DRAMATIC video footage showing the sunken wreck of Holland 5 has emerged showing the Barrow-built boat sitting intact on the bottom of the English Channel.
Between 2016 and 2018, with grant support from Historic England, the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) developed a 'virtual diver trail' on the protected wreck of the Holland 5 Submarine.
The NAS runs trips to dive the Holland 5 protected wreck every year from Eastbourne Docks for £75 per person.
The five American-designed Holland boats were the first built in Barrow for the Royal Navy with the first in class, Holland 1, built in 1091. The subs were just 63 feet long and weighed 120 tonnes compared with the mammoth 7,400-tonne Astute boats.
Holland 5 was the fifth of the experimental Holland class submarines to be launched, on 10 June 1902, at a cost of £35,000.
She sank in the English Channel near Eastbourne, on 8 August 1912, whilst under tow to the scrap yard. The wreck was rediscovered in 2000 and was protected under the Protection of Wrecks Act in 2005.
Damage has been caused to the site in recent years, and at some point between September 2008 and June 2010, the torpedo hatch was stolen off the wreck.
Holland 5 remains the only submarine of her class on the seabed. Holland 1, the only other boat of her class remaining, is on show at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire.
You can watch the full video HERE .
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