After her launch on 31st May, 1889 from the Chatham Dockyard, HMS Seagull was completed in January 1891 and ready for service. She was a steel Sharpshooter Class gun boat measuring 230.0′ x 27.0′ x 10.5′ and she displaced 735 tons. At the outbreak of World War One she was commanded by Lieutenant Raymond H Dunn RN. Seagull operated with a compliment of 90 men and her twin vertical triple expansion engines pushed her along at a steady nineteen knots. She had 2 x 4.7” guns, 4 x 3 pounders and a main armament of 5 14” torpedo tubes. In 1909 she was converted to a minesweeper so some of her original armament may have been substituted with minesweeping equipment.
HMS Seagull under way.
The details of her loss are vague due to wartime restrictions and incomplete records held in Kew National Records Office. However it is known that she was lost in a collision with a merchant vessel, the SS Corrib, on 30th September 1918. The Seagull was outward bound at the time and collided with the steamer which was heading up river for Glasgow in ballast. Strangely, the Corrib was not badly damaged in the head on collision and after all survivors had been picked up, continued on her voyage to Glasgow.
Fifty three lives were lost in the disaster and twenty one survivors reported. The exact location of her loss was initially unclear as two different reports indicate that the collision took place off Wemyss Bay and two miles south of the Cloch boom.
The wreck lying in seabed depths of 96 metres in position 55° 54.329′ N, 04° 55.271’W has been confirmed as the wreck of HMS Seagull, following a dive in late summer 2000 by a team of divers undertaking work-up dives prior to a dive on HMS Dasher. The wreck lies oriented 120°/300°, is approximately 65 metres long and stands some 4-5 metres from seabed. The wreck was identified from the shape of the bow and forward deck gun.
Downscan image of wreck.
