In 2015, Fjordr was commissioned by Historic England to examine the significance of the wreck of HMS Falmouth, off the Holderness coast of Yorkshire about eight miles south east of Bridlington. I had first been drawn to HMS Falmouth during work on the East Coast War Channels, as although there are many hundreds of wartime wrecks on England’s east coast, the wrecks of larger twentieth century warships – cruisers and above – are quite rare. This is true of much of England’s coastal waters: most larger warships end their careers in the scrapyard not on the seabed, and even their operational losses mostly occurred well beyond our Territorial Sea. In contrast, smaller warships including destroyers and submarines but especially the many vessels requisitioned as minesweepers and escorts are – tragically – well represented in coastal waters. Hence my first reaction to HMS Falmouth – a well-known, charted, wreck – was ‘why are the remains of a cruiser so near to the War Channels?’. Although the wreck and its basic details were known, its significance had been overlooked. The project for Historic England was intended to bring the significance of HMS Falmouth’s back to the fore in time for the centenary of its loss, which resulted from multiple torpedo hits from U-boats on 19th-20th August 1916. A rich, fascinating and many-layered story started to unfurl: a reminder that the importance of a wreck is not intrinsic to its twisted metal, but arises by combining the material remains with narratives old and new. Finding a wreck means little without discovering its significance.
Such projects can take on a life of their own and so in this article I want to draw together the results of the Historic England project and some of the connections made subsequent to its main phases.
Such projects can take on a life of their own and so in this article I want to draw together the results of the Historic England project and some of the connections made subsequent to its main phases.