Qualla: HMS Pathfinder (1904) https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: HMS Pathfinder (1904) https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904 HMS Pathfinder (1904): Introduction https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904/ At 3:45 in the afternoon on 5 September 1914, a German torpedo struck HMS Pathfinder beneath her bridge as she patrolled off St. Abbs Head. The cordite in the forward magazine caught fire, and the second explosion tore the cruiser apart. From shore, witnesses watched a pall of smoke rise from the North Sea. By the time anyone understood what they were seeing, the ship was already gone, taking 261 men with her. Pathfinder had become the first warship in history sunk by a torpedo fired from a submarine, and the war at sea would never be the same.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/r/hms-pathfinder-1904-wp/gcyr-hms-pathfinder-1904-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full HMS Pathfinder (1904): Scout Cruiser https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904/ Cammell Laird launched Pathfinder from their Birkenhead yard on 16 July 1904, the lead ship of a class designed to shepherd destroyer flotillas through the North Sea. She was 379 feet long, displaced just under 3,000 tons, and could make 25 knots when her twelve Normand boilers w...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/r/hms-pathfinder-1904-wp/gcyr-hms-pathfinder-1904-scout-cruiser.mp3 0:06 2 full HMS Pathfinder (1904): The U-Boat in the Firth https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904/ Kapitänleutnant Otto Hersing took U-21 deep into the Firth of Forth in the first week of September, slipping past the Carlingnose Battery beneath the Forth Rail Bridge. The shore gunners spotted his periscope and opened fire, but Hersing dove and slid away. Overnight he withdrew ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/r/hms-pathfinder-1904-wp/gcyr-hms-pathfinder-1904-the-u-boat-in-the-firth.mp3 0:06 3 full HMS Pathfinder (1904): Minutes in the Water https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904/ The torpedo struck under the bridge and the forward magazine exploded almost instantly. Everything ahead of the bridge was destroyed. Pathfinder broke in two and went down so quickly that her crew had no time to launch lifeboats. The remains of a davit and a length of rope still ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/r/hms-pathfinder-1904-wp/gcyr-hms-pathfinder-1904-minutes-in-the-water.mp3 0:06 4 full HMS Pathfinder (1904): The Cover-Up https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904/ The Admiralty insisted publicly that Pathfinder had struck a mine. Submarines, they maintained, simply could not sink a major warship with a single torpedo. The position was politically convenient and technologically wrong. The Scotsman published an eye-witness account from an Ey...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/r/hms-pathfinder-1904-wp/gcyr-hms-pathfinder-1904-the-cover-up.mp3 0:06 5 full HMS Pathfinder (1904): The Wreck Today https://qualla.com/hms-pathfinder-1904/ Pathfinder lies in about 65 metres of water off St. Abbs Head, broken roughly in two, with the bow section largely destroyed by the magazine blast. Recreational divers visit her in summer, and the Royal Navy honoured the centenary of her loss on 5 September 2014. The coast above ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/y/r/hms-pathfinder-1904-wp/gcyr-hms-pathfinder-1904-the-wreck-today.mp3 0:06 6 full