Qualla: HMS Formidable (1898)

HMS Formidable (1898): Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fred T. Jane, Public domain. At 2:20 in the morning of 1 January 1915, the watch on HMS Formidable felt the deck shudder under their boots. A torpedo had struck the starboard side, abreast of the forward funnel, and the men aboard the pre-dreadnought battleship had perhaps two and three-quarter hours to live. They were thirty-odd miles off the south coast of Devon, in the cold winter dark of Lyme Bay. Their captain, Arthur Loxley, was on the bridge. The other ships of the 5th Battle Squadron had no idea anything was wrong. Formidable was the last battleship in the line, followed only by two light cruisers, and she turned out of formation alone, trying to get closer to shore. Twenty minutes after the first torpedo, she had taken on a list of twenty degrees. The order to abandon ship had been given. Forty-five minutes after that, the second torpedo struck. By 4:45 that morning Formidable was sinking by the bow. Of her complement of 780 officers and men, 547 went down with her.

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Image: Fred T. Jane | Public domain

HMS Formidable (1898): Built for a War That Was Already Over

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edward Fraser, Public domain. HMS Formidable was the lead ship of her class, laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 21 March 1898 and launched that November so the slipway could be cleared for the next battleship. She was 431 feet long, displaced 15,800 tons fully loaded, and carried a main battery of four 12-in...

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Image: Edward Fraser | Public domain

HMS Formidable (1898): The Decision to Stay at Sea

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unidentified engraver, Public domain. The squadron's commander was Vice-Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, a respected officer whose judgment that night would end his career. After the day's gunnery exercises off the Isle of Portland, the squadron had no destroyer escort. Submarine activity had been reported in the area. The s...

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Image: Unidentified engraver | Public domain

HMS Formidable (1898): Loxley on the Bridge

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Salles, André (1860-1929). Photographe, Public domain. What happened on Formidable in those two and a half hours between the first torpedo and her sinking is one of the quieter naval traditions of the First World War. Captain Loxley, knowing the ship could not be saved, ordered her closed up for damage control while he turned for sho...

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Image: Salles, André (1860-1929). Photographe | Public domain

HMS Formidable (1898): An Inquiry and a Wreck

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Margaret Ferguson Burns, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Admiralty inquiry into the loss of HMS Formidable concluded what was already obvious. Conducting training exercises in the Channel without destroyer protection was an unacceptable risk and should not be continued. Vice-Admiral Bayly was relieved of his command for failing to ...

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Image: Margaret Ferguson Burns | CC BY-SA 4.0