The Ship That Torpedoed Itself: HMS Trinidad 

My godfather, my uncle John, was one of those merchant marines, working in the worst place onboard, running the boilers, and was torpedoed on two voyages in those frigid waters. How he survived I'll never know.

None of the convoys in any theatre had an easy time, be it North Atlantic or the Med, but the Arctic convoys had to fight the worst possible weather conditions in addition to the enemy. And yet, in the best traditions of both the Royal Navy and the Merchant, they damned wll did it. Remarkable heroism from so many

This is the first time I've heard of a surface ship being hit by its own torpedo however, a circular run was a hazard well known to the submarine services. The USS Tang was sunk by one of its own torpedoes in 1944, for example.

Drowning in fuel oil while trapped in a steel compartment... I can't really think of a worse way to go. I certainly hope those guys found some peace in that moment.

I'd love to see a story about all the people that never came home from Russia after delivering aid to them. I believe the number is in the thousands.

There is a picture of Z26 in Jurgen Rohwer' book 'War at Sea 1939-45' taken just as the deck starts to become awash as she leans over to port. The rear turret is pointed astern, the two forward of it are to port and show damage inflicted by Trinidad's guns. Can just make out the rear set of torpedo tubes slewed to about 45deg from centreline. Thick heavy smoke is emitting from holes and rented plates that prove the effectiveness of the damage inflicted and the boilers are blowing off which makes for a very dramatic picture. THG putting life and drama to a picture, really well done.

I sailed as far North as Norway on USS Whidbey Island LSD 41 in 1995 for Cold Weather Operations with the US Marines. Tin Can Sailor here; USS Semmes DDG 18 and USS Kinkaid DD 965.

As someone from and currently living in Trinidad 🇹🇹, I’m really happy you covered her story, and greatly too! A shame she only saw 7 months of service.

There might be a question why sailors are required to remove ice from ships. The quick answer is: 1.) This adds weight to the ship which affects its operation and safety. 2.) An over weighted bow can literally crack and/or break off the ship because a ship flexes at sea. Like bending a piece of metal back-and-forth to break it in two. Especially in heavy seas which are often the case in Artic and Antarctic waters. Several ships had this happen in WW2 when delivering supplies to Russia in the Artic areas.

We just had the History Guy do a birthday video for my wife via Cameo; it was absolutely great, and he took time to personalize it with interesting facts about the date and other funny/interesting information. Highly recommended!

Having only recently heard Mr. Lloyd’s music on a classical station I found this account very informative. Thank you for shedding some light on his life.

HMS Ulysses may have been fiction, but it educated me about this aspect of the war and left a lasting cold pit in my gut.

This is the problem with battles in extreme weather. Royal Navy Swordfish crews said they had to carefully drop the torpedo in the trough of a wave, otherwise it would be thrown off at a crazy angle.

I think that the History Guy's 2nd World War naval stories are probably the best videos on his channel. This one was very informative, but I was a bit disappointed there were no pirates involved!

I was already familiar with this story, as a fan of the music of George Lloyd. If you are at all interested in great symphonic music, you should give him a listen if you have not already. His story is a true example of the capricious, arbitrary, and brutal nature of the Gods of War, and also the possibility of redemption. I am glad he survived, but also greatly saddened by the loss of so many others. Who knows what some of them might have been able to accomplish had they not died.

Less than a mile in fog... Man that's like a knife fight in a closet by navy standards. Wow.

Back in the late 50’s my Dads sub was testing new torpedoes "inert" when one circled around and punctured a hole in the outer hull of the sub.🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇸

Greetings! I am an Icelander, intrested in Naval History,and especially the Arctic Convoys. Thank you! Billi.

If you're going to do this topic, you absolutely have to talk about L. Ron Hubbard's hilariously bad captaining during WW2.

Two US subs, Tang and Tullibee, were hit by circular run torpedoes.

The bowtie man is so good I actually click "like" before watching the video just to be sure I don't slip and forget.. THG has earned this and more..

In the 1970s I sailed with a captain whose first voyage at 16, was the Murmansk run, PQ13. Now that's an introduction to life in the merchant navy!

The best time in my morning routine.

The French ship Maillé Breze torpedoed itself in Scapa Flow, accidentally firing a torpedo across its own deck into its superstructure. The ship caught fire and began to sink. Most of its crew were trapped on the mess deck, unable to escape because the portholes were too small. The medic from HMS Firedrake got to it in a whaler, but rescue being impossible and faced with the pleas of the doomed crewmen, he ended their suffering in the only way that he could: He injected each arm stuck out the ship with morphine. My grandfather assisted him. The size of portholes was changed to enable escape from messdecks as a result of this incident.

Awesome story! Thank you.

There was a massive force assembled to bring Trinidad to Hvalfiord, Iceland, en route to the US, including the battleships Duke of York and Washington, carrier Victorious, and heavy cruisers London and Tuscaloosa. She was very unlucky that a bomb dropped right on top of a spot that was already damaged Luckily, none of the other ships were damaged in an attack that lasted over an hour. Trinidad was listing 14° to starboard but was still able to make 20 knots. However, the fire got out of control and she was scuttled by 3 torpedoes from Matchless. Of the 63 who were lost, 20 were survivors from Edinburgh, who was earlier sunk during Convoy QP11.

At least two American submarines were lost due to circular run torpedoes. There may have been more.

Spring torpedo technology and utility is fascinating and worth a look.

A cold cold tale. Thank you History Guy and team.

Thanks, Lance, great post(as always!)!

"Shell shock" was the World War I term for PTSD. The equivalent term from World War II was "Combat fatigue" which was used until "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" was officially classified as a diagnosis.

The Murmansk run made the term "the cruel sea," seem inadequate.

Love the "THC" sign, dude! Toke 'em if ya got 'em!

A very interesting piece off WWII Naval history, I learned something new today.

That's an incredible amount of damage for one torpedo. If it did that to a cruiser, I gotta imagine it would have split that destroyer in half if it had hit its intended target.

Geez, I forgot there was class today.

George Lloyd knew my father. Father knew George Lloyd.

Torpedos circling back on to own-ship is a fear every Submariner still has even though current mechanisms for shutting down the Torpedo in such an event are well tested.

My father had one of those coats issued to him for arctic service -- he served in South Pacific..

Mad place to keep the fuel tanks (or Transmission room for that matter).

Thank you.

Great video, as usual. Thank you.

Excellent video 👍 Thank you 💜

Thank you for the lesson.

I appreciate you and thank you for making content.

Great video

TY THG. Fighting in Arctic waters make the land battle on the Eastern front , look somehow less dangerous.

Another banger, Lance! It really drives home the horror of naval battles, especially in the North Atlantic. If a ship is "lost," then you can assume that no one onboard would be able to survive the icy waters. Never mind that - drowning in the ship's own fuel-oil is to horrific for words. Let us hope and pray that we will never see such warfare again. Great video!

Back in the Saddle Again Naturally a

My father was on the Trinidad. He rarely talked about it but it was clearly a taumatic experience that I don't believe he ever fully recovered from.

Last message heard before the incident: Oops.

If you count submarines, there is a decent amount that torpedo themselves.

Didn't a similar thing happen to an American cruiser in the south Pacific in one of those big cruiser vs cruiser battles in 1942?

Happy Easter

She wasn’t a “Fiji” Class light cruiser. She was a Crown Colony Class light cruiser. HMS Fiji just happened to be a Crown Colony class cruiser.

I live in Trinidad and Tobago😏😒

Yep

It's hard to imagine the conditions these men faced but for them, it was a day-to-day reality. A very different world they endured.

I read about a misfire torpedo that sank the USS Tang in the Pacific. Great book called escape from the deep about the history and events of that patrol. Horrific for these brave men, that's the tragedy of war, sometimes a random freak accident will result in death

USS Tang: hold my beer :(

Good night

Love your videos

Have you ever heard about the US ship that almost sunk the ship that FDR was on?

Reminds me of the time the USS William D. Porter (a.k.a. the Willie Dee) accidentally shot a live torpedo at the Iowa, which president Roosevelt was on at the time. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_William_D._Porter_(DD-579)

With the title of this video, I got a visual of the ship, shooting itself at something and immediately started giggling. So I had to see what it meant 😂.

This was one of several Navy ships named after the Brits ' prized Caribbean island colony of Trinidad 🇹🇹 a vital part of the war effort in the Western hemisphere

Sad but interesting.

I like Art Deco too!

I'm sure the Soviets were sooo grateful!

I don’t know much about British torpedoes but I’ve read in several sources that American torpedoes in the early war were complete crap. One of (or perhaps the most) productive American submarines was sunk by its own torpedo.

The saga of HMS Trinidad certaInly tells how awful those Arctic convoys to Russia were.

I note the news article on the sinking states eight six-inch guns when she in fact had twelve.

Please do a detailed history of Alaska 🎉🇺🇲👑🦅

0:21 Perhaps Churchill was thinking of the book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, which describes a winter journey from McMurdo Sound to Cape Crozier in Antarctica, to obtain an egg containing an emperor penguin embryo.

The title convinced me that this was a report over the USS Liberty 🗽 🇺🇸 💥🇮🇱

How that even possible? 🙈

Circular run for sure

Ice was so bad sometimes they worried about the ship sinking ,or capsizing, I read . Water was so cold a person was lucky to last 5 minutes if in it

⚓️

Convoy pq17

exceed expectations

*See Also: USS Tang*

In relation to the treacherous crossings, particularly of those to the USSR, by Allied merchant convoys, I'd like to ask if "The History Guy" has ever seen or even heard of the 1943 film, "Action in the North Atlantic"? I won't go into too much detail of the film other than it stars Humphrey Bogart as an officer in the U.S. Merchant Marines, and is a film dedicated to showcasing the lives, duties and procedures of the U.S. Merchant Marines, as well as Allied convoy operations during WWII. The more significant reason for mentioning the film is how it was received by the actual U.S. Merchant Marines' personnel: their praise of the film's accurate depiction of the Merchant Marines would extent to not only gifting Warner Brothers co-founder, Jack Warner, with a Merchant Marine Victory Flag, but also "Action in the North Atlantic" being included as a training film in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, as well as being shown as an inspirational motivation film to employees of Henry J. Kaiser's ship building company, (one of the companies contracted to build Liberty Ships, as I'm sure you are aware.) I've watched the film many times, (I even own a copy on DVD,) and I do believe it is a film that, despite its significant acknowledgement among the U.S. Merchant Marines at the time of its release, (the war still ongoing,) is mostly unknown and underappreciated by the general public. However, it is a film, that I also believe, deserves to be remembered. 😉

More accurately I would call this the torpedo that torpedoed its own ship.

A whole different level of friendly fire.

WWII and earlier torpedoes were subject to running wild and circling back to towards their launch point.

And who manufacturer all those supplies?

A US Pacific theatre submarine shot itself in the arse with an errant torpedo, I think they all survived by leaping overboard. Tex What's his name also shot himself in the arse whilst practicing his fast draw some years back.

DAMN... to drown in fuel oil... I can't even imagine, nor do I want too...

Hey hey hey, tractors ARE sensational.

As a Trinidadian, this story depresses me 😞

Are "we" sure that it wasn't actually the soviet repairs that did her in? ;)

Likely in WW2 Pacific US Navy submarines were destroyed by there own Mk 14 torpedoes. When a torpedo does a 180 degree turn back at you it’s called a circular run

those early fish were lousy

Were not we using the Mark IV torpedos then ? They performed so poorly. Sometimes they just bounced off the enemy ships.

A circular run. A circular run of a torpedo is what did in the U.S. submarine USS Tang.

However I would be more inclined to believe it was a torpedo fired from Z26 or possibly from one of the other German destroyers.

The Us Navy's WW ll submarine the USS Tang in 1945 launched a torpedo that made a circular run that hit and sank the Tang.

Hey Siri, play My Own Worst Enemy by Lit.

USS Tang was sunk by a circular run torpedo.