German Destroyer V82

Two long forgotten shipwrecks in Portsmouth harbour have been identified as the First World War German destroyers V44 and V82, the former a veteran of the great Battle of Jutland, the centenary of which will be commemorated later this year.

Amongst the seventy destroyers interned at Scapa Flow with the rest of the German High Seas Fleet at the end of the war, the pair escaped the scuttling that destroyed that great fleet, thanks to the intervention of British sailors, whereupon they were towed to Portsmouth for use as gunnery targets.

Intentionally run aground off Whale Island the battered hulks were progressively dismantled and their remnants forgotten in the mud until their rediscovery and identification by the Maritime Archaeological Trust’s Heritage Lottery funded Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War project. It is believed that there may yet be further wrecks to be found in the vicinity.