11. A British destroyer sank a British submarine in World War I
HMS Pasley entered service with the Royal Navy during the summer of 1916. Its duties included anti-submarine patrols and acting as escort for convoys to Norway and ports in France. In September, 1916, Pasley escorted a convoy out of Aspo Fjord, north of Bergen, Norway, in foul weather, with visibility severely restricted. The ships were bound for the Shetland Islands. Pasley’s lookouts suddenly reported two torpedo wakes, heading directly for the destroyer. One struck the ship’s side as it turned in the direction from whence the torpedoes came. It failed to explode, the other missed, and Pasley, by running down the wakes, located the submarine which had launched them. Calling on all its speed, the destroyer rammed the submarine, slicing it in two, which halves sank instantly.
Pasley conducted a search for survivors, of which they found only one man. After he was brought aboard Pasley’s captain, Charles Gordon Ramsey, was disconcerted to learn the submarine was the British G-9. The submarine had, indescribably, mistaken the profile of the British destroyer for a German U-Boat. A Court of Inquiry over the affair led to Ramsey’s total acquittal. He eventually rose to the position of Naval Aide to King George VI. The commander of the submarine, Lieutenant-Commander Byron Cary, received a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) posthumously. The 29 crewmen of G-9 lost in the incident were officially listed as being killed in an accidental collision. G-9 was one of at least six British submarines lost to friendly fire during the First World War.
