HMS Hampshire (1903) - Cause of Sinking

Cause of Sinking

It is believed that Hampshire struck one of several mines laid by the German minelaying submarine U-75 on 28 May 1916, just before the Battle of Jutland, in an effort to block one of Scapa Flow's exits.

Fritz Joubert Duquesne, a Boer and German spy, claimed to have sabotaged and sunk Hampshire. Duquesne claimed to have assumed the identity of Russian Duke Boris Zakrevsky and joined Kitchener in Scotland. En route to Russia, Duquesne signalled a German U-boat to alert them that Kitchener’s ship was approaching. He then escaped on a raft just before Hampshire was destroyed. In the 1930s and 40s, he ran the famous Duquesne Spy Ring and was captured by the FBI along with 32 other Nazi agents in the largest espionage conviction in U.S. history.