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On New Year鈥檚 Day, 1915, the British Navy lost its first battleship in a submarine attack.

HMS Formidable was sunk in Start Bay, 23 miles east of Start Point. Altogether 547 men and the captain鈥檚 dog Bruce, were lost.

Survivors reported seeing the second in command, the ship鈥檚 chaplain and Captain Arthur Loxley smoking pipes as their ship went down.

However, 199 men survived. Some were picked up by the naval vessels Topaze and Diamond, others by the Brixham trawler Provident, and 51 rowed in raging seas to Lyme Regis.

The Provident, owned and captained by William Pillar, was part of a dramatic rescue of 71 sailors, who were landed at Brixham and are remembered in the town鈥檚 museum.

Of the 51 who arrived at Lyme Regis, 48 survived. They had rowed 41 miles and for 22 hours. The men were cared for in the Pilot Boat Hotel. The landlady鈥檚 dog, a rough-haired collie called Lassie, licked one seaman back to life.

Lyme Regis buried six men of the Formidable and the ship鈥檚 memorial is in the town鈥檚 cemetery.

The body of the captain鈥檚 dog (an Airedale terrier) was washed up near Abbotsbury. Bruce is buried there.

Location: Start Bay, Kingsbridge, Devon TQ7 2ET
Image: A life belt from HMS Formidable

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