SS Sea Serpent (1916)

The SS Sea Serpent was a British steam cargo ship built in 1898 by A. McMillan & Son Ltd, at Dumbarton, for Leach & Co. Ltd. She was a compact but capable coastal and short-sea trader of 902 gross tons, carrying the sort of unglamorous cargo that kept Europe moving while larger ships got all the applause, because even history has favourites. On her final voyage she was bound from Liverpool to Dunkirk with a cargo of corrugated galvanised sheets.

On 23 March 1916, Sea Serpent struck a mine laid by the German submarine UC-6, commanded by Matthias Graf von Schmettow, and sank off Folkestone Pier, at approximately 51°02’N, 01°12’E. At least two crewmen are recorded as lost: fireman George James Anderson, aged 24, and mess room boy Frederick William Barrow, aged only 16. For divers, this is a classic Channel war-loss: a modest merchant steamer, a practical cargo, a minefield off the Kent coast, and a wreck with the quiet weight of ordinary men caught in extraordinary danger.