Articles:
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
12 February 1915 - Torquay
The Dartmouth registered 870 ton collier Torquay was sailing northwards in fog off Filey Brigg when she struck a mine. A great rush of steam emitted from the stokehold. As t...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
22 December 1914 - SS Boston
At 4am in the morning the Norwegian flagged cargo ship Boston, en route from Drammen to London with a cargo of wood, struck one, or possibly two mines, three miles east of Scarboro...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
29 May 1915 - Condor
The Scarborough trawler the Condor was fishing off Cloughton when four other trawlers heard a loud explosion. No trace of the vessel was found until the body of the skipper was wa...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
24 February 1915 - Deptford
The collier Deptford was carrying coal for the Royal Navy from Granton to Chatham. At 02.55 she struck a mine three miles off Scarborough. The explosion extinguished the ship&r...
A Dive on the Minesweeper HMT Banyers
Scarborough, 15 June 2024
Report by Dr David Pendleton
As part of the project that is investigating the minefield laid by the German light cruiser SMS Kolberg on 16 December 1914 between Cayton...
Diving the Orianda
Report - August 2024
The Orianda was the first of the minesweepers to be lost in the minefield laid by the German light cruiser Kolberg during the bombardment of Scarborough. The mines began sinking ships ...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
The Elifrida, 7 January 1915
The Newcastle registered collier Elfrida was carrying 4,150 tons of coal from the Tyne to London. At 00.40 on the morning of Thursday 7 January She was taking soundings i...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
Elterwater, Princess Olga, Vaaren - 16th December 1914
The First Victim, SS Elterwater
As the streets of Scarborough were cleared of rubble and the dead counted, out at sea a hidden danger began to reveal i...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
15 April 1919 - Emulator
Despite the fact that the Great War ended on 11 November 1918, mines continued to take a toll on shipping around the British Isles. Although the known minefields were cleared, in the tw...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
20 December 1914 - Garmo, Valiant
The armed yacht Valiant, en route to Cromarty, struck a mine at 0900 hours off Filey. The explosion blew the propellors and rudder off, leaving the yacht helpless. She wa...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
26 December 1914 - Gelnmorven, Linaria, Leersum
The Glenmorven sailed from the Tyne for Leghorn (Livorno), Italy, with a cargo 3,620 tons of coal. She disappeared and is thought to have struck one of the&...
Vessels sunk by mines laid by the Kolberg
The Swedish collier, Hanna, 13 March 1915
The Swedish collier Hanna has variously been reported as being torpedoed and mined. The ship’s second officer claims to have seen the wake ...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
The Danish steamer M.C. Holm, 31 December 1914
Danish steamer M.C. Holm was carrying a cargo of raw cotton from Savannah and phosphate from Boca Grande in Florida. Her captain Marius Madsen said...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
15 February 1915 - Membland
The West Hartlepool registered cargo ship the Membland left Hull for the Tyne in ballast with twenty-five people on board. She was due to take on coal for export to the Bue...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
25 December 1914 - Night Hawk, Eli, Gem, Therese Haymann
At noon on Christmas Day the minesweeper No.57, formerly the Grimsby trawler Night Hawk, hit a mine three and a half miles off Scarborough. She san...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
Orianda - 19 December 1914
The spate of losses led to the Admiralty instructing Hull trawlers to suspend fishing until the mines could be swept. Trawlers at Scarborough had been confined to port since the bombardme...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
1 March 1915 - Sapphire
The next victim of the Kolberg’s mines was the fishing vessel Sapphire, H675. She was returning to her home port of Hull from a trip to the fishing grounds off Icel...
Sea mine disasters
Grimsby fishermen perfomed a vital and costly role in both world wars clearing Britain's coasts and shipping lanes of enemy mines. Grimsby lost 419 trawlers in total. Admiral Lord Charles Beresford came up with the swee...
Vessels sunk by Kolberg mines
Another Minesweeper Destroyed, The Banyers, Wednesday 6 January 1915
It is claimed that within a month of the laying of the minefield that minesweepers had cleared fifty-three of the one hundred mines lai...
Vessels sunk by mines laid by the Kolberg
The Tangistan, Tuesday 9 March 1915
The 3,738 ton Tangistan was based and crewed at the south Wales port of Swansea. She had left there with a cargo of patent fuel and coal for B&eac...
