Soon the Trafalgar turned about and sailed toward the Carmania, realizing what was happening Carmania fired the first shot and scored a hit across Trafalgar’s bow. The Trafalgar quickly returned fire but did not make a hit. The first major naval battle of World War One had begun. For over two hours the ships rained down accurate fire on one another as they each tried to gain a leg up in the fight. Both had fires raging all over, with Carmania unable to do much about hers as Trafalgar had disabled her water pumps. Much of Carmania’s crew were forced onto the deck as their bridge was utterly destroyed by Trafalgar’s focused fire on the superstructure. As the crew ran about the deck Trafalgar’s pom-poms raked their fire across it, attempting to disable Carmania’s guns. The two ships closed in and crew members began firing at one another with rifles and machine guns. Carmania broke away as her guns were not suited for such close range, once she did she let off a devastating barrage from several of her naval guns. Trafalgar began listing to starboard and tried to turn away from Carmania, but Carmania hit a shell on Trafalgars hull below the waterline. Trafalgar put out an SOS signal as she began to capsize and sink. The armed German merchant cruiser SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm arrived to rescue survivors, but did not engage the Carmania as other British ships were closing in. Some survivors were also rescued by the German collier Eleonore Woermann, who were then taken to Buenos Aires, Argentina where they would be interned for the remainder of the war.

As fearsome as the battle was there were remarkably few casualties on either side, especially for this still being a time when it was common to lose an entire crew in a battle. 279 sailors were rescued from Cap Trafalgar with anywhere between 16-51 being killed. In total Carmania suffered 36 casualties, 10 dead and 26 wounded. A day after the battle the terribly damaged Carmania was rescued by other British ships and taken to the Brazilian port of Pernambuco for repairs. If she had remained without help for another day it is likely that she would have sank. During the repairs holes were counted and it was found that there were 79 hits from large caliber shells with another 304 made by smaller projectiles, some on her waterline.

The Battle of Trindade would set the pace for naval warfare during the Great War. For the most part there would no longer be large naval engagements, but rather quick battles fought by smaller groups of ships. It would also foreshadow Germany’s luck in the naval arena, especially after their defeat later at Scapa Flow.



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