HMS Falcon

Position: 54 01.000 N

000 19.888 E

Depth: 60 metres

Location: 30 miles east of Bridlington

HMS Falcon was sister ship to HMS Fairy, which we have previously featured in this column, a three-funnel destroyer of 375 tons.

It was also a C-Class that measured 67 metres long with a beam of 6.5 metres and was built by Fairfield shipbuilding Co in 1899.

Her armourment was fitted out the same as HMS Fairy with one 12lb gun, five six pounders and two 18" torpedo tubes.

She was also fitted with depth charges close to her stern.

HMS Falcon was under the command of Captain Charles Herbert "Lights" Lightoller, who has the distinction of being shipwrecked four times while being asleep.

The first ship was the windjammer Holt Hill, which he crashed into the island of St Paul in the Indian Ocean.

The second ship was the Titanic.

Lightoller was the most senior surviving officer and his character was played by Kenneth Moore in the film A Night To Remember.

The third ship was the Oceanic, sister ship to the Titanic, which was wrecked off Shaalds Reef, off Foula Shetlands, in 1914.

And, finally, the last ship was HMS Falcon.

Final voyage

In February 1918 Lightoller was ordered to take Falcon to join the North Sea Patrol, based at Immingham on the Humber.

His job was to escort incoming convoys carrying US and Canadian troops and equipment to join in the final offensive in the First World War against the Kaiser.

Escorting some 40 ships at a time against U-boat attacks, in mostly foul weather, did nothing for Falcon's slimline hull.

She was not a rough-weather boat, nor could she manoeuvre easily in giant seas. In the darkness it was even worse.

Lightoller's worst fears came true minutes into April 1, 1918.

He was asleep below when a huge lurch and a tremendous grinding sound woke him.

For a moment he thought he was back on Titanic.

He rushed up on deck and found, not an iceberg towering over him, but the crumpled bow of a trawler close by.

The John Fitzgerald, acting as a convoy escort, had hit the Falcon in one of her most vulnerable places, the narrow hull almost amidships.

The steel had been cut almost in two and the impact had pushed the two halves up out of the water. This had slowed the inrush of water but each swell pushed and pulled the two sections.

Lightoller had the boiler fires extinguished and steam blown off, then transferred all 31 engineers and stokers to the John Fitzgerald.

But the Falcon's stern was slowly sinking and it would not be long before it separated from the bow.

The rest of the crew were ordered to abandon ship in the Falcon's only two lifeboats and were picked up by another escort-destroyer, HMS Peterel.

Moments later the bow broke away with a huge cracking noise and within seconds had sunk.

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