Arethusa was a Royal Navy Light Cruiser stationed at Harwich under Admiral Tyrwhitt during the Great War. She served as his flagship at the Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914). On the 11th of February 1916, she struck a German mine: whilst being towed back to the port, Arethusa sank near the Cutler sandbank off Woodbridge Haven. One of the guns was recovered and re-used and is now on display at the museum at Bamburgh Castle.
As a dive site, it is shallow but good visibility is rare that close inshore. Over the years a great deal of material has been recovered from her.
The Cutler sand has been mapped using multibeam SONAR with 0.5m resolution, and the survey includes the Arethusa. The 3D image below is made from that data and has a length of about 126m with a beam of 13m, which is consistent with the actual ship. The ship lies along the tidal stream and appears broken around the bridge area. The image indicates the remaining superstructure.
Length 133m OA, Beam 12m, displacement 3,500 tons.
Sources
Image Sources and Credits
Image Credits and Sources
- HMS Arethusa 1913 mined: Royal Navy official photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Image Credits and Sources
- HMS Arethusa 1913 mined: Royal Navy official photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons