Experts from the Royal Navy have confirmed the identity of a World War 1 wreck off the Scottish coast found in the summer as HMS Hawke.

Before divers swam around the remains of the cruiser, no one had seen her since she was torpedoed by a German submarine on October 15 1914 while carrying out a patrol of the North Sea.

The wreck was found by Lost in Waters Deep, a volunteer team of civilian researchers and divers who aim to find lost and forgotten shipwrecks around the UK and remember their crews.

The team consulted both the war diary (log) of the U-boat which sank Hawke, as well as the corresponding logs of the nearest warships to the cruiser at the time, plus contemporary and present-day charts of the North Sea to help pinpoint the possible wreck site.

The ship was found in August about one kilometre away from an ‘obstruction’ marked on existing charts of the North Sea – and about ten kilometres from Hawke’s location estimated by the UK Hydrographic Office in the early 1970s.

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When they found that ‘obstruction’ – 110 metres down (over 350ft) – the divers recorded tell-tale features of a WW1-era warship, while a side-scan sonar sweep of the wreck by the divers’ mother ship MV Clasina suggested similar dimensions and layout to HMS Hawke.

“The wreck is in remarkable condition for a vessel of this era, likely due to the depth and having never been dived before,” said Steve Mortimer, one of the divers.

“It’s a fascinating site. You can look though the open scuttles and see artefacts just lying there on the deck. There’s lots of Royal Navy crockery, including teacups, plates and bowls. It’s a really remarkable time capsule.”

He and his colleagues also recorded two large guns (estimated 9in, one at the bow, one at the stern), 6in casemate guns along the ship’s sides, an Admiral’s walkway around the stern, navigation equipment, and teak decking.

Three months later, having pored over the footage, photographs and scans gathered by the expedition – as an official war grave, nothing was recovered from the wreck – as well as contemporary records and plans, experts from the Royal Navy Historical Branch, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Salvage and Marine Organisation and Hydrographic Office have confirmed the sunken vessel is HMS Hawke.

Volunteers from Lost in Waters Deep onboard dive vessel MV ClasinaVolunteers from Lost in Waters Deep onboard dive vessel MV Clasina (Image: Buchan Divers)

The cruiser fell victim to U-boat ace Otto Weddigen and his submarine U-9 – fêted in their native Germany but notorious in Britain for sinking three Royal Navy cruisers in one hour in September 1914, killing more than 1,450 sailors and Royal Marines.

Hawke, an Edgar-class protected cruiser, was more than 20 years old and had hit the headlines in 1911 when she collided with the White Star Liner Olympic – older sister of the Titanic – in the Solent, losing her bow in the process.

When war broke out in August 1914, the veteran warship was assigned to enforcing the naval blockade of Germany – preventing shipping reaching or leaving North Sea ports – by patrolling between Scotland and Norway, until she was sighted by U-9 on October 15 about 130km (80 miles) east of Fraserburgh.

“It is great to hear that the Royal Navy has confirmed our discovery of HMS Hawke,” said Kevin Heath, who runs Lost in Waters Deep.

“A huge amount of effort went into the research behind this project, so we knew we were searching in the right area – but until divers go down and visually ID the wreck, you can never be 100 per cent sure.

“It was such a relief when the divers surfaced and reported they had found a wreck with guns; I knew it had to be HMS Hawke. To have the Navy confirm this means that the final resting place of those 526 souls is no longer ‘lost’ and the site can be protected for future generations.”

Lieutenant Commander Jen Smith, who has joined the team on previous dives including surveying the wreck of WW2 destroyer HMS Exmouth earlier this year – said even after the passage of more than a century, the ongoing efforts to locate and identify wrecks around the UK was appreciated by today’s Senior Service, as well as the descendants of those lost.

“Without these volunteers dedicating their time to these projects, the resting place of many of our sailors would never be found and their sacrifices forgotten, so we are most grateful.”