In the summer of 1904, during manoeuvres against the Fleet, A1 was dispatched to attack a battleship. When she neared Spithead, the ocean liner SS Berwick Castle was going into Southampton. No one on watch noticed the tiny periscope jutting from the waves, nor did any of her crew feel anything more than a slight tremble as the massive ship ran over a small unknown object. When A1 failed to report that night, it was realized that a disaster had occurred. Eleven men lost their lives in this tragedy, which caused great concern throughout the country. Bad weather and lifting problems delayed her salvage for a full month.
The A1 disaster prompted the fitment of a second hatch leading
