HMS Bergamot (1917)

HMS Bergamot was an Anchusa-class sloop of the Royal Navy, which had a short career during World War I. Built by Armstrong Whitworth, the ship was laid down on 1 January 1917, launched on 5 May, and commissioned on 5 June.

Two months later, on 13 August 1917, she was sunk in the Atlantic west of the harbour of Killybegs by the German submarine SM U-84, commanded by Walter Rohr.

His war diary describes how he sighted a lone merchant ship, with no defensive armament (an unusual sight by 1917). Bergamot evidently sighted the U-boat's periscope, as she began to zig-zag at high speed. U-84 fired one torpedo — which hit — and Bergamot sank in 4 minutes. Surfacing, U-84 sighted an unusually large number of crew (70) and pieces of wood floating. The U-boat's log identifies the possibility of Bergamot being a "trap ship".

After a brief search of the area, in which no officers could be identified, the light diminished too much, and U-84 left the area to continue her patrol.

An interesting note is that the week before, Bergamot had experimented with towing a submerged submarine — HMS E48 — thus resurrecting a 1915 method of trapping submarines.