HMS Godetia (prob.)

Shipwreck

Overview

HMS Godetia was a new Royal Navy Flower-class convoy escort when the merchant ship Marsa struck and sank her off north Antrim on 6 September 1940. About 32 of her company died or remained missing and roughly 25 were rescued. A deep, broken wreck has been marked as probably Godetia, but conflicting reported loss positions mean the name is not yet certain.

The vessel and voyage

Godetia, number K72, was a Flower-class corvette built by Smiths Dock on Teesside, launched on 8 May 1940 and put into service on 15 July under Lieutenant Commander George Victor Legassick. These small, tough ships were built quickly to guard merchant convoys from submarines. Godetia had already escorted ships from Freetown and, on 25 August, rescued the sole survivor of Empire Merlin and six people from the tanker Athelcrest before sinking the burning tanker by gunfire. On 6 September she was guarding outward convoy OA 207. Marsa, a merchant steamer separated from another convoy, crossed her path near Altacarry Head. The short career matters: Godetia was lost less than two months after entering service.

How it was lost

At about 10.56 at night Godetia collided with Marsa roughly three miles off Altacarry Head. The merchant ship rammed the corvette, which sank in about two and a half minutes. This was an accidental collision in crowded wartime sea traffic, not a torpedo or mine attack. The Royal Navy's wartime report gives the collision position as 55 degrees 18 minutes north, 5 degrees 57 minutes west. The saved Northern Ireland wreck point is around nine kilometres farther west, near another published but unverified loss position. That disagreement is why the seabed identification remains 'probably Godetia'. It also warns against turning a wartime estimate, made during a sudden night loss, into a falsely exact map pin.

Deaths and survival

The first naval report recorded the captain, first lieutenant and thirteen ratings landed by Lairdsgrove, with another eight survivors aboard Marsa: at least 23 known alive while 34 were still unaccounted for. The fuller account lists three officers and eleven ratings killed, another eighteen ratings missing, and about 25 rescued in all. That gives about 32 dead or missing. Among those lost was temporary surgeon Alfred George Bellamy. Godetia's very fast sinking explains the heavy loss even though rescue ships were close. The captain survived. Marsa also stayed afloat and later reached port, so the disaster was concentrated in the smaller escort that had been struck.

What remains

Northern Ireland record SWR135 marks low, scattered wreckage in about 160 metres of water. The measured mound is roughly 40 metres long, three metres wide and 2.8 metres high. Godetia was about 62 metres long, so the smaller spread could be one broken part of the corvette rather than an intact hull. The record gives the position only as reasonable and keeps 'probably' in the name. Another national record describes the loss point itself as unverified, while the wartime coordinate lies farther east. No publicly described bell, gun, name plate or builder's mark has settled the match. The depth also puts the site beyond normal sport diving, leaving sound survey and careful comparison with records as the main evidence.

Why it mattered

Godetia was the first Flower-class corvette lost during the Second World War. Her work in the weeks before the collision shows what those escorts did: guard slow merchant traffic, chase submarines, rescue people and destroy ships that could not be saved. Her loss shows another danger of the Atlantic convoy system, where darkness, scattered ships and crossing routes could be as deadly as enemy action. For north Antrim the story fixes part of the Battle of the Atlantic to the sea off Altacarry Head and remembers 32 people rather than only a seabed mark. Keeping the wreck identification open also matters locally: the history is secure, but the exact resting place is still a question.

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.

Sources

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