Ted Briggs, the last survivor of the World War II sinking of British battle cruiser HMS Hood, died Saturday. He was 85.

He died in a hospital in Portsmouth, England, said HMS Hood Association Chairman Peter Heys.

Briggs was one of only three seamen among the crew of more than 1,000 to survive the attack by the German battleship Bismarck in the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941.

Briggs, an 18-year-old signalman, later described how he was sucked under by the sinking ship before surfacing and seeing the Hood disappear below the waves.

He said he saw two other survivors, Midshipman William Dundas and Able Seaman Bob Tilburn, on rafts nearby. The three were picked up by another ship three hours later. Dundas died in 1965 and Tilburn in 1995.

The sinking of the flagship of the British home fleet, and the heavy loss of life, shocked a country proud of its naval might. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the Bismarck hunted down and destroyed, and British forces sank it May 27.