The steel Parker Class destroyer HMS Hoste was launched from the Birkenhead yard of Cammell Laird and Co Ltd (Yard No 824) on 19th April 1916. She measured 525.0′ x 32.0′ x 12.0′ and displaced 1666 tons. Powered by 3 x Parsons steam turbines producing 36000 shaft horse power she was capable of a top speed of 36 knots. She was armed with 4 x QF 4” Mk IV guns, 2 x 2-pounder pom-pom guns and had 2 x 21” torpedo tubes. She had a complement of 116 officers and men.
HMS Hoste
On 20th December 1916 HMS Negro was part of a destroyer screen for the Grand Fleet off the east of Fair Isle under the command of Commander Alexander Gye when the steering gear on Hoste malfunctioned. Hoste was under the command of Commander Graham Edwards. The crew managed to temporarily resolve the problem but Hoste was detached to return to Scapa Flow and was accompanied by Negro for the short voyage back to be inspected and repaired as necessary. As the ships headed for home the weather, which was already poor, deteriorated significantly. At 1:30am Hoste’s steering failed again, this time jamming the helm hard to port. This had the effect of turning Hoste hard to starboard giving Negro, steaming only 400 yards behind Hoste, no chance to take avoiding action. Negro slammed into the stern of Hoste severely damaging the larger vessel. More seriously the violence of the collision loosened two depth charges on Hoste which rolled off and exploded causing massive damage to her stern and to Negro’s bow. Despite the damage both vessels remained afloat and with a third destroyer, HMS Marvel which had raced to the scene of the collision nearby, Hoste slowly steamed on heading back to Scapa. However, with the terrible weather she was rolling heavily and eventually, three hours after the collision, she broke in two and, while she remained afloat held together by her propeller shafts, Captain Edwin of the Marvel pulled his vessel alongside Hoste thirteen times succeeding in taking off the majority of the crew. Unfortunately four men died in the rescue effort.
Meanwhile the Negro had suffered more critically from the explosion. A large hole was blown in her side near the bow and her bottom plates near the explosion were shattered. A fourth destroyer, HMS Marmion, raced to her aid but by the time she reached the position of the Negro she had foundered. Five officers and 45 seamen were lost.
The wrecks of the two vessels, although first surveyed and charted in 1994, remained unidentified until a team of technical divers from aboard MV Clasina initiated an expedition in August 2023 to attempt to locate and dive the wrecks of the two destroyers. The wrecks had never been dived. The expedition was extremely successful and the story of the dives and related information can be found on the lostinwatersdeep.co.uk website.
The wreck of HMS Hoste lies in two parts with the larger bow section (68 metres long) at 59° 22.133’N, 001° 51.909’W in 104 metres and the smaller stern section (28 metres long) at 59° 24.229’N, 001° 55.268’W also in 104 metres.
We would also like to thank Rick Ayrton for allowing us to reproduce a selection of his underwater photographs of the wreck.
