HMS Bulwark

1914

Sheerness, the cordite overheated, seconds Location: Medway estuary, Sheerness, England · Coordinates: 51.43°N 0.73°E · Casualties: 736 · Survivors: 14 · Depth: 11 m · Cause: magazine explosion — Detonated spontaneously at 07:53 on 26 November 1914 while anchored in Kethole Reach on the Medway. Investigation found her cordite charges had been stored in passages against a boiler-room bulkhead and had overheated over months of continuous service. The explosion was heard at Southend, 20 miles away. · Fate: cleared as hazard · remains dispersed · Type: battleship · London-class pre-dreadnought · Tonnage: 15,000 tons · Crew: 750 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1899 Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleship, moored in the Medway estuary at Sheerness. At 07:53 on 26 November 1914, during routine work, her forward cordite magazine detonated spontaneously and she disintegrated in seconds. 736 dead of around 750 aboard; fourteen survivors, all blown clear into the water. Investigation blamed cordite stored against a boiler-room bulkhead and overheated over months of service. The Vessel HMS Bulwark was a British pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy's Formidable class, built at the Devonport Dockyard between 1899 and 1902 and commissioned on 18 March 1902. She was 131 metres long, 15,800 tons displacement, and armed with four 12-inch primary guns in two twin-gun turrets forward and aft, twelve 6-inch secondary guns in casemate positions along her broadside, and assorted smaller weapons. Her armour protection included a 229-millimetre main belt of Krupp cemented armour, 279-millimetre turret face armour, and 76-millimetre deck armour. She was, at her commissioning in 1902, among the most powerful warships in the Royal Navy and a full representative of the final pre-dreadnought battleship generation. The subsequent appearance of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 rendered the Formidable class tactically obsolete (all-big-gun armament superseded the mixed-calibre broadside arrangement), but the 1902-vintage battleships remained in operational service through the early years of the First World War as secondary-line capital ships. By November 1914, Bulwark had been assigned to the 5th Battle Squadron of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, based at Sheerness on the River Medway approaches to the Thames estuary. Her operational role was the second-line defence of the Thames estuary against potential German naval incursion. Her complement was 750 officers and ratings. Her master on 26 November 1914 was Captain Guy Lewis Sclater, 46, an experienced career officer. The ship was The Disaster At approximately 07:53 on 26 November 1914, HMS Bulwark exploded catastrophically at her moorings at Kethole Reach. The explosion was preceded, according to witnesses aboard nearby ships, by approximately three seconds of visible internal fire on the battleship's upper deck: smoke and flame issued from her 6-inch casemate positions and from her ventilation exhausts. Then, in a single continuous detonation lasting approximately 15 seconds, the entire 6-inch ammunition magazines detonated sequentially. The detonation of approximately 75 tonnes of cordite and associated shells produced an explosion of extreme violence. Bulwark's hull disintegrated entirely: the forward third of the ship was lifted clear of the water and disintegrated into fragments that fell over an area of approximately 3 kilometres; the middle third of the ship was reduced to fragmentary metal and scattered debris; the aft third of the ship remained briefly intact before the progressive detonation of the aft 12-inch magazine completed the destruction. The physical effects were documented by witnesses aboard the surrounding ships of the 5th Battle Squadron and by observers at Sheerness dockyard. The explosion was visible from London (approximately 50 kilometres distant); the shockwave shattered windows at Sheerness and at Whitstable on the opposite Kent coast; fragments of the ship were recovered as far as 2 kilometres from the moorings. Of HMS Bulwark's 750 complement, 738 died: 736 killed in the explosion its