HMS Negro was one of ten steel Admiralty ‘M’ Class destroyers ordered by the Royal Navy in Novermber 1914. Built by the Jarrow yard of Palmer’s Shipbuilding and Iron Co Ltd she was launched on 8th March 1916 and completed only three months later in May 1916. She measured 265.0′ x 26.5′ x 8.8′ and her displacement tonnage was 994 dt. Powered by 3 x Parsons direct drive steam turbines, triple shafts, 4 x Yarrow boilers she produced 25000 shaft horse power giving her a top speed of 34 knots. She was armed with 3 x QF 4” Mark 4 guns, 2 x QF 1.5 pounder anti-aircraft guns and had 2 x 21” torpedo tubes. She had a complement of 76 officers and men. On commissioning, Negro joined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet. As a new vessel she did not take part directly in the Battle of Jutland but was involved in the unsuccessful rescue of HMS Falmouth, struck by a torpedo from U-66, in the aftermath. Initially she and two other destroyers escorted Falmouth backboards the Humber but a second U-boat attack, this time by U-63, sank the stricken destroyer.
HMS Marmion sistership to Negro.
On 20th December 1916 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 a accompanying vessel, HMS Hoste malfunctioned. 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 from 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 in the explosion. A large hole was blown in her side 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 advanced 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 Negro lies in two parts in 105 metres in position 59° 41.418’N, 001° 18.574’W oriented 135/315 degrees with the bow at the northerly end of the wreckage. The divers report her to be upright but well broken. Three of her four huge Yarrow boilers are visible midships and the fourth was discovered on the seabed off the stern of the wreck. She was positively identified by the discovery of the bell and a named footplate (the artefacts were left as the divers found them, as the site is clearly a war grave).
We would also like to thank Rick Ayrton for allowing us to reproduce a selection of his underwater photographs of the wreck.
