Wreck of WWI armed merchant cruiser located off Scotland

The wreck of a merchant vessel that had been pressed into service with the UK Royal Navy during World War I has been located on the seabed off Scotland.

Divers recently found and identified the wreck of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Bayano amid those of other ships in the Firth of Clyde.

The identity of the wreck was confirmed through features on her hull and her superstructure, which the divers compared with information they had gleaned earlier from the UK National Archives.

Originally built as a reefer ship in 1913, Bayano was later converted into an armed merchant cruiser with main guns installed fore and aft to satisfy the Royal Navy’s immediate need for additional surface combatants upon the outbreak of World War I.

The ship conducted patrols and was operated as an escort until shortly after 05:00 in the morning of March 11, 1915, when she was sunk by a torpedo fired from the Imperial German Navy submarine U-27.

Only 27 of Bayano’s 220-strong crew survived the sinking. One of the survivors had said that he believes all on board would have been saved had the ship not gone down as quickly as she did.