Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · wreck · Istria and the Kvarner

🇭🇷 SS Baron Gautsch

Rovinj, Istria County, Croatia

An Austrian Lloyd passenger liner that ran at full speed into her own navy's minefield in the second week of the First World War, killing 127 — the Adriatic's worst civilian shipping disaster.

Dives here
1
Deepest
32.7 m
Water
salt
First · last
2015

Revision 2 · changed 18 Oct 2026

History
  1. r2 18 Oct 2026 Photo size matches the file · Dennis Bakhuis
  2. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

SS Baron Gautsch, 84.5 x 11.6 mUsual tour: stern to bow over the upper deck · 96 mRudder, propellers removed↓38 mStern↓31 mAft hold↓33 mPort davits, turned outboard↓29 mAft funnel, fallen into the hull↓29 mEngine room↓34 mMine hole, port side, 2 x 2 m↓35 mPromenade deck↓28 mBridge and fore funnel (gone)↓29 mFore mast, fallen across the superstructure↓30 mForward hold↓33 mBow↓31 mN5 m
  • Wreck
  • Machinery
  • Other object
  • Dive path
  • Wreck footprint
  • Depth
Site map · 12 objects · 1 path · max 40 m

Plan of the Austrian Lloyd steamer Baron Gautsch (84.5 x 11.6 m), upright on a sand and pebble seabed at 40 m, shallowest at the promenade deck at 28 m; position 44 56 25 N 13 34 40 E from pro-taucher.com, confirmed at 38 m by EMODnet bathymetry. Condition per adventuredives.com: bridge and fore funnel gone, aft funnel fallen into the hull, fore mast lying across the superstructure, propellers removed, 2 x 2 m mine hole on the port side amidships, port davits turned outboard; dimensions from dive3d.eu and divers-guide.com, the stern-to-bow tour from the Rovinj dive centres. No published heading was found: the bow is drawn NNW (340 deg), her course towards Trieste, and the hold, engine-room and feature positions along the hull are approximate. The mooring point is not published.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

The ship

Built by Gourlay Brothers at Dundee and launched on 3 May 1908, she ran for Österreichischer Lloyd on the Adriatic coastal service between Trieste and Kotor — a handsome, modern passenger ship on a comfortable route.

The sinking

On 13 August 1914, ten days into the war, she was carrying passengers and supplies north towards Trieste. The Austro-Hungarian Navy had just laid defensive minefields across the approaches to Pula, its main base, and the ship's officers had been told at a naval conference exactly where they were.

The captain was not on the bridge. Second Officer Tenze had taken the watch without his knowledge, disregarded the warnings, and put the ship into the minefield at full speed. She struck two mines in quick succession and sank in minutes.

One hundred and twenty-seven people died, most of them women, children and crew. Destroyers pulled 159 survivors out of the water. Captain Winter and First Officer Luppis were put under house arrest in Pula and found responsible by an Admiralty court.

The dive

She lies on her keel in 28–40 m off Rovinj, largely intact and unmistakably a passenger ship — the promenade deck, the davits, the portholes all still read. She was entered on the Register of Croatian Cultural Monuments in 1995, which makes her a protected site: nothing may be taken, and she is also a grave.

One dive, 26 May 2015, to 32.7 m.

Image: BaronGautsch.jpg — unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Photos

Dived here with

Kim

Nearby sites

1 dive at SS Baron Gautsch

  1. 26 May 2015 with Kim wreckdecoboat date26 May 2015 depth32.7 m time68 min water—

Sources