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A Royal Navy destroyer sliced in half in a catastrophic collision has been found at the bottom of the Channel – 118 years after the disaster.
The 400-tonne warship HMS Tiger was on a night exercise in April 1908, when she took a wrong turn into the path of giant British 10,000-ton cruiser HMS Berwick.
She was cleaved in two and sank without trace – along with 35 crew – 20 miles south of The Isle of Wight, where she remained for more than a century.
The tragic accident was first revealed at the time by the Daily Mail, and sparked debate in Parliament, and sympathy from King Edward VII.
Ever since, the sunken ship – launched at Clydebank in 1900 – had been sought by both the Royal Navy and shipwreck hunters.
But divers have now found Tiger's two halves 200ft down in the Channel – after four years of research by sunken wreck organisation ProjectXplore helped pinpoint its resting place.
An initial sonar survey was conducted in April last year – but it was only in November that analysis revealed the wreck's outline.
Then in June this year the divers found the stern – the back of the vessel – wedged into the sand and shingle seabed.
Divers have finally found the wreckage of HMS Tiger, more than 100 years since it sank
The boat's stern section, which was separated from the bow when it was split in half by another warship
One of the divers inspecting 12lb ammunition that has survived on the bottom of the seabed
The Royal Navy had sought the wreckage for over 100 years, and it was finally discovered in November through the analysis of a sonar survey
A diver inspects the ship's bell, which now features only the letters HMS, after the rest was corroded away.
HMS Tiger was a conventional cruiser of the Royal Navy, until she sank in April 1908
A fortnight later they found the bow – or front – 450 feet away, resting upon large boulders.
By then, the ship's bell featured only the letters HMS, with the rest of the name corroded away.
But experts have now confirmed it is the Tiger, not only by its location – and the fact it was sliced in half between its second and third funnels – but by evidence including four notable compasses.
On the night of the 1908 crash, the bow sank in seconds, with all hands there lost. The stern took three minutes to go down, with 13 aboard saved and another nine crew from the waves.
A court later heard that HMS Tiger had taken a 'suicidal', but accidental, wrong turn into Berwick's path.
The Daily Mail's first full report came under the headlines: 'Crew's splendid discipline...Facing death in silence...Noiseless tragedy in the dark.'
A court martial concluded within just ten days of the tragedy, controversially ruling 'no blame can be attributed' to any crew of either ship.
Meanwhile, the wreck and victims have been left undisturbed at the bottom of the Channel, the co-ordinates a secret.
The hunt features in the latest episode of Dan Snow's History Hit podcast.
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