HMT Étoile Polaire (1915)
HMT Étoile Polaire was a steel-hulled Admiralty trawler built in 1915 by J. T. Eltringham & Co., at Willington Quay. She was a small but purposeful vessel of 278 tons, originally built for Rémy & Huret of Boulogne, although her exact owner at the time of loss seems a little uncertain. Hired into Admiralty service in 1915, she joined the Dover Patrol’s dangerous minesweeping and patrol work around the Goodwins, where small trawlers were asked to do large and lethal jobs. Admiralty optimism really was something to behold.
On 3 December 1915, Étoile Polaire struck a mine and sank off the South Goodwins. The minefield is recorded as having been laid by the German minelaying submarine UC-1, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Egon von Werner. Her wreck has had a confusing afterlife: Canterbury Divers and Historic England both note that a site once listed as HMT Cayton Wyke was positively identified as Étoile Polaire when her bell was recovered. The wreck lies in about 27 metres, stands up to 5 metres proud, and is described as fairly intact, with a blown-off bow, open holds, intact stern and surviving superstructure. For divers, this is a cracking Dover Patrol wreck: compact, atmospheric, strongly identified, and close enough to the Goodwins to add that little pinch of “this place has been eating ships for centuries”.
