British Navy, destroyer; 1913; Thorny croft & Co.; 917 tons; 265-2x26-5x10-2; 22,500 i.h.p.; 31 knots; turbine engines;Yarrow boilers; three 4 in. guns, 2 T. T.

The destroyer Paragon, Lt. Bowyer, was patrolling the submarine barrage in the Straits of Dover on the night of March 17th, 1917, in company with the Laertes, Laforey and Llewellyn. At about 10.50 p.m. a German destroyer force led by Cdr. Tillessen steamed into the Straits with the object of breaking the barrage. The first ship to encounter them was the Paragon, which was torpedoed and overwhelmed with gunfire when in the act of flashing her challenge. She was hit by a torpedo and gunfire and broke in half within eight minutes and sank. Some of her own depth charges exploded killing some of the survivors; only ten of her complement of 77 being picked up. The Llewellyn, which came on the scene in time to rescue the few survivors, was also torpedoed but, fortunately, did not sink.

The wreck was visited by Canterbury Divers and noted that the wreck is incredibly intact and proud for a destroyer standing 6m proud with the top at 23m with a max depth of 29m to the seabed. The bow is blown off roughly level with the forward gun turret and is apparently some 250m away on the seabed. There are lots of areas you can look into and although there is quite a bit of netting and fishing line on it, it’s all easy to avoid. The seabed is sand and shingle and the wreck is bow end into the current so no silt. Summarised from sources (1-3)

<1> United Kingdom shipwreck index, Page Nos. N/a (Bibliographic reference). SKE6340.

<2> Unknown, 2019, Canterbury Divers: Wreck Sites (Website). SKE52189.

<3> Maritime Archaeology, 2015, Royal Navy Loss List Complete Database (Unpublished document). SKE52190.