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Titanic’s sister ship Olympic is famous for ramming and sinking U‑103 in 1918 – and you’ll often hear that she was the only civilian ship ever to sink a U‑boat. That’s a great story… but it isn’t the whole story.
In this video we uncover the forgotten history of three other “U‑boat killers” of WW1 – ordinary merchant ships, passenger liners and cargo vessels that fought back against German submarines and, incredibly, survived.
We’ll look at:
• SS British Transport vs U‑49 – how a cargo ship turned the tables on a stalking U‑boat
• SS Molière vs UC‑36 – a troopship in convoy that refused to be an easy target
• SS Queen Alexandra vs UC‑78 – a cross‑Channel steamer that became an unlikely hunter
• Olympic vs U‑103 – what really happened when Titanic’s sister rammed a submarine
• The controversial cases of SS Braneil and SS Thordis – separating legend from what the wrecks and records actually show
Using original Admiralty files, German U‑boat war diaries and modern wreck evidence from the seabed, we’ll test the popular claim that Olympic was unique – and reveal the other civilian crews who also sank U‑boats, then slipped into obscurity.
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*You might also like*
My interviews with Richie Kohler about diving the Britannic - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSks_DrnduzWfKHoTbjsoE5zMbG_8WUM2
A playlist of submarine dives - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSks_DrnduzWwe41yuWoVjunNkmlSXAJ4
A dive on the wreck of RMS Lusitania - https://youtu.be/1RCPeCiBscg
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Olympic Titanic's big sister is often
0:04
described as the only civilian ship to
0:06
sink a submarine in the First World War.
0:10
It's a brilliant story. It's dramatic.
0:14
It's simple,
0:16
but it quietly erases at least three
0:19
other ships and a submarine wreck that
0:23
I've dived myself. In this video, we're
0:26
going to dig into Admiral T files,
0:29
German yubot records, and modern wreck
0:32
evidence, and rebuild the real list of
0:37
civilian ships that sunk submarines in
0:40
World War I. By the end, you'll see why
0:43
Olympic was unique, but absolutely not
0:47
alone.
0:49
To understand where the myth comes from,
0:51
we need the big picture.
0:54
In World War I, German hubot were deadly
0:58
and sank vast numbers of ships. They
1:02
also took heavy losses, but usually not
1:05
to merchant vessels. Most that never
1:08
came home were lost to mines, depth
1:11
charges, and purpose-built naval
1:14
vessels, destroyers, sloops, patrol
1:17
craft, even sometimes vessels disguised
1:22
as merchants that carried concealed
1:24
guns.
1:26
Civilian and merchant ships weren't
1:28
designed as yubot hunters. They were
1:31
cargo carriers, collers, ocean liners,
1:34
coastal steamers. often unarmed or
1:39
lightly armed with obsolete weapons and
1:42
usually they were on the receiving end
1:44
of an attack. So when a civilian ship
1:48
does defeat a submarine, it really
1:50
stands out. And when that ship is RMS
1:54
Olympic, sister to Titanic, the story
1:57
takes on a life all of its own.
2:00
Somewhere along the way, only ocean
2:03
liner turned into only civilian ship.
2:07
What we're going to do is reconstruct a
2:10
few of these encounters. We're going to
2:12
crosscheck British claims with German
2:15
records and when we can bring in the
2:18
wrecks themselves.
2:21
Once we do that, the only civilian ship
2:25
version simply doesn't survive. Our
2:28
first forgotten new boat killer isn't
2:30
glamorous at all. The SS British
2:33
Transport was a hardworking British
2:36
steamer of just over 4,000 tons.
2:40
On the other side of this story is U49,
2:43
commanded by Captain Lieutenant Richard
2:46
Harmon, a very successful yubot captain,
2:50
credited with 39 ships and over 86,000
2:54
tons.
2:55
The submarine sailed with another one on
2:58
30th of August 1917.
3:01
By the morning of 11th September, it's
3:03
on station in the Bay of Bisque and
3:06
doing exactly what it's supposed to be
3:08
doing. It torpedoes and sinks the
3:11
British steamer Vienna. And the master
3:15
is taken prisoner and brought aboard
3:18
U49.
3:20
Several hours later, U49 comes across
3:24
another target,
3:26
another steamer, another ordinary
3:29
vessel, the British transport under
3:32
Master Alfred Pope. At about 1,600
3:36
hours, the submarine surfaces a mere 50
3:40
yards from the steamer. That's point
3:42
blank range.
3:44
British transport was armed and the gun
3:47
crew scrambled to their 4.7 in gun, but
3:51
U49 dived just before they could get a
3:54
shot away.
3:56
A few minutes later, U49 surfaces
4:01
several miles away. Now, both ships open
4:04
fire, but the gunfire is ineffective on
4:07
both sides.
4:09
At some point during this engagement,
4:12
the British transport loses visual
4:14
contact with the Ubot. U49 hasn't gone
4:17
away. It wants another victim. 4 hours
4:20
later, just before 2100 hours, two
4:24
torpedoes streak past British transport
4:28
and narrowly miss.
4:30
That tells us U49 has been tracking her,
4:34
trying to get into a killing position.
4:37
Then comes the moment described in the
4:40
Admiral T's reported destruction of
4:42
submarines report. At about 9:20, the
4:48
crew of British Transport see a luminous
4:50
patch of disturbed water on the port
4:53
bow.
4:55
The ship is turned towards it. As they
4:58
close, the shape of a submarine becomes
5:01
visible under the surface.
5:04
The collision is brutal.
5:06
Everyone on board feels the heavy slam
5:10
as the bow impacts into the yubot,
5:15
followed by some horrendous grinding
5:17
noises that last a couple of seconds.
5:20
The ship's speed drops perceptibly under
5:23
the impact.
5:25
As British transport passes over,
5:28
officers on the deck see the submarine's
5:31
bow briefly clear of the port bow of the
5:34
British transport. It lifts out of the
5:37
water and a hatch between the foremost
5:40
gun and the conning tower is seen to
5:42
open and me men begin to emerge.
5:46
They hear shouting from the submarine.
5:48
The British transport doesn't know for
5:51
certain, doesn't know what's happening.
5:53
So, the crew fire two rounds at very
5:56
close range. The second round is
5:59
believed to be a hit. They see flame and
6:02
spark on the targets
6:05
and then nothing else.
6:08
When the British transport finally
6:09
reaches port, examination of the side of
6:13
the hull reveals scratches and scoring
6:16
on the plating consistent with striking
6:19
a hard metal object. That's not the sort
6:23
of marks you get from your own anchor or
6:25
from a cable.
6:27
From the British side, this looks and
6:29
feels like a kill. From the German side,
6:33
U49 simply vanishes.
6:37
U49 never makes another report after
6:39
sinking Vienna. She doesn't sink any
6:42
more ships.
6:44
There's nothing else heard from her
6:45
within a patrol area, and no other
6:49
plausible cause presents itself.
6:52
her assigned patrol line, the time of
6:54
Vienna's loss, the long pursuit of
6:57
British transport, the torpedo attack,
7:00
and the ramming at 9:20 p.m. Those line
7:04
up perfectly.
7:06
Modern analysts rate this as a very
7:09
probable loss. The history books record
7:12
that U49 was rammed and sunk by the
7:16
steamer SS British transport on the 11th
7:19
of September 1917.
7:22
With that collision, Germany loses one
7:24
of its most experienced Yumboat
7:26
commanders. Hartman and his entire
7:29
veteran crew go down with the boat. And
7:32
the British have a solid case of a
7:35
civilian steamer taking a fight to a
7:38
yubot and winning. British transports
7:42
master Alfred Pope is awarded the DSO,
7:45
the Distinguished Service Order. His
7:48
chief and second officers and the Chief
7:51
Engineer receive the DSC, the
7:54
Distinguished Service Cross.
7:57
Months before Olympic meets U 103, a
8:01
completely ordinary merchant steamer has
8:04
already hunted down. Well, maybe not
8:07
hunted down, certainly rammed a Yubot
8:09
after surviving a torpedo ambush. A
8:13
civilian ship with a largely civilian
8:15
crew scoring a very real kill.
8:19
Already the only civilian ship claimed
8:22
for Olympic doesn't hold up. Now to the
8:26
famous one, RMS Olympic, the first of
8:29
the Olympic class liners, sister to
8:33
Titanic and Britannic. In peace time,
8:36
she's the epitome of luxury. Panled
8:39
lounges, grand staircases,
8:43
silver service in the dining saloon.
8:46
War strips that all away.
8:49
She's requisitioned as a troop ship.
8:53
The fine woodwork is covered over or
8:56
removed. The carpets go. Cabins are
9:00
converted into troop dormitories. And
9:02
her white hull turned into a dazzle
9:05
painted gunarmed giant.
9:11
She receives several 6-in guns and
9:14
smaller weapons.
9:16
And later in the war, she even carries
9:18
death charges.
9:20
Underneath all of that, she's still an
9:23
ocean liner built for speed and comfort.
9:27
She's not a warship. By 1918, though,
9:30
she's a veteran. She's made dozens of
9:33
Atlantic crossings, carrying thousands
9:36
of Allied troops, dodging mines and
9:39
Ubot, occasionally sighting periscopes,
9:42
and getting the odd torpedo scare. On
9:46
12th of May 1918, she's in the English
9:49
Channel heading east with American
9:51
troops on board. A prime high value
9:55
target. She's part of a wider system of
9:59
escorted convoys. She's zigzagging to
10:01
make life harder for you.
10:04
Lurking ahead though is U 103,
10:08
a German submarine on patrol looking for
10:11
exactly this kind of prize. The captain
10:15
of U 103 lines up for a torpedo attack
10:18
from a favorable angle.
10:21
Things don't go to plan. The accounts
10:23
differ slightly on the exact sequence,
10:26
but the core is generally consistent.
10:29
The lookouts on Olympics bridge and up
10:32
in the crow's nest spot the submarine.
10:35
They either see the periscope, the hull
10:38
just a wash, or the track of a failed
10:41
torpedo. But in that moment, the captain
10:45
and his officers make the same
10:48
instinctive choice as the British
10:50
transport.
10:52
They go for the attack. Olympic guns
10:55
open up. Shell splashes bracket the
10:58
yubot, forcing her captain into an
11:01
immediate decision.
11:03
Does he dive and break off or press the
11:06
attack?
11:07
The ideal textbook firing position is
11:10
gone. Then comes the turn. A ship over
11:16
45,000 gross tons
11:19
turns to swing towards the Ubot.
11:23
It's impossible to imagine what it must
11:25
be have been like on U 103's bridge or
11:29
in the conning tower at this moment.
11:32
What have been a giant silhouette, a
11:34
distant target is now a rapidly growing
11:37
wall of steel. The bow wave is foaming.
11:41
The gun's firing. The collision happens
11:45
at around seven or eight knots. Not full
11:48
speed, but with the kind of mass that
11:51
Olympic has, it doesn't need to be. The
11:55
port side of Olympic strikes a
11:57
submarine. Her huge propellers and the
12:00
curve of a hull tear into the pressure
12:03
hull of U 103.
12:05
The German boat is fatally hauled.
12:09
She sinks and the surviving crew abandon
12:12
ship. U 103 never returns from the
12:16
patrol. German records accept the loss
12:19
and the timing and location match
12:22
Olympics reports.
12:24
Allied destroyers later pick up
12:26
survivors. So this isn't a disputed fog
12:30
of war. Maybe it's a confirmed kill.
12:34
Olympic though isn't unscathed. Her hull
12:37
plates are dented. Parts of the bow
12:39
structure are twisted. She needs repairs
12:43
in dock before she can resume service.
12:46
But she has just done something no other
12:48
ocean liner has ever done or ever will
12:51
do. She has deliberately rammed and sunk
12:56
a submarine.
12:58
The story spreads quickly.
13:00
I mean, there are cheering troops on the
13:02
deck. There's press coverage. And later
13:05
on there's even a commemorative plaque.
13:09
The captain is decorated and Olympics
13:13
wartime image shifts from this luxury
13:17
ship turned workhorse to yubot killer.
13:22
And that is where the myth begins over
13:25
time. only ocean liner to sink a yubot,
13:29
which is true, mutates into only
13:33
civilian ship to sink a yubot, which
13:36
you've already seen is false. British
13:39
transport gets lost from the story.
13:42
Maybe it doesn't have the glamour.
13:46
It doesn't have the Titanic connection.
13:48
It doesn't have the big ship drama. So
13:52
part of what we're doing here is simply
13:55
putting Olympic back into her proper
13:57
context. She's absolutely unique as an
14:01
ocean liner that sank a submarine, but
14:04
she's one of only several civilian or
14:07
merchant vessels that achieve the same
14:10
feat. Once you recognize that, the whole
14:13
narrative of helpless merchants versus
14:16
all powerful hubot becomes a little bit
14:20
more complicated. British transport
14:23
wasn't even the first. Months earlier,
14:26
another civilian vessel had already
14:28
claimed a yubot. On the 21st of May
14:32
1917,
14:33
the French steamer Molier was sailing in
14:37
convoy a few miles north of us.
14:41
That's the western gateway to the
14:43
English Channel. It's a busy, dangerous
14:47
choke point and a favorite hunting
14:49
ground for submarines. A submarine had
14:52
already torpedoed one ship from the
14:55
convoy in which the Molè was traveling
14:58
and was trying to cross between the two
15:00
columns to fire again, likely using a
15:04
stern torpedo. Molier was slightly out
15:07
of line and cighted a periscope just
15:09
ahead. It altered course and rammed.
15:14
There was a heavy shock. A torpedo was
15:17
seen running harmlessly past another
15:19
steamer in the convoy. A rush of bubbles
15:22
broke the surface and then nothing else.
15:26
Molier limped back to breast with a
15:29
large hole and several dents in her bow.
15:33
For years, modern sources credited her
15:36
with sinking UB36.
15:39
But when you dig into patrol orders,
15:41
positions, and the sequence of sinkings,
15:44
that doesn't add up. UB36 was lost, but
15:49
it should have been home by then.
15:51
Instead, the pattern of ships sunk and
15:54
the way the attack unfolded point to a
15:57
different boat and a different type of
16:00
boat.
16:01
UC 36 was a UC2 mine layer with a stern
16:06
torpedo. Exactly the sort of maneuver
16:09
described in the Mllair reports.
16:12
There are no unexplained sinkings in
16:15
UC36 patrol area after this ramming. Put
16:19
simply, Molier, a French civilian
16:22
steamer in a convoy almost certainly
16:25
finished her. So, we've already heard of
16:27
two rammings before Olympic, but there
16:30
was another. The fourth confirmed case
16:33
is SS Queen Alexandra and the German
16:37
mine layer UC78.
16:40
This was another type UC2 mine laying
16:43
submarine. It sailed from Ostend at 4:40
16:48
a.m. on the 2nd of May, 1918
16:52
with orders to lay mines off Bologna and
16:54
New Haven and then operate against
16:57
shipping in the eastern and central
17:00
English Channel. We know she reached her
17:02
patrol area. The French found a fresh
17:05
minefield off Bologna on the 4th of May
17:09
and the Royal Navy swept up seven mines
17:12
off New Haven on the 8th of May. After
17:15
that, she disappears.
17:17
In the early hours of 9th of May, 1918,
17:21
three days before Olympics encounter
17:23
with U 103, the SS Queen Alexandra is at
17:27
sea in the channel under Captain Angus
17:30
Keith, escorted by the patrol vessel
17:33
P33.
17:35
At 12:45 a.m. British time, lookout spot
17:39
a submarine close under the bow. The
17:42
Queen Alexandra goes for it, ramming at
17:45
full speed. P33 also sightes the
17:49
submarine and hears the collision.
17:52
It searches briefly, drops a boy to mark
17:55
the spot, and returns at 4:30 a.m. By
17:59
then, there's a large patch of oil and
18:02
acid stretching for about 7 miles down
18:05
tide. Classic signs of a submarine
18:08
broken open. The ramming position sits
18:11
squarely inside UC78's assigned patrol
18:15
area. Now, the Royal Navy initially
18:17
believed the victim was UB78,
18:20
but that boat had already been mined off
18:23
Folkston in April. Once you fix that
18:26
error, UC78 is the only candidate. From
18:30
the German side, UC78 never reports back
18:34
from this patrol.
18:36
All 29 crew are listed as lost.
18:39
Once again, you put together the
18:41
evidence, the patrol orders, the
18:44
minefields off Bologna and New Haven,
18:47
the time and place of the collision, and
18:50
UB78's earlier loss.
18:53
Modern analysts rate it as very probable
18:56
that Queen Alexandra rammed and sank
18:58
UC78 in the early hours of 9th of May
19:02
1918.
19:04
So even before Olympic drives her bow
19:07
into U 103, another civilian steamer has
19:11
already destroyed a Yubot in the channel
19:14
using the only real weapon she had, her
19:17
own hull.
19:19
By mid 1918,
19:21
the confirmed record looks like this. SS
19:25
Molier rammed and sunk UC 36 in May
19:29
1917.
19:31
SS British Transport Ramden sank U49 in
19:36
September 1917 and Queen Alexandra 3
19:40
days before Olympic almost certainly did
19:43
the same to UC78.
19:46
Olympic rams and sinks at U 103 in May
19:49
1918.
19:51
Four different civilian or merchant
19:53
ships, four Ubot destroyed. Yet, the
19:57
popular story only remembers the famous
20:00
liner. Things get even more interesting
20:03
when we look at some of the claims and
20:06
look at Rex themselves.
20:08
One long-standing one is that the
20:11
merchant ship SS Brainil rammed a
20:14
submarine off the Lizard Peninsula in
20:16
Cornwall.
20:18
The Admiral T was skeptical at the time.
20:21
Brail didn't get official credit. Her
20:23
crew didn't get the prize money. But
20:26
you're looking at the wreck of that
20:28
submarine now. This is U95.
20:32
The Gasperados team dived to 75 m,
20:36
scrubbed the props, and confirmed the
20:39
identity.
20:41
Other members of the team filmed
20:43
significant damage to the pressure hull
20:45
forward of the conning tower that seems
20:48
to match Bray Neil's account of the
20:50
collision. The dramatic story of Bri
20:53
Neil ramming a Ubot suddenly looks a lot
20:57
more plausible when you line up the log
20:59
books with the steel on the seabed. It's
21:03
a great example of how research, wreck
21:07
diving, and a bit of rust forensics can
21:10
help solve a 100-year-old mystery.
21:13
Brainail isn't the only encounter that
21:15
needs a second look. There was also a
21:17
famous report by SS Thais that it rammed
21:21
U6 in 1915. It was a great headline and
21:25
an important one at that particular
21:27
point in the war, except that U6
21:29
survived that year and was lost
21:32
somewhere else entirely. Stories lit
21:34
like this show how easy it was in
21:36
wartime to overclaim submarine kills.
21:39
Unless you can match German records,
21:42
wreck evidence, log books, patrol areas,
21:46
timelines,
21:48
some of these kills quietly dissolve
21:50
under scrutiny. What's actually true?
21:53
Well, we can say with confidence that
21:56
four ships were definitely sunk by
21:59
civilian or merchant vessels and almost
22:02
certainly a fifth. Olympic
22:05
was the only ocean liner though. But she
22:09
wasn't the only civilian ship. And out
22:11
on the seabed, wrecks like U95
22:15
remind us that every claim has to
22:17
survive a number of tests. The documents
22:21
and the steel war creates situations
22:25
that would sound implausible in peace
22:27
time. Passenger liners used as rams.
22:32
Cargo steamers turning it into impromptu
22:35
submarine hunters and fleeting decisions
22:39
on a dark bridge deciding the fate of
22:41
dozens of men below and above the
22:45
surface. These incidents sit right on
22:47
the edge between chaos and intent.
22:51
Ordinary ships crewed by mostly ordinary
22:54
people stumbling into extraordinary
22:58
moments that history has almost
23:01
forgotten. If this story of rammings and
23:05
chance encounters has grabbed you,
23:08
there's another collision worth your
23:09
time. HMS1,
23:12
a British submarine lost in a peacetime
23:15
accident that should never have
23:16
happened. And if you want to keep going
23:18
down the periscope rabbit hole, there's
23:21
a whole playlist of submarine videos on
23:24
this channel. From yubot wrecks to
23:27
experimental designs waiting for you to
23:30
dive in next. For those with an interest
23:32
in Titanic or Olympic, then I think
23:35
you're going to love the interviews I've
23:37
done with famous American diver
23:40
where he shared exclusive video from
23:43
inside the wreck of Britannic
23:46
120 m down in the AGNC.
23:50
It's absolutely amazing and this is just
23:52
a taste of what he's given me. I hope
23:55
you've enjoyed this video. I'm Dom
23:57
Robinson, deep wreck diver, and I look
24:00
forward to seeing you on my next video.