The steel River class destroyer HMS Itchen was ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1901 – 2 Naval Estimates. Laid down on 18th August 1902 she was subsequently launched from the Birkenhead yard of Cammell Laird and Co Ltd on 17th March 1903. She measured 225.0′ x 23.5′ x 12.1′ and displaced 5000 tons. Powered by a vertical triple expansion steam engine, with Yarrow boilers, driving twin shafts with 7000 horse power. She was armed with 4 x 12 pounder anti-aircraft guns, 2 x 18 inch torpedo tubes.
HMS Itchen at anchor
She was commissioned in March 1904 and was initially assigned to the East Coast Flotilla of the First Fleet based in Harwich and later, in April 1909, transferred to the Third Destroyer Flotilla of the First Fleet still based in Harwich. Later that year, on 20th September she ran aground at Head of Work near Kirkwall but was successfully refloated two days later to continue her service. In 1912 she was placed on reserve with only a nucleus crew in the 5th Destroyer Flotilla but the impending First World War resulted in a recall to active service in the early months of 1914. She was transferred to the Ninth Destroyer Flotilla at Chatham who were assigned anti-submarine counter mining patrols on the Firth of Forth. The outbreak of war then led to deployment to the Scapa Flow Local Flotilla performing similar anti-submarine and mine patrol defending the Fleet Anchorage.
Ashore near Kirkwall in September 1909
As the war progressed a further change in the ship’s role saw her providing convoy escort duties on the North Sea coast during 1917. On the 4th July 1917 a small convoy left Immingham consisting of the Norwegian steamships Luna and Liberty and the Danish steamships Tyskland and Randelsborg, forming single line with Luna as leader. The escort consisted of HMS Itchen and HMS Flying Fish and four steam trawlers, including Gardenia and Isaac Walton.
HMS Itchen
Meanwhile the German U-boat UC-44 commanded by Kapitanleutnant Kurt Tebbanjohanns was dodging British patrol ships in the seas around Orkney. He spotted a single British destroyer in his periscope at 2:10am on the 6th of July. Once again he avoided this vessel and continued his course south. At 8:30am he spotted a small convoy of four steamships, three escort trawlers and two destroyers. This time he turned towards the British ships planning his attack. At 9:20am he ordered his submarine to submerge and steer an attack course towards the vessels in his sights. At 10:20am he fired a single torpedo towards the ships and immediately turned to escape the scene. Tebbanjohns later reported that the depth charges dropped by the others ships in the convoy after the attack came perilously close to hitting the submarine. One and a half minutes after firing the torpedo they heard an explosion as it hit one of the ships but, at the time, he was unable to identify which vessel had been hit.
The slow zig-zagging course of the small convoy found them in a position reported to be approximately 70 miles north east of Peterhead in the early hours of that morning. Without warning the darkness was shattered a huge flash and explosion as a torpedo from the undetected German U-boat smashed in to the side of Itchen. Flying Fish and Isaac Walton responded by dropping a depth charges in a vain attempt to extract revenge on the submarine but it was too late and the enemy slipped away into the night. The efforts of the other vessels then turned to the rescue of the crew of the Itchen. Thankfully most of the crew were successfully transferred to the other ships before Itchen sank although 8 crewmen lost their lives probably as a result of the explosion as the torpedo smashed into the side of the ship.
Some of th4 crew of HMS Itchen
The identity of the attacking U-boat was confused for some time and was initially attributed to U-99 which was known to be in the area at the time. U-99 was sunk the following day without making any contact with her home base so the true facts could not be determined. In fact the actual perpetrator of the attack was UC-44 although, at first, reports from this vessel were also confused as the logbook, which was recovered when UC-44 was sunk on her next cruise off Waterford, Ireland reported sinking a steamer rather than a destroyer. As she had dived beneath the surface immediately after she fired the single torpedo, which had been aimed at one of the steamships in the convoy, they assumed they had hit their target when they heard the explosion of the torpedo hitting a ship but of course did not see it had missed their intended target and hit the destroyer instead. .
It has been suggested that the wreck in position 58° 34.443’N, 01° 00.283’W lying in 115 metres of water could be HMS Itchen but this has not, as yet, been confirmed. While they wreck is approximately the right size it appears to be some distance from the reported point of the submarine attack so this attribution is questionable.
