SS Eidsiva I (1915)

On 31 October 1915, Eidsiva struck a mine and sank, part of the grim run of losses from UC-6’s newly laid field that also claimed or damaged vessels including Toward, HMT Othello II and HMY Aries. For divers, Eidsiva offers a proper First World War Channel story: a neutral Norwegian collier, a cargo of coal, a Dover Strait minefield, and a wreck lying in the busy waterway where commercial trade and naval warfare collided in steel, steam and bad luck.

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HTM Othello II

HMT Othello II – FY1193 (1915)

On 31 October 1915, Othello II was sent to patrol "Section Two", between the Goodwin Gate and the Gull Lightship, after UC-6 had laid mines there the previous day. In a strong south-south-easterly gale, she struck one of those mines at about 11:55am and sank rapidly. The mine was laid by SM UC-6, commanded by Matthias Graf von Schmettow, the same field that also claimed SS Eidsiva, SS Toward and HMY Aries. Nine men were lost, with a single deck-boy survivor reportedly squeezed out through the wheelhouse window before the vessel went down. For divers, this is a small but deeply powerful Dover Patrol wreck: a fishing trawler turned minesweeper, lost in the same deadly wartime trap as several larger ships, and carrying a human story far bigger than her size suggests.