Explosion of the cruiser Natal

On the afternoon of 30 December 1915, in the Cromarty Firth in northern Scotland, at the anchorage of one of the bases of the Grand Fleet, the British armoured cruiser Natal blew up. A series of explosions tore apart the after part of the ship, which within a few minutes capsized and settled on the bottom of the shallow firth. About 400 people were killed. Among them were also the captain’s guests: women, children and nurses, invited on board for a Christmas party with a film show. It was the second loss of a Grand Fleet cruiser outside combat in two months. At the end of October Argyll had been wrecked on the rocks off the east coast of Scotland.

A party on board

Natal, a ship of the Warrior class, was built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. Launched in 1905, she entered service in 1907. She was named in honour of the British colony of Natal in southern Africa, whose inhabitants had largely funded her construction. Before the war she escorted the royal yacht during George V’s voyage to India. During the war she belonged to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet and took part in no battle. After a short refit at Birkenhead she returned to the squadron at the beginning of December, and in the middle of the month the squadron moved from Scapa Flow to the Cromarty Firth.

The ship’s commanding officer, Captain Eric Back, invited guests to a film show on 30 December. They included the wives of several officers, among them his own, nurses from the hospital ship Drina lying nearby, and a civilian friend, the factor of a local estate, with his family. According to the historian A. Cecil Hampshire there were seven women, one civilian man and three children on board. More than a hundred sailors were ashore that afternoon, among other things at a football match, and this saved their lives.

The disaster

Shortly after 3.20 p.m. a series of violent explosions occurred in the after part of the ship. Natal caught fire, heeled over and capsized after about five minutes. Because the firth was shallow there, the wreck afterwards lay on her side, partly visible at low tide. Some of those aboard managed to swim away from the sinking ship and await rescue, but the victims were very numerous. Their number varies according to the source. In January 1916 the Admiralty published a list of 390 killed and missing members of the crew, which did not include the guests. Other tallies that include the civilians give as many as 421 victims. Captain Back and his wife were killed. Their two children were not on board that day.

The cause

At first a German submarine attack, a mine or sabotage were suspected, and such rumours long circulated in the area. Divers who examined the wreck established, however, that the explosion had occurred inside the ship, in the after shell room of the heavy guns or in the adjacent magazine for small-calibre ammunition. A court martial, which met in January 1916 and sat behind closed doors, found that the cause was an ammunition explosion. The most likely source of the disaster is considered to be unstable cordite, a smokeless powder used in propellant charges, which decomposes over time. The British official history of the naval war states briefly that the inquiry revealed defects in some of the ammunition. Cordite, although in that case overheated, was also judged the most likely cause of the explosion of the battleship Bulwark in November 1914.

The wreck of Natal lay in the firth for decades. Ships entering and leaving the Cromarty Firth paid their respects as they passed it. Over the years most of the hull was cut up for scrap, and the remains were blown up in the 1970s so as not to endanger shipping. The site of the sinking is now protected as a war grave.