HMS Natal Traditional Cache
Durin's Bane: It is still there, higher than it was placed, but archiving anyway
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A small but easy magnetic NANO CACHE within The Rosskeen Cemetery near Invergordon.
The graves of a number of officers & seamen who lost their lives are here, a number at the base of the rising ground within the older part of the cemetery.
There is convenient parking avaliable outside the gates.
The cache is a Magnetic Nano.
HMS Natal was one of three large British warships which blew up and sank in unexplained circumstances whilst at anchor in home waters during the First World War. The other two were HMS Bulwark at Sheerness in 1914, and HMS Vanguard at Scapa Flow in 1916.
The Natal was at anchor in the Cromarty Firth when she exploded in the afternoon on 30 December 1915. Captain Back had arranged a film show, inviting not only a party of civilians, which included his wife and children, but a group of nurses from nearby hospital ship DRINA, all of whom were among the 388 who lost their lives.
Just after 3.20pm violent explosions ripped through the ship. Within 5 short minutes she capsized, a blazing wreck. 390 men, more than half of the ship’s company, 11 women and children and two dockyard workers perished either from the explosions or in the freezing water of the Cromarty Firth. Those bodies which were recovered from the sea were interred in Rosskeen Churchyard, Invergordon.
There was a huge amount of speculation about the loss of the Natal. A mine laying U-boat was thought to be the cause but an underwater inspection revealed massive damage from an internal explosion. Sabotage by German agents was suspected but never proved.
H.M.S. Natal has resisted all attempts at salvage, and remains in the same position she sank with most of her 600 plus persons, including the Captain and family, still entombed. With her hull still visible at low water it was RN practice on entering and leaving Cromarty right up to the second World War for every warship to sound “Still” and for officers and men to come to attention as they passed the wreck.
After numerous failed salvage attempts much of the ship’s interior was removed. The skeleton of the Natal still lies visible in the Cromarty Firth marked by a radar buoy. The destruction of HMS Vanguard in Scapa Flow on 9th July 1917 in similar circumstances was linked to the loss of the Natal but the cause of the fate of the Natal has never been fully determined.
The wreck itself is now designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
On Shore Road, Invergordon there is a commemorative garden which contains a plaque remembering HMS Natal. The official opening of the Natal Garden featured in the television programme "Charlie's Garden Army".
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