SS Toward (1915)

The SS Toward was a British steel screw cargo steamer, built in Glasgow in 1899 for the Clyde Shipping Company. She was a modest but busy working ship of 1,218 gross tons, trading between British ports with the unromantic cargoes that kept the country moving. On her final voyage, she was sailing from London to Belfast with general cargo, a wonderfully vague phrase that later proved more interesting than it sounds. Divers have reported cargo remains including brass, silverware and even motor-car parts, which is a decent reminder that “general cargo” often meant “a floating attic with a funnel”.

On 31 October 1915, Toward struck a mine laid by the German minelaying submarine UC-6, commanded by Matthias Graf von Schmettow, near the South Foreland / Dover area. The explosion tore into her beneath No. 2 hold, just forward of the bridge. She caught fire, settled quickly, and was abandoned. Remarkably, all the crew were rescued, including men who had jumped into the sea. For divers, Toward is a proper First World War Channel wreck: mine warfare, wartime cargo, a dramatic sinking, and a site still rich with clues from a ship that went down in one of the Dover Patrol’s most dangerous corridors.