MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Royal Navy sunken submarine found 100 years later

HMS E5 went down in 1916, found on Monday in North Atlantic Sea.

A British Navy World War I submarine which disappeared in the North Atlantic on March 7, 1916, was found Monday by divers, off the island of Schiermonnikoog, revaling the mystery of how it had gone down.

 Remy Luttik, head of the diving team, said he was relieved: “A puzzle piece of the maritime history of the North Sea could be clarified.” Above all, the relatives of the missing men now have full certainty.

The submarine, which was reportedly the first in history submarine to fire a torpedo during an armed conflict, had disappeared without a trace. The divers Monday were able to report that its hatches were open, which suggests that the crew had tried to escape and that there was no sign of damage to the hull of the submarine, indicating that it had not sunk as a result of enemy action.

A granddaughter of one of the deceased said that her grandfather had only had the sea as a tomb to this day. To be able to read his name now on a monument in the British Chatham is fantastic for her.

HMS E5 was a British E-class submarine built by Vickers Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 9 June 1911 and was commissioned on 28 June 1913. She cost £106,700. On 8 June 1913, 20 days before commissioning, she had an engine room explosion that cost 13 lives. A further three men were killed when there was an oil blow back into the starboard engine off St Ann's Head. E5 was lost while rescuing the survivors of trawler Resono just north of Juist in the North Sea.