cargo from America. It also records a chain of consequences after sinking: salvage, explosives, oil pollution and later ships striking the hidden hull. Archaeological work can test written naval records while respecting the men who may remain inside. Rathlin families remembered the huge overturned ship above water, and a centenary service at Ballycastle in 2017 brought relatives and local people together to name the eighteen dead rather than treating Drake only as a dive site.
History checked 2026-08-15 against the named sources below.
A wreck point does not grant permission to dive, disturb the site or recover anything. Check current law and local conditions first.