A Pembroke Dock-built warship has been found in the North Sea -109 years after it was sunk by a German submarine in World War I.

HMS Nottingham, a Town class cruiser of 5,440 tons, was launched at Pembroke Royal Dockyard in April 1913 and had an eventual war, taking part unscathed in three major naval actions in the North Sea, including the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Its luck ran out on August 19, 1916 when it was torpedoed by U-52 with the loss of 38 crew. There were 375 survivors. Nottingham lies in 270 feet of water about 70 miles off the Northumberland coast.

Nottingham’s discovery brings to three the number of ‘survivors’ among the 260 vessels built at the Dockyard and is of special interest to the team at Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre.

The other survivors are HMS Erebus, launched in 1826 and famously rediscovered in Canadian Arctic waters in recent years, and a World War I submarine still identifiable at an Australian coastal location.