The St Jacques (Wreck)

 interesting place, invisible

Capitaine Henri Hauville, who had commanded the 2459 ton French steamer St Jacques since she was built in 1909 in Dunkirk, had kept her out of trouble for all three years of the war so far.

Perhaps Capitaine Hauville was overconfident, or perhaps his crew were not keeping as keen a watch as they should, but those aboard had no idea that they were being stalked by a German U-boat on the morning of 15 September, 1917.

As they crossed the Bristol Channel five miles off the entrance to Milford Haven, loaded with Welsh coal from Barry for Bizerta, the periscope of UC51 followed them. Watching through the lenses was Oberleutnant Heinrich Galster. Moments later he put just one torpedo from a bow tube into the St Jacques' starboard side.

The 288ft-long St Jacques took more than 15 minutes to sink, and her crew had plenty of time to take to the boats.

Almost exactly two months later, on the morning of 17 November, UC51 ran into a U-boat trap. On 5 and 11 November British minelayers had laid 680 of the Navy's new H2 mines deep, south of Start Point.

Galster obviously found those mines. Following a huge explosion, his U-boat was seen by the Navy's armed trawler Lois to surface amid oil and debris, wallow and then capsize before sinking. There were no survivors.

UC51 has been dived recently in 68m. She was reported to be intact except for the heavy damage sustained to the stern.