The warship on which the first Bermudian to die in the First World War served has been awarded war grave status.

HMS Aboukir, along with three other Royal Navy vessels, has been given the designation that provides legal protection to the wreck and prohibits casual visits from divers or scavengers.

William Smith, a young black Royal Navy sailor from Somerset, was one of more than 500 men to perish when the Aboukir was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the North Sea on September 22, 1914.

Mr Smith, who had worked at the Royal Naval Dockyard before leaving Bermuda to go to sea in 1912, was only 22 when he died.

He was the first of more than 80 Bermudians serving in the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps who gave their lives during the following four years.

Conflict archaeologist and researcher Andy Brockman investigated the unauthorised salvage of HMS Aboukir and the other wrecks of the what was called the “Live Bait Squadron”.

He told The Royal Gazette: “Having spent so long telling concerned archaeologists, historians and even the families of the Live Bait Squadron crews that it was not possible to designate the ships under the UK Protection of Military Remains Act, the fact that the Ministry of Defence has now designated the ships is real progress.

“It is also a tribute to the dedicated work of campaigners, especially the Anglo Dutch Live Bait Squadron Society founded by Dutch teacher Henk van der Linden, in promoting the cause of protecting the wrecks as a memorial to the 1,459 members of their crews who were lost on September 22, 1914 and to the Dutch seafarers who saved so many survivors.

“Henk has just received a thoroughly deserved British Empire Medal for his work.

“Because the ships are in the Dutch zone of the North Sea, designation under the Act only applies to UK vessels and UK nationals, but the Netherlands is about to ratify the Unesco Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which protects all underwater heritage more than 100 years old. It also gives agencies of law enforcement an additional, very powerful tool under International Law to help them prosecute those who see our shared underwater history as a commercial resource to be strip mined for private gain.

“The people of Bermuda should also be very proud of 1st Class Cook William Edmund Smith, the first Bermudian to die serving during the First World War, as his story has been quoted specifically during the campaign to protect the ships.”

Mr Smith was the son of William Felix Smith and his wife Emma Jane, née Douglas.

Their homestead on Herman’s Hill, Somerset overlooks the Great Sound on one side and Sound View Road on the other.

Mr Smith’s name is on a War Memorial at a churchyard in Kent; St James Parish Church, Somerset and in the Somerset Methodist Church on Long Bay Lane.

Thirteen wartime vessels have been added to the lists of protected military vessels this month, including HMHS Anglia, HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue. This brings the total number of ships and submarines protected as war graves to 79.