The Basil (Wreck)

 shipwreck, invisible

British Expeditionary Force Transport No 0608, the peacetime name of which was Basil, could get a steady 10 knots out of her 334hp triple-expansion engine, three boilers and single prop. Captain Edward Whitehouse used that top speed to dodge the German U-boats as he made regular runs across the Channel.

Built in Belfast in 1895, the 3225 ton, 338ft-long ship was originally named Mourne, but when sold in 1898 to the Booth Steamship Co of Liverpool was renamed Basil, the second ship in its fleet to bear that name.

When she was requisitioned late in World War One to carry troops, horses and feed, and munitions across the Channel to France, the Royal Navy mounted a 4.7in gun on her stern. There is no record that the gun was ever used in anger; the Basil's best defence seemed to be to keep as close as possible to her top speed.

That is what she was doing, without lights or escort, on 11 November, 1917, on her way from Southampton to Boulogne with a cargo of artillery shells. At midnight at full speed she plunged into a fog-bank near the Owers off the Sussex coast. The French steamer Margaux came into the fog bank from the French side. They collided, bows on, somewhere in the middle of the fog.

The Basil foundered almost at once before she could get her boats away, and 13 of her crew of 28 went down with her. The Margaux later reached Southampton, despite heavy damage to her bows.