In May 1941 Germany’s first full-sized battleship, Bismarck, broke out into the Atlantic in company with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen with a mission to attack convoy supply routes.

The Denmark Strait was covered by the new battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood with six destroyers. This force was not as powerful as it seemed. Prince of Wales was so new that her crew was not “worked up” and she still had contractor’s engineers on board. Hood, while the largest capital ship and pride of the pre-war Navy, had old-fashioned armour protection that was vulnerable to long-range plunging fire.

The German warships were sighted by the cruiser Suffolk in bad weather and poor visibility, tenuous contact being maintained by radar until the British warships were able to open fire.

Ted Briggs was an 18-year old messenger on Hood’s compass platform when a salvo either from Bismarck or Prinz Eugen hit amidships, setting fire to ready-use ammunition for the secondary 4in armament. This was easily seen from the Prince of Wales as a huge column of fire. Further hits from Bismarck followed, one of which penetrated to the main armament magazine and, to the horror of observers, caused Hood to blow up, roll over and sink, leaving only three survivors out of a crew of 1,419.

Briggs recalls being lifted off his feet and dumped headfirst on the deck. He heard nothing of the final salvo or an explosion, remembering a huge sheet of flame and how he was sucked down into the water. “I had heard it was nice to drown,” he said. “I stopped trying to swim upwards. I was ready to meet my God. My blissful acceptance of death ended in a sudden surge beneath me which shot me to the surface like a cork out of a champagne bottle. Fifty yards away I could see the bows of the Hood vertical in the sea. It was a vision that was to recur in nightmares for the next forty years.”

With Midshipman William Dundas, who died in 1965, and Able Seaman Bob Tilburn, who died in 1995, Briggs clung to wreckage until rescued by the destroyer Electra.

The loss of the “mighty Hood” was a shattering blow to the morale of the Royal Navy which was somewhat assuaged by the sinking of the elusive Bismarck some days later, she having been damaged by the Prince of Wales and subsequent carrier-borne aircraft attacks and then sunk by Home Fleet battleships.

In his book Flagship Hood Briggs recounts how he first saw Hood anchored off the mouth of the Tees when he was 12. Inspired to join the Navy, he was told to go away by the recruiting office until he was 15. Having joined and completed new entry training, he was delighted to be drafted to the Hood.

Later Briggs was commissioned as an officer and rose to lieutenant. He was appointed MBE in 1973. After his 35 years service he worked as a furnished lettings manager in Fareham, Hampshire.

He was president of the flourishing HMS Hood Association for many years. He once said to a colleague: “I sometimes wish that I could forget about it,” and was told: “You are a naval curio and will always remain so — you will never be allowed to forget.”

Briggs married twice and is survived by his second wife Clare. There were no children.

Lieutenant Edward Briggs MBE, naval officer, was born on March 1, 1923. He died on October 5, 2008, aged 85