Naval/Maritime History 27th of August - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
16 March 1839 – Launch of HMS Indus, an 80-gun two-deck second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Portsmouth Dockyard.


HMS Indus
was an 80-gun two-deck second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 16 March 1839 at Portsmouth Dockyard.

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HMS Indus and Squadron leaving Halifax Harbour, 1858

The design of Indus was based upon the Danish Christian VII, captured during the Second Battle of Copenhagen. She was originally ordered in 1817 as a 74-gun ship, but the order was amended in 1820 to an 80-gunner.

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Officers and crew, HMS Indus, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1860

She was attached to the Mediterranean fleet, and commanded by Captain Houston Stewart until 30 October 1840, when Captain James Stirling took over as captain, serving until June 1844. Captain John Charles Dalrymple Hay had her until 25 November 1856, during which time she served as Rear-Admiral Houston Stewart's flagship, based at Devonport. Captain William King-Hall was her next commander, and she continued to serve as Houston Stewart's flagship, now on the North American and West Indian stations.

In 1860 Indus was converted to serve as a guardship. She was sold out of the service in 1898.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Christian VII (captured 1807), a captured Danish 80-gun Third Rate. The plan shows the ship after she was fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard as an 80-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Henry Canham [Assistant to Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1801-1813].

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Indus (1839), an 80-gun Second Rate, two-decker. The plan includes alterations made in green and red ink dated February 1824. Signed by Joseph Tucker [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1831], and Robert Seppings [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1832].


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
16 March 1842 - Driver-class wooden paddle sloop HMS Driver starts the first global circumnavigation by a steamship in England, she arrived back in England on 14 May 1847


HMS Driver
was a Driver-class wooden paddle sloop of the Royal Navy. She is credited with the first global circumnavigation by a steamship when she arrived back in England on 14 May 1847.

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Construction and commissioning
Driver was ordered on 12 March 1840 from Portsmouth Dockyard to a design by Sir William Symonds. She was laid down in June 1840 and launched on 24 December 1840, with her machinery being supplied by Seaward & Capel of Limehouse, Woolwich. Her hull cost £19,433, with the machinery costing another £13,866. After she had completed fitting out, at a further cost of £6,408, she was commissioned on 5 November 1841.

Career
Driver embarked for the East Indies and China in March 1842. She served some time in China (losing her original Commander) before being ordered to New Zealand in September 1845. She was damaged by a storm en-route, necessitating repairs to her engine and boiler and other parts of the ship.

During her circumnavigation Driver became the first steamship to visit New Zealand, arriving on 20 January 1846, and was involved in the Hutt Valley Campaign, which was part of the New Zealand Wars. At the time of her visit she was described as a brig-rigged 6-gun warship displacing 1,058 tons with engines rated 280 horsepower.

Driver set off east from New Zealand for her return journey to England via Cape Horn on 28 January 1847. She stopped for six days in Argentina to pick up more coal, finally arriving in Portsmouth, England on Friday 14 May 1847, 105 days after starting from New Zealand. Of the ship's original officers, the second in command Lieutenant Thomas Kisbee, the master, purser, surgeon and assistant surgeon completed the entire circumnavigation.

On 11 March 1850 she was docked in Victoria Harbour to witness Richard Blanshard assume the Governorship of the newly formed Colony of Vancouver Island, and issued a seventeen-gun salute.

Fate
She was wrecked on 3 August 1861 on Mayaguana Island, the most easterly of the Bahamas, in the West Indies.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
16 March 1889 - The second USS Vandalia, a screw sloop-of-war in the United States Navy and wooden-hulled screw steamer USS Trenton wrecked


The second USS Vandalia was a screw sloop-of-war in the United States Navy. She was laid down at the Massachusetts Boston Navy Yard in 1872 and was commissioned there on 10 January 1876.

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Wrecked in a cyclone, 16 March 1889
See also: Samoan crisis

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A view of the sunken USS Vandalia from the deck of USS Trenton, March 1889.

While Vandalia lay at Mare Island, relations between American and German officials at Apia, Samoa, became increasingly strained. Late in the winter of 1889, at the behest of the American consul in Samoa. Vandalia, Trenton, and Nipsic sailed for Samoa and reached Apia Harbor early in March to balance the presence of the German vessels Adler, Olga, and Eber. The British were ably represented by HMS Calliope. On 15 and 16 March 1889, each of these vessels suddenly became trapped in the harbor when violent, hurricane-force winds roared out of the northeast, driving mountainous waves before them in the 1889 Apia cyclone. Adler, Olga, and Eber were all either sunk or hopelessly grounded and torn apart on the sharp reef, and together lost a total of 150 officers and crew killed. The powerful engines of Calliope barely enabled the vessel to get to sea in a dramatic performance that drew cheers from the crews of the American vessels. However, despite heroic efforts by the officers and crews of Vandalia and Trenton, the two vessels tore their bottoms out upon the reef on 16 March. Vandalia struck at about noon and sank until her decks were completely awash, forcing her crew to scramble into the rigging. Trenton grounded alongside Vandalia at 2200 that evening, but enough of her main deck remained above water to allow Vandalia's crew to climb on board. After the hurricane began, Nipsic was driven ashore on a sandy beach and was later salvaged.

American casualties totalled 52 killed, 43 from Vandalia alone. The survivors from Vandalia, Trenton, and Nipsic soon sailed for Mare Island on board a chartered steamer, but Vandalia and Trenton themselves were so battered that they were soon dismantled and their scrap donated to the Samoans. One of Vandalia's survivors was Naval Cadet John A. Lejeune, a future major general, the 13th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and namesake of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.


The first USS Trenton was a wooden-hulled screw steamer in the United States Navy. She was named for Trenton, New Jersey.

Trenton was laid down by the New York Navy Yard in 1875; launched on 1 January 1876; sponsored by Ms. Katherine M. Parker; and commissioned on 14 February 1877, Captain John Lee Davis in command.

The Trenton was the first US naval vessel to use electric lights, which were installed in 1883.

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USS Trenton with the Asiatic Squadron.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vandalia_(1876)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
16 March 1915 – Launch of USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), the lead ship of the Pennsylvania class of super-dreadnought battleships


USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)
was the lead ship of the Pennsylvania class of super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1910s. The Pennsylvanias were part of the standard-type battleship series, and marked an incremental improvement over the preceding Nevada class, carrying an extra pair of 14-inch (360 mm) guns for a total of twelve guns. Named for the state of Pennsylvania, she was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in October 1913, was launched in March 1915, and was commissioned in June 1916. Equipped with an oil-burning propulsion system, Pennsylvania was not sent to European waters during World War I, since the necessary fuel oil was not as readily available as coal. Instead, she remained in American waters and took part in training exercises; in 1918, she escorted President Woodrow Wilson to France to take part in peace negotiations.

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During the 1920s and 1930s, Pennsylvania served as the flagship of first the Atlantic Fleet, and after it was merged with the Pacific Fleet in 1921, the Battle Fleet. For the majority of this period, the ship was stationed in California, based in San Pedro. Pennsylvania was occupied with a peacetime routine of training exercises (including the annual Fleet problems), port visits, and foreign cruises, including a visit to Australia in 1925. The ship was modernized in 1929–1931. The ship was present in Pearl Harboron the morning of 7 December 1941; she was in drydock with a pair of destroyers when the Japanese launched their surprise attack on the port. She suffered relatively minor damage in the attack, being protected from torpedoes by the drydock. While repairs were effected, the ship received a modernized anti-aircraft battery to prepare her for operations in the Pacific War.

Pennsylvania joined the fleet in a series of amphibious operations, primarily tasked with providing gunfire support. The first of these, the Aleutian Islands Campaign, took place in mid-1943, and was followed by an attack on Makin later that year. During 1944, she supported the landings on Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands and the Marianas Campaign, including the Battles of Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, and Battle of Angaur. During the Philippines Campaign, in addition to her typical shore bombardment duties, she took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait, though due to her inadequate radar, she was unable to locate a target and did not fire. During the Battle of Okinawa, she was torpedoed by a Japanese torpedo bomber and badly damaged, forcing her to withdraw for repairs days before the end of the war.

Allocated to the target fleet for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in 1946, Pennsylvania was repaired only enough to allow her to make the voyage to the test site, Bikini Atoll. She survived both blasts, but was badly contaminated with radioactive fallout from the second test, and so was towed to Kwajalein, where she was studied for the next year and a half. The ship was ultimately scuttled in deep water off the atoll in February 1948.


Description
Main article: Pennsylvania-class battleship

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Line drawing of Pennsylvania as she appeared following her 1942 reconstruction
Part of the standard-type battleship series, the Pennsylvania-class ships were significantly larger than their predecessors, the Nevada class. Pennsylvania had an overall length of 608 feet (185.3 m), a beam of 97 feet (29.6 m) (at the waterline), and a draft of 29 feet 3 inches (8.9 m) at deep load. This was 25 feet (7.6 m) longer than the older ships. She displaced 29,158 long tons (29,626 t) at standard and 31,917 long tons (32,429 t) at deep load, over 4,000 long tons (4,060 t) more than the older ships. The ship had a metacentric height of 7.82 feet (2.4 m) at deep load.

The ship had four direct-drive Parsons steam turbine sets, each of which drove a propeller 12 feet 1.5 inches (3.7 m) in diameter. They were powered by twelve Babcock & Wilcoxwater-tube boilers. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 34,000 shaft horsepower (25,000 kW), but achieved only 33,376 shp (24,888 kW) during Pennsylvania's sea trials, when she met her designed speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph).[3]However, she did manage to reach 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph) during a full-power trial in September 1924.[4] She was designed to normally carry 1,548 long tons (1,573 t) of fuel oil, but had a maximum capacity of 2,305 long tons (2,342 t). At full capacity, the ship could steam at a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) for an estimated 7,552 nautical miles (13,990 km; 8,690 mi) with a clean bottom. She had four 300-kilowatt (402 hp) turbo generators.

Pennsylvania carried twelve 45-caliber 14-inch guns in triple gun turrets. The turrets were numbered from I to IV from front to rear. The guns could not elevate independently and were limited to a maximum elevation of +15° which gave them a maximum range of 21,000 yards (19,000 m). The ship carried 100 shells for each gun. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by twenty-two 51-caliber five-inch guns mounted in individual casemates in the sides of the ship's hull. Positioned as they were they proved vulnerable to sea spray and could not be worked in heavy seas.[6] At an elevation of 15°, they had a maximum range of 14,050 yards (12,850 m). Each gun was provided with 230 rounds of ammunition. The ship mounted four 50-caliber three-inch guns for anti-aircraft defense, although only two were fitted when completed. The other pair were added shortly afterward on top of Turret III. Pennsylvania also mounted two 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes and carried 24 torpedoes for them.

The Pennsylvania-class design continued the all-or-nothing principle of armoring only the most important areas of the ship begun in the Nevada class. The waterline armor belt of Krupp armor measured 13.5 inches (343 mm) thick and covered only the ship's machinery spaces and magazines. It had a total height of 17 feet 6 inches (5.3 m), of which 8 feet 9.75 inches (2.7 m) was below the waterline; beginning 2 feet 4 inches (0.7 m) below the waterline, the belt tapered to its minimum thickness of 8 inches (203 mm). The transverse bulkheads at each end of the ship ranged from 13 to 8 inches in thickness. The faces of the gun turrets were 18 inches (457 mm) thick while the sides were 9–10 inches (229–254 mm) thick and the turret roofs were protected by 5 inches (127 mm) of armor. The armor of the barbettes was 18 to 4.5 inches (457 to 114 mm) thick. The conning tower was protected by 16 inches (406 mm) of armor and had a roof eight inches thick.[9]

The main armor deck was three plates thick with a total thickness of 3 inches (76 mm); over the steering gear the armor increased to 6.25 inches (159 mm) in two plates. Beneath it was the splinter deck that ranged from 1.5 to 2 inches (38 to 51 mm) in thickness.[10] The boiler uptakes were protected by a conical mantlet that ranged from 9 to 15 inches (230 to 380 mm) in thickness. A three-inch torpedo bulkhead was placed 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 m) inboard from the ship's side and the ship was provided with a complete double bottom. Testing in mid-1914 revealed that this system could withstand 300 pounds (140 kg) of TNT.

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Pennsylvania underway, c. 1920


The Pennsylvania-class consisted of two super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy just before the First World War. The ships were named Pennsylvania and Arizona, after the American states of the same names. They constituted the United States' second battleship design to adhere to the "all or nothing" armor scheme, and were the newest American capital ships when the United States entered the First World War.

The Nevada-class battleships represented a marked increase in the United States' dreadnought technology, and the Pennsylvania-class was intended to continue this with slight increases in the ships' capabilities, including two additional 14-inch (356 mm)/45 caliber guns and improved underwater protection. The class was the second standard type battleship class to join the US Navy, along with the preceding Nevada and the succeeding New Mexico, Tennessee and Coloradoclasses.

In service, the Pennsylvania-class saw limited use in the First World War, as a shortage of oil fuel in the United Kingdom meant that only the coal-burning ships of Battleship Division Nine were sent. Both were sent across the Atlantic to France after the war for the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, and were then transferred to the Pacific Fleet before being significantly modernized from 1929 to 1931. For the remainder of the inter-war period, the ships were used in exercises and fleet problems. Both Pennsylvania and Arizona were present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the Second World War. Arizona was sunk by a massive magazine explosion and was turned into a memorial after the war, while Pennsylvania, in dry dock at the time, received only minor damage. After a refit from October 1942 to February 1943, Pennsylvania went on to serve as a shore bombardment ship for most of the remainder of the war. Pennsylvania was present at the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last battle ever between battleships, but did not engage. Pennsylvania was severely damaged by a torpedo on 12 August 1945, two days before the cessation of hostilities. With minimal repairs, it was used in Operation Crossroads, part of the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, before being expended as a target ship in 1948.

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Arizona at the United States' post-First World War naval reviewin New York, December 1918

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
16 March 1916 - SS Tubantia sinks by torpedo


SS Tubantia
was an ocean liner for Royal Holland Lloyd (Dutch: Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd) built in 1913 by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Glasgow. She was built as a fast mail and passenger steamer for service between the Netherlands and South America. Tubantia was a sister ship of Gelria, also of Royal Holland Lloyd.

Tubantia was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-13 on 16 March 1916. As a vessel of the neutral Netherlands, her sinking caused great fury amongst the Dutch public. The Germans initially claimed that Tubantia must have been sunk by a mine or a British torpedo, but when fragments of a German torpedo were found in one of Tubantia's lifeboats, the Germans claimed that UB-13 had fired the torpedo on 6 March at a British warship but it had remained active until hitting Tubantia ten days later. To redirect Dutch anger over Tubantia's sinking, Germany spread rumors of an impending British invasion of the Netherlands, which one author called a "propaganda coup".

Germany initially offered a settlement of £300,000—the ship's original cost—to Royal Holland Lloyd, but was rejected. In 1922, an international arbitration committee awarded the company £830,000 compensation from Germany for the loss of the ship.

This was followed by an attempt to recover a fortune in gold coins from the wreck, which was the subject of a landmark court case, but the salvage operation was unsuccessful.

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Design and construction
Tubantia was ordered by Royal Holland Lloyd from the Scottish shipbuilding firm Alexander Stephen and Sons of Glasgow. The 13,911 GRT ship was about 560 feet (170 m) long (overall) and 66 feet (20 m) abeam. She was powered by twin quadruple-expansion steam engines powered by three double-ended and six single-ended boilers. Her top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h) exceeded the design requirements.

Built at a cost of about £300,000, Tubantia was, according to author Nigel Pickford, one of the most luxurious passenger ships of the era. Royal Holland Lloyd made extensive use of electricity throughout Tubantia, powering everything from fans and ventilation, to laundry equipment, to cigar lighters for passengers. The ship also boasted her name spelled out in lights, suspended between the two funnels. Tubantia could accommodate up to 1,520 passengers: 250 first-class, 230 intermediate-class, 140 special third-class, and 900 third-class passengers. The liner was launched on 13 November 1913, and completed trials in the River Clyde in March 1914.

Career
Upon completion and acceptance by Royal Holland Lloyd, Tubantia was used in service between Amsterdam and Buenos Aires. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Tubantiawas returning from South America with £500,000 in gold destined for banks in London, a large portion of which was intended for the German Bank of London. She was also carrying about 150 German reservists in steerage and a cargo of grain destined for Germany. After making an intermediate stop in Vigo, Spain, Tubantia was stopped and boarded by an officer and crewmen from the Royal Navy cruiser Highflyer, and escorted into port at Plymouth.[6] There, the German reservists were taken off Tubantia by Royal Marines; the gold was confiscated and removed from the ship. Although news accounts do not report when it occurred, Tubantia was released from Plymouth and allowed to resume her Royal Holland Lloyd service.

On 18 October, The New York Times carried a report that indicated Tubantia had run aground on the coast of Kent the previous day. According to the report, Tubantia was returning from Buenos Aires and suffered the accident while heading for Rotterdam with a large number of passengers. Although the article also reported that aid had been summoned from Dover, there was no indication of the extent of damage, if any, to Tubantia.

In December 1915, Tubantia again made news when the Overseas News Agency in Berlin released a report saying that the British had seized all South America mail and parcels from the ship. After the United States expressed concerns about related seizures from two other Dutch ships in service to the United States—Nieuw Amsterdam and Rijndam—the British Foreign Office issued a statement that reported that contraband intended for Germany—which included four packages of rubber, and seven containers of wool—had been found among Tubantia's mail.

Sinking
Tubantia began her regularly scheduled voyage from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires on 15 March 1916 nearly empty of passengers, despite Royal Holland Lloyd advertisements that boasted of "submarine signalling apparatus" on their passenger ships. After sailing to a position about 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) from the North Hinder Lightship, about 50 nautical miles (93 km) off the Dutch coast, Tubantia anchored at about 02:00 on 16 March to wait for daylight and avoid any chance of misidentification or attack. To that end, the ship was completely illuminated.

At about 02:30, crewmen aboard Tubantia spotted a stream of bubbles rapidly approaching the ship's starboard side, followed by an explosion. The ship quickly began sinking. Distress calls sent out by Tubantia were answered by three ships, Breda, Krakstau, and La Campine, which between them rescued all 80 passengers and all 294 members of the crew. The ship and her cargo were a total loss. Tubantia was the largest neutral vessel sunk during the entire war.

Aftermath
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Dutch artist Piet van der Hem's editorial cartoondecrying the sinking of Tubantia

A war in the British and German press erupted, with vigorous attempts to blame the British by the Germans, and angry rebuttals by the British. Both sides had in mind the egregious violation of Dutch neutrality. The German press first proffered the explanation that Tubantia must have been sunk by a British mine. The British reported that the liner had been sunk by a German torpedo; the German press countered by saying that if it were a torpedo that sank the ship, it had to have been a British one. The matter was seemingly settled when a stray lifeboat of Tubantia's was examined and torpedo fragments made of bronze were found embedded in it; Germany was the only country that used bronze in its torpedoes.

Presented with evidence that it was torpedo no. 2033 which had been assigned to the small, coastal submarine UB-13, the Germans presented a forged log from UB-13 that showed her nowhere near Tubantia at the time of the attack. Further, they reported, UB-13 had fired that specific torpedo at a British warship on 6 March, ten days before Tubantia was sunk. The U.S. Minister to the Netherlands, Henry van Dyke, writing in Fighting for Peacein 1917, called this explanation "amazing" and derided it:

This certain U-boat had fired this particular torpedo at a British war-vessel somewhere in the North Sea ten days before the Tubantia was sunk. The shot missed its mark. But the naughty undisciplined little torpedo went cruising around in the sea on its own hook for ten days waiting for a chance to kill somebody. Then the Tubantia came along and the wandering-Willy torpedo promptly, obstinately, ran into the ship and sank her. This was the explanation. Germany was not to blame.
The Dutch public was furious at what they believed a hostile German act. To help divert the public anger against his country, German diplomat Richard von Kühlmann began a coordinated campaign to spread rumors of an impending British invasion of the Netherlands. Author Hubert van Tuyll van Serooskerken called the German plan a "propaganda coup", and reports in his book The Netherlands and World War I that the rumors caused some panic in the streets and forced the government to declare a four-day emergency from 30 March to 2 April.

Despite denials and rumor-spreading, Germany nevertheless offered compensation in the amount of £300,000, Tubantia's original cost. Rejected by the Dutch, the two countries agreed to have the issue arbitrated after the end of the war. The dispute was finally settled in 1922, when compensation in the amount of £830,000 was awarded to Royal Holland Lloyd.

Salvage attempt
In 1924 the wreck was the subject of a salvage dispute between two sets of salvors, both seeking to recover a reputed £2 million worth of gold coins from it (£100 million in 2012 prices). This was resolved in the English court decision The Tubantia [1924] P 78, and remains the leading authority under English law as to when a salvor takes possession of a sunken shipwreck. The winning party, war hero Sydney Vincent Sippe, spent three years and £100,000 trying to access the gold, but abandoned the attempt after concluding that it was too dangerous for divers to recover it.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Tubantia
http://www.members.shaw.ca/arpeejay/jansen/Tubantia.htm
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
16 March 1917 - Action of 16 March 1917
HMS Achilles fought and sank the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Leopard,


The Action of 16 March 1917 was a naval engagement in which the British armed boarding steamer Dundee and the Warrior-class armoured cruiser HMS Achilles fought and sank the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Leopard, which sank with all 319 hands and the six men of a British boarding party.

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Photograph of British armoured cruiser HMS Achilles.

Action

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Right elevation and plan view from Brassey's Naval Annual of the Warriorclass; the shaded areas show armour.

After leaving port in March disguised as the Norwegian freighter Rena Norge, Leopard (Captain Hans von Laffert) set sail on its mission to disrupt Allied commerce. On 17 March, the cruiser HMS Achilles stopped Leopard in the Atlantic, about midway between Iceland and Norway and ordered her to proceed to the boarding vessel Dundee (Captain Selwyn Day) for inspection. Out-gunned, Laffert had no option but to proceed to the boarding vessel.

Day dispatched a launch containing a boarding party of an officer and five men to investigate the apparent merchant vessel. Laffert realised that he was about to be discovered, detained the party, and after about an hour fired two torpedoes at Dundee. Dundeemanoeuvred out of the way just in time and the torpedoes missed by 20 yards (18 m). Day ordered his gun crews to open fire and shells hit Leopard from the stern at such close range that every shot was a hit, smoke and steam rising from Leopard. Leopardturned to starboard but Dundee turned to port to avoid a broadside. By this time Leopard had been hit forty times.

Achilles was 4 nautical miles (4.6 mi) to the east-north-east and opened fire on the raider about five minutes after Dundee had commenced firing. As Dundee avoided another broadside, Leopard's gunners fired wild as she sailed straight for Achilles to avoid the fall of shot. Leopard continued to return fire for about an hour more, while shells from Achilles's heavy guns caused explosions and jets of flame and smoke. Leopard began to sink but the crew continued to fire; at 4:30 p.m. Leopard sank with all 319 hands. Damage to the British vessels was light and the only casualties were the six members of the boarding party members on Leopard when it sank.


SMS Leopard was an auxiliary cruiser of the Imperial German Navy intended for use as a commerce raider. She was intercepted attempting to break out into the Atlantic and was sunk with all hands in a fierce gun battle with British warships.

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Hilfskreuzer LEOPARD, früherer britischer Handelsdampfer YARROWDALE


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_16_March_1917
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 16 March


1741 – Launch of french Atalante 52 guns (launched 16 March 1741 at Toulon, designed and built by Joseph Véronique-Charles Chapelle) – burnt in action with the British in 1760.

Atalante, (one-off 32/34-gun design of 1740 by Joseph Chapelle, with 10 or 12 x 12-pounders on the lower deck and 22 x 8-pounders on the gun deck; launched at Toulon on 16 March 1741) - sunk on the Saint Lawrence river in a battle with British Forces in June 1760.

And 1741 - Launch of french Aquilon 42, later 48 guns (launched 16 March 1741 at Toulon, designed and built by Jean-Armand Levasseur) – wrecked 14 May 1757.


1743 – Launch of HMS Aldborough, a 20-gun sixth-rate ship of the Royal Navy, launched in 1743 and in service in Atlantic and Caribbean waters until 1749.



1761 – Launch of French Comète, (launched 20 December 1752 at Brest) – captured by British Navy 16 March 1761, becoming HMS Comet.

Comète class, (30-gun design by Joseph-Louis Ollivier, with 26 x 8-pounder and 4 x 4-pounder guns).
Comète, (launched 20 December 1752 at Brest) – captured by British Navy 16 March 1761, becoming HMS Comet.
Fleur de Lys, (launched 1 June 1754 at Brest) – burnt to avoid capture 1760.
Concorde, (launched 15 November 1755 at Brest) – wrecked 1756.


1794 - HMS Actif was the British privateer Active that the French captured in 1793 and that became the French privateer Actif. Iphigenia recaptured Actif on 16 March 1794. The Royal Navy took her into service but she foundered on 26 November. All her crew were saved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Actif_(1794)


1798 - Eugénie, a French 16-gun privateer ship-sloop launched in 1793, captured

Eugénie was a French 16-gun privateer ship-sloop launched in 1793. The French Navy requisitioned her in March 1794 for coastal escort and patrol purposes. After the navy returned her to civilian ownership at Nantes in February 1796 she returned to privateering.

On 16 March 1798 HMS Magnanime was escorting a small convoy when she spied a privateer lurking about, seeking an opportunity to pick off a prize. Captain Michael de Courcy set Magnanime in chase. Twenty-three hours and 256 miles later, he captured Eugénie at Latitude 42 and Longitude 12. She had been armed with 18 guns, eight of which she had thrown overboard during the chase, and had a crew of 107 men. She was coppered and appeared completely new.

She arrived at Plymouth on 4 May. The Royal Navy took her into service under the name HMS Pandour, but never commissioned her. In 1800 her name became HMS Wolf. Wolf never saw active duty either.

The Admiralty offered her for sale at Plymouth on 31 August 1801. She was broken up in 1802.



1811 – Launch of HMS Bacchante



1900 On 16 March 1900, construction on the Discovery began in Dundee, Scotland, by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_Discovery
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/History/antarctic_ships/discovery.htm


1907 – Launch of HMS Indomitable was one of three Invincible-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy before World War I

HMS Indomitable
was one of three Invincible-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy before World War I and had an active career during the war. She tried to hunt down the German ships Goeben and Breslau in the Mediterranean when war broke out and bombarded Turkish fortifications protecting the Dardanelles even before the British declared war on Turkey. She helped to sink the German armoured cruiser Blücher during the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915 and towed the damaged British battlecruiser HMS Lionto safety after the battle. She damaged the German battlecruisers Seydlitz and Derfflinger during the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916 and watched her sister ship HMS Invincible explode. Deemed obsolete after the war, she was sold for scrap in 1921.

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1923 – Launch of Abukuma (阿武隈) was the sixth and last of the vessels completed for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the Nagara class of light cruisers,

Abukuma (阿武隈) was the sixth and last of the vessels completed for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the Nagara class of light cruisers, and like other vessels of her class, she was intended for use as the flagship of a destroyer flotilla. She was named after the Abukuma River in the Tōhoku region of Japan. She saw action during World War II in the Attack on Pearl Harbor and in the Pacific, before being disabled in the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944, then bombed and sunk by the United States Army Air Forces(USAAF) off the coast of the Philippines.

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1926 – Launch of HMS Kent, pennant number 54, was a County-class heavy cruiser

HMS Kent
, pennant number 54, was a County-class heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the late 1920s. She was the lead shipof the Kent subclass. After completion the ship was sent to the China Station where she remained until the beginning of the Second World War, aside from a major refit in 1937–38. Kent hunted the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the East Indies in late 1939 and then was reassigned to troop convoy escort duties in the Indian Ocean in early 1940. She was transferred to the Mediterranean in mid-1940, but was torpedoed shortly after arriving. The ship was under repair for a year and was then assigned to Home Fleet where she escorted convoys to and from North Russia for the next several years. In mid-1944 Kent escorted British aircraft carriers as their aircraft made attacks on German shipping and airfields in Norway. A few months later was flagship of a force that intercepted a German convoy in Norwegian waters and sank two freighters and five escorts. The ship was paid off in early 1945 and placed in reserve until she was used as a target. Kent was sold for scrap in 1948.

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1926 Launch of HMS Cumberland

HMS Cumberland was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy that saw action during the Second World War.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cumberland_(57)


1943 - March 16–19 Convoys HX 229/SC 122 - 22 ships and 1 U-boat sunk in largest North Atlantic U-boat wolfpack attack

The battle around convoys HX 229 and SC 122 occurred during March 1943 in the Battle of the Atlantic, and was the largest convoy battle of World War II. British merchant shipping was formed into convoys for protection against German submarine attack. Kriegsmarine tactics against convoys employed multiple-submarine wolfpack tactics in nearly simultaneous surface attacks at night. Patrolling aircraft restricted the ability of submarines to converge on convoys during daylight. The North Atlantic winters offered the longest periods of darkness to conceal surfaced submarine operations. The winter of 1942–43 saw the largest number of submarines deployed to the mid-Atlantic before comprehensive anti-submarine aircraft patrols could be extended into that area.

During March, there was a series of fierce convoy battles which became, for the Allies, the crisis point of the whole campaign. One hundred merchant ships in trade convoys HX 229 and SC 122 encountered three wolfpacks of 38 submarines in a single sprawling action, which German radio reported as "the greatest convoy battle of all time" (Die grösste Geleitzugschlacht aller Zeiten). A Royal Navy report later concluded "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communications between the New World and the Old as in the first 20 days of March 1943"



1944 - Shirakumo – On 16 March 1944, after departing Kushiro in northern Hokkaidō with a troop convoy for Uruppu Island, the Japanese destroyer Shirakumo was torpedoed by the US submarine USS Tautog 170 nautical miles (310 km) east of Muroran. She sank instantly and there were no survivors from the 219 aboard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Shirakumo_(1927)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tautog_(SS-199)


1944 - PBY-5A (VP 63) seaplanes, employing magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) gear, detect German submarine U 392 while attempting to transit the Straits of Gibraltar. The sub is attacked and sunk by nearby allied ships.


personal info - I was born in this town, so the 16th March 1945 is for us a special day - no naval event, but.....
1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in around 5,000 deaths.


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1978 North Sea, France, Brittany: 230 ton supertanker "Amoco Cadiz" en-route from Iran to Rotterdam in the Netherlands loaded with 250,000 tons of crude oil lost its steering capability and was slammed into the rocky coast. The ship broke in two and 223,000 tons of crude oil spilled into the sea

Amoco Cadiz was a very large crude carrier (VLCC) owned by Amoco Transport Corp and transporting crude oil for Shell Oil. Operating under the Liberian flag of convenience, she ran aground on 16 March 1978 on Portsall Rocks, 5 km (3 mi) from the coast of Brittany, France. Ultimately she split in three and sank, resulting in the largest oil spill of its kind in history to that date.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1713 – Re-Launch of HMS Orford, a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,


HMS Orford
was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Deptford in 1698. She carried twenty-two 24-pounder guns and four (18-pounder) culverins on the lower deck; twenty-six 12-pounder guns on the upper deck; fourteen (5-pounder) sakers on the quarter-deck and forecastle; and four 3-pounder guns on the poop or roundhouse.

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In 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Orford served in Admiral Sir George Rooke's fleet in the Mediterranean; she was present as a member of the naval bombardment force at the Capture of Gibraltar. Shortly thereafter, at the Battle of Malaga, commanded by Captain John Norris, Orford was a member of the vanguard division of Rooke's fleet under Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and Vice-Admiral John Leake; all these officers but the latter, who himself became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1710, were future admirals of the fleet.

In 1707, she belonged to Admiral Shovell's fleet. She saw action during the unsuccessful Battle of Toulon and was present during the great naval disaster off the Isles of Scilly when Shovell and four of his ships (Association, Firebrand, Romney and Eagle) were lost, claiming the lives of nearly 2,000 sailors. Orford suffered little to no damage and finally managed to reach Portsmouth.

She was rebuilt for the first time according to the 1706 Establishment at Limehouse, relaunching on 17 March 1713. She underwent a second rebuild in 1727.[2]

In 1718 she was present at the Battle of Cape Passaro, and in 1736 she brought John Harrison and his first marine clock back from Lisbon.

Orford was wrecked on 13 February 1745 in the Windward Passage, though all her crew were saved.

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Scale 1:48. A contemporary full hull block model of the ‘Orford’ (circa 1698), a 70-gun two-decker third rate ship. The model is painted showing the upper and lower wales in black, the bulwark screens are a dark blue with a buff beading leading from the waist towards the stern. The only decoration on the model appears on the stern and quarter galleries which have been painted onto what looks like a layer of card and applied to the hull. The figurehead has been represented by a flat wooden outline while the headrails of the bow have been omitted for clarity to allow for inspection of the hull and shape of the bow. The model is mounted on an original wooden baseboard supported by two keel blocks at bow and stern, and brass rods amidships. It is likely that this model was made for the rebuilt of the 'Orford' in 1713.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Orford_(1698)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1757 – Launch of French Centaure, 74 at Toulon, designed by Joseph Marie Blaise Coulomb) – captured by the British in the Battle of Lagos in August 1759 and added to the RN as HMS Centaur, wrecked off Newfoundland in 1782


Centaure was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched at Toulon in 1757. She was designed by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb and named on 25 October 1755, and built under his supervision at Toulon. In French service she carried 74 cannon, comprising: 28 x 36-pounders on the lower deck, 30 x 18-pounders on the upper deck, 10 x 8-pounders on the quarterdeck, 6 x 8-pounders on the forecastle.

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The Royal Navy captured Centaure at the Battle of Lagos on 18 August 1759, and commissioned her as the third-rate HMS Centaur.

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HMS Centaur chasing the Vaillant and Amethyste, January 1760 (BHC0403)

Career in British service
She had a skirmish with the French ships Vaillant and Amethyste, in January 1760.

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Loss
In September 1782, Centaur was one of the ships escorting prizes back to Britain from Jamaica, when she foundered during the 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Captain John Nicholson Inglefield, along with eleven of his crew, survived the wreck in one of the ship's pinnaces, arriving at the Azores after sailing in an open boat for 16 days without compass quadrant or sail, and only two quart bottles of water; some 400 of her crew perished.

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Plate IV. A View of the Sea on the Morning after the Storm, with the distressed situation of the Centaur, Ville de Paris and the Glorieux as seen from the Lady Juliana, the Ville de Paris passing to Windward under close reef'd Topsails

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Preservation of Cpt Inglefield, the Master, and Ten of the Crew of the Centaur in the Pinnace... on the Great Western Ocean, and after seventeen days at sea, arrived at Fayal (PAH9181)

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sternboard decoration detail with name on the counter in a cartouche, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Centaur (captured 1759), a captured French Third Rate, two-decker, as taken off at Chatham Dockyard. The plan illustrates the ship prior to being fitted as a British 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 633 states that Centaur arrived at Chatham Dockyard on 6 November 1759 and was docked on 6 December. She was undocked on 16 February 1760 and sailed on 30 May 1760 having been fitted.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the midship section for Centaur (captured 1759), a captured French Third Rate. The plan illustrates the ship prior to being fitted as a British 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, at Chatham Dockyard.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the roundhouse, quarterdeck, forecastle, upper deck gun deck (lower deck) and orlop deck with platforms for Centaur (captured 1759), a captured French Third Rate. The plan illustrates the ship as altered and fitted to a British layout as a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, at Chatham Dockyard. She completed her fitting on 30 May 1760.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1794 – Launch of Spanish Monarca, 74 at Ferrol - Captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar and wrecked in storm, 23 October 1805


The Monarca was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Spanish Navy. She was ordered by a royal order of 28 September 1791, built in the Reales Astilleros de Esteiro shipyard and launched on 17 March 1794. Designed by Romero Landa and belonging to the Montañés-class (a subset or modification of the San Ildefonsino class), her main guns were distributed along two complete decks, with 28 24-pounder in her first battery (lower deck) and 30 18-pounders in her second battery (upper deck). Additionally she had 12 8-pounders on her quarterdeck and four 8-pounders on her forecastle.

History
She underwent proving trials between September and November 1794 alongside the Montañés, also launched in 1794, aiming to work out whose method of construction was best. The trials were overseen by José Justo Salceno and the results favoured the Montañés. The Monarca was assigned to Juan de Lángara's squadron, taking part in the defence of Roses.

She took part in the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 under the command of Captain Teodoro Argumosa. She was attacked at close range by Mars and Tonnant as they first cut the Franco-Spanish line. The ship behind the Tonnant, the Bellerophon, slipped under her stern at 12:30 and fired two broadsides into her. She was heavily damaged, with 100 men killed and 150 wounded. A party of 55 Royal Marines captured the ship, but the night after the battle the surviving Spanish crew overpowered them and cast them adrift, leaving them to the mercy of the storm that night.

On 24 October the survivors decided to try to repair the ship's rudder and return to Cadiz, as the weather was improving, but an hour later they were pursued by Leviathan, which also picked up the marines and some Spanish survivors of the storm. On 28 October the ship ran aground on the Arenas Gordas coast near Huelva, between Torre de la Higuera and Torre del Asperillo, leaving it lying on its side. On 31 October she was destroyed by the guns of the frigate Naiad to avoid her being reused or refloated.

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Plans for a ship of the San Ildefonsino class


Ildefonso class 74 guns - designed by Romero y Landa

San Ildefonso 74 (launched 22 January 1785 at Cartagena) - Captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, retaining same name, BU 1816[10]
San Telmo 74 (launched 20 June 1788 at Ferrol) - Lost off Cape Horn 1819
San Francisco de Paula 74 (launched 20 December 1788 at Cartagena) - BU 1823
Europa 74 (launched 19 October 1789 at Ferrol) - Stricken 1801
Intrépido 74 (launched 20 November 1790 at Ferrol) - transferred to France 1 July 1801, renamed Intrépide, captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar and sank in storm, 1805
Conquistador 74 (launched 9 December 1791 at Cartagena) - transferred to France 23 April 1802, renamed Conquérant, stricken 1804
Infante Don Pelayo 74 (launched 22 November 1792 at Havana) - transferred to France 23 April 1802, renamed Desaix, stricken 1804
Monarca 74 (launched 17 March 1794 at Ferrol) - Captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar and wrecked in storm, 23 October 1805


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1795 - HMS Illustrious, which lost main and mizzenmasts during the Battle of Genoa three days earlier, sunk in storm


HMS Illustrious
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 7 July 1789 at Bucklers Hard. She participated in the Battle of Genoa after which she was wrecked.

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Service
In 1793, Illustrious was involved in the Siege of Toulon. In 1795, she earned a Battle Honour in the Battle of Genoa, during which Captain Nelson aboard Agamemnon captured Ça Ira. Illustrious was badly damaged in the engagement with the van of the French fleet.

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"The 'Agamemnon' engaging the Ca Ira', 13 March 1795" Sketch of HMS Agamemnon fighting French ship Ca Ira at the Battle of Genoa, 1795

Loss
After the battle, Meleager was towing Illustrious when she broke free of her tow. Then the accidental firing of a lower deck gun damaged the ship so that she took on water. She attempted to anchor in Valence Bay (between Spezia and Leghorn) to ride out the bad weather that had descended upon her. Her cables broke, however, and she struck on rocks and had to be abandoned. Lowestoffe and Tarleton took off her stores, and all her crew were saved. Her hull was then set on fire

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Illustrious (1789). Models made by A.W. Curtis. Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for building Cornwall (1761), Arrogant (1761), and Kent (1762), and later for Defence (1763), Edgar (1779), Goliath (1781), Vanguard (1787), Excellent (1787), Saturn (1786), Elephant (1786), Illustrious (1789), Bellerophon (1786), Zealous (1785), and Audacious (1785), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Illustrious_(1789)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_at_the_Battle_of_Genoa
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1800 - HMS Queen Charlotte – a British 100-gun first-rate ship of the line that, on 17 March 1800, while serving as flagship of Vice-Admiral Lord Keith, was reconnoitering the Tuscan island of Capraia when she caught fire. She exploded and sank, killing 673 officers and men.


HMS
Queen Charlotte
was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1790 at Chatham. She was built to the draught of Royal George designed by Sir Edward Hunt, though with a modified armament.

In 1794 Queen Charlotte was the flagship of Admiral Lord Howe at the Battle of the Glorious First of June, and in 1795 she took part in the Battle of Groix.

1.JPG 2.JPG

1280px-Loutherbourg-La_Victoire_de_Lord_Howe.jpg
Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June by Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, painted 1795, shows the two flagships engaged on 1 June 1794. Queen Charlotte is to the left and Montagne to the right.

pw5838.jpg
Drawing. This is clearly a study of Howe's 'Queen Charlotte' after losing her fore-topmast while in pursuit of the French flagship 'Montagne' on 1 June 1794: title adjusted accordingly. PvdM 4/05

Fate
At about 6am on 17 March 1800, whilst operating as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Lord Keith, Queen Charlotte was reconnoitering the island of Capraia, in the Tuscan Archipelago, when she caught fire. Keith was not aboard at the time and observed the disaster from the shore.

The fire was believed to have resulted from someone having accidentally thrown loose hay on a match tub. Two or three American vessels lying at anchor off Leghorn were able to render assistance, losing several men in the effort as the vessel's guns exploded in the heat. Captain A. Todd wrote several accounts of the disaster that he gave to sailors to give to the Admiralty should they survive. He himself perished with his ship. The crew was unable to extinguish the flames and at about 11am the ship blew up with the loss of 673 officers and men.

j1722.jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Royal George' (1788), and a year later for 'Queen Charlotte' (1790), both 100-gun First Rate, three-deckers, after the design had been lengthened by three feet.

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b9563.jpg large_l6148_001.jpg large_l6148_002.jpg
Scale: 1:60. A contemporary full hull model of the three-decker 100-gun first-rate ‘Queen Charlotte’ built plank on frame in the ‘Georgian’ style. The quality and finish of the model is exceptional both in the construction and the lavish carved and painted decoration. The ‘Queen Charlotte’ was launched at Chatham Royal Dockyard in 1789 and measured 190 feet along the gun deck by 52 feet in the beam and had tonnage of 2278. She was Lord Howe’s flagship at the Battle of the First of June in 1794 and also took part in Lord Bridport’s action off Croix in 1795. She was accidentally set alight off Leghorn in 1800 with the loss of nearly 700 lives.

j1870.jpg
Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the starboard profile of the figurehead for 'Queen Charlotte' (1790), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker.

j1869.jpg



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1816 - The steamship Élise was the first steamship to cross the English Channel from Newhaven to Le Havre


The Élise was the first steamship to cross the English Channel.

The ship was constructed in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1814, originally named Margery or „Marjory“ . In 1815, Frenchman Pierre Andriel purchased her, and renamed her Élise. Andriel intended to accomplish a spectacular crossing of the Channel to convince public opinion that steam ships could be ocean-worthy.

Elise-vapeur.png

The Élise departed from Newhaven on 17 March 1816, into a heavy sea. At midnight, a tempest broke out, and Andriel had to threaten his own crew at gunpoint and award three bottles of rum to the first man to spot the French coast. After 17 hours at sea, the Élise reached Le Havre.

She sailed up the Seine and arrived in Paris on 28 March, becoming a popular sensation. Two small saluting guns were mounted at the bow and fired in honour of Louis XVIII.


https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_(Schiff)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1864 - The naval Battle of Jasmund (also known as the Battle of Rügen) took place between elements of the Danish and Prussian during the Second Schleswig War.

The Danish Blockade Squadron in the eastern part of the Baltic, composed of the Ship-of-the-line Skjold, the frigate Sjaelland and the corvettes Hejmdal and Thor, under Rear Ad. Carl E. van Dockum, fire at and drive away the Prussian frigate Arcona, the corvette Nymphe, the paddle steamer Loreley and 5 steam gunboats, under Kapitän zur See Jachmann, off Swinemünde.

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The naval Battle of Jasmund (also known as the Battle of Rügen) took place between elements of the Danish and Prussian navies on 17 March 1864 during the Second Schleswig War. The action took place east of the Jasmund peninsula on the Prussian island of Rügen, during a Prussian attempt to weaken the Danish blockade in the Baltic Sea. The Prussian squadron, commanded by Eduard von Jachmann, sortied with a screw frigate, a screw corvette, a paddle steamer, and six gunboats to attack the Danish squadron blockading the eastern Prussian coast. The Danish force was commanded by Edvard van Dockum, and it consisted of one screw frigate, one ship of the line, and two steam corvettes. In an action lasting two hours, the superior Danish squadron forced the Prussians to withdraw, both sides suffering damage and light casualties. The Danish victory was compounded by the arrival of further warships after the battle, which cemented the blockade. The outcome of the battle, and the naval war in the Baltic as a whole, was irrelevant to the outcome of the war, however, as the Prussian and Austrian armies decisively defeated the Danes on land, forcing them to surrender.

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Sjælland (right) engaging with the paddlewheel steamer Loreley and the corvette Nymphe. Painting by Alex Kircher.


Background

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The screw frigate Sjælland, the Danish flagship at Jasmund

In late 1863, as Prussia began to prepare to launch the Second Schleswig War, vessels of the Prussian Navy were relocated. The screw frigate SMS Arcona and the screw corvetteNymphe were transferred from Danzig to Swinemünde, which would allow them to cooperate with the gunboats based in Stralsund. By the time Prussia and the Austrian Empire declared war on 1 February 1864, the ships' crews were still performing maintenance on their engines, and the winter ice had yet to recede far enough to allow offensive operations. The Danish fleet, on the other hand, immediately proclaimed a blockade of the Prussian coast. As most of the Prussian fleet was in the Baltic Sea, the Danes could easily enforce a blockade of the German North Sea ports, allowing most of their fleet to be concentrated in the Baltic.

The Danish fleet in the Baltic, commanded by Rear Admiral Edvard van Dockum, was far superior in size and power to the Prussian fleet and it had no trouble enforcing the blockade. The ship of the line Skjold and five smaller vessels were sent to blockade Swinemünde and Stettin, the ironclad warship Dannebrog and five unarmored ships blockaded Danzig. Several merchant vessels were seized in February and March, prompting Admiral Prince Adalbert of Prussia, the commander of the Prussian Navy, to begin plans for an operation against the blockade, to be led by Captain Eduard von Jachmann, who during the war became the squadron commander in charge of operations.

By mid-March, the Prussian ships were ready for action and the ice had receded far enough that Prince Adalbert ordered Jachmann to conduct a reconnaissance of the blockading force on 16 March. In the meantime, Dockum's squadron had arrived off Swinemünde two days before. Arcona and Nymphe patrolled off Greifswald, but the weather was very poor, with snow showers hampering visibility. The Prussian gunboats, led by the paddle steamer Loreley, remained closer to Swinemünde. Jachmann spotted three vessels at around 15:30, but there was not enough time before dark to catch them. Instead, Jachmann turned back to Swinemünde, intending to try again the following day.

The battle

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Danish and Prussian warships battling off Swinemünde, by Carl Frederik Sørensen

On the morning of 17 March, Prince Adalbert sent Jachmann's squadron to attack the Danish blockade. The ships sortied from the mouth of the Oder at 7:30 and initially steamed east, but could not locate any Danish warships. They turned west and, as they approached the island of Greifswalder Oie, lookouts aboard the ships spotted smoke to the northwest at about 13:15. The Prussians continued on toward the island of Rügen; off the Jasmund peninsula, Jachmann's ships encountered Dockum's squadron. There, with Arcona and Nymphe in the lead, Jachmann turned to engage the Danes; Loreley increased speed to join the two corvettes while Jachmann sent the gunboats to the coast of Rügen, where they could be used to cover his withdrawal. From further north, Dockum was awaiting the arrival of the steam frigate Tordenskjold.

At 14:30, Arcona opened fire, targeting the frigate Sjælland; a few minutes later, after Sjælland closed to 1,600 yards (1,500 m), Dockum turned his flagship to starboard and began firing broadsides at Arcona. Jachmann turned Arcona to starboard as well, having realized the strength of the Danish squadron. He failed to inform the captains of Nymphe and Loreley of his decision to withdraw, and they continued to steam east for several minutes before they conformed to his maneuver. At this time, Dockum shifted fire to Nymphe and scored several hits, including damage to her funnel that reduced her speed temporarily. Dockum attempted to overtake and cut off Nymphe and Loreley from Arcona, but Nymphe's crew was able to quickly repair the damage she had sustained, allowing her to increase speed, though she continued to take hits.

After 15:00, Tordenskjold arrived from the north and, as she steamed south to join Dockum's squadron, she came under long-range fire from the Prussian gunboats at 15:40. As she continued south, she fired broadsides at the gunboats but otherwise ignored them, with neither side scoring any hits. The gunboats thereafter withdrew, although Hay broke down and required a tow back to Stralsund. In the meantime, Loreley and Nymphe came under heavy fire from the pursuing Danish squadron; at 16:00 Loreley broke off to the west toward Stralsund and Dockum allowed her to leave, preferring to continue after Jachmann's corvettes. Both sides continue to score hits on each other until they checked fire at around 16:45 as the range grew too far. By 18:00, Dockum ended the chase and steamed off to the east, allowing Jachmann to return to Swinemünde.

Aftermath

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Painting of the battle, depicting the Prussian squadron, by Willy Stöwer


Danish losses were six killed and sixteen wounded, all on the frigate Sjælland. The Prussian ships suffered lighter casualties; three men were killed aboard Arcona, and three more were wounded. Two men were killed and four were injured aboard Nymphe, and just a single man was wounded aboard Loreley. Nymphe was the most damaged vessel of either side, having been hit nineteen times in her hull, four times on her superstructure, and fifty times on her masts and rigging. On the night of 17 March, the screw frigate Jylland joined the Danish blockade force, and she was fast enough to catch Jachmann's corvettes. Danish naval supremacy in the Baltic was further cemented with the arrival on 30 March of Dannebrog, which was impervious to any weapon the Prussians then possessed. As a result, the Prussian fleet remained in port for the remainder of the war; Jasmund proved to be the only naval action of consequence in the Baltic.

Despite having been forced to flee, Jachmann was promoted to the rank of rear admiral for his actions during the battle. The Prussians made several further patrols in the Baltic, but refused to seek a pitched engagement with the far superior Danish fleet. Instead, the Second Schleswig War was decided on land. Additionally, the arrival of an Austrian squadron in the North Sea allowed the Austrians and Prussians to break the Danish blockade of the North Sea coastal ports at the Battle of Heligoland on 9 May. The Austrians, fearing that a more aggressive operation to defeat the Danish fleet in the Baltic would provoke the British, kept their squadron in the North Sea for the remainder of the war. On 9 May, the two sides signed an armistice in London that took effect three days later, temporarily ending the fighting. The armistice lasted until 26 June, when fighting broke out again on land. The Austrian and Prussian naval forces in the North Sea supported operations to capture the islands off the western Danish coast. These advances, coupled with the capture of the island of Als in the Baltic Sea, forced the Danes to seek a second armistice on 29 June. Ultimately, Denmark sued for peace after it became clear that they had lost naval superiority and that Britain would not intervene in the conflict.

Order of battle

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Rear Admiral Carl Edvard van Dockum, the Danish commander

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Captain Eduard von Jachmann, the Prussian commander

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1883 – Launch of Lepanto, an Italian ironclad battleship built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy), the second and last ship of the Italia class.


Lepanto was an Italian ironclad battleship built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy), the second and last ship of the Italia class. Lepanto was laid down in November 1876, launched in March 1883, and completed in August 1887. She was armed with a main battery of four 17 in (432 mm) guns mounted in a central barbette and was capable of a top speed of 17.8 knots (33.0 km/h; 20.5 mph). Unlike other capital ships of the era, Lepanto had an armored deck rather than the more typical belt armor.

Italian_battleship_Lepanto.jpg
Lepanto in La Spezia

Lepanto spent the first two decades of her career in the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where she took part in annual training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet. In 1902, she was withdrawn from service for use as a training ship. During the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, the ship provided fire support to Italian troops defending Tripoli in Libya. Lepanto was ultimately stricken from the naval register in January 1914 and sold for scrapping in March 1915.


Design

Lepanto_Brassey's.png
Line drawing of Italia; Lepanto had four funnels instead of six
Main article: Italia-class ironclad


Lepanto was 124.7 meters (409 ft) long overall and had a beam of 22.34 m (73.3 ft) and an average draft of 9.39 m (30.8 ft). She displaced 13,336 long tons (13,550 t) normally and up to 15,649 long tons (15,900 t) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of four compound steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by eight coal-fired, oval boilers and sixteen fire-tube boilers. Her engines produced a top speed of 18.4 knots (34.1 km/h; 21.2 mph) at 15,797 indicated horsepower (11,780 kW). She could steam for 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of 669–701 officers and men.

Lepanto was armed with a main battery of four 17 in (432 mm) 27-caliber guns, mounted in two pairs en echelon in a central barbette. She carried a secondary battery of eight 6-inch (152 mm) 32-caliber guns and four 4.7 in (119 mm) 32-caliber guns. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she carried four 14 in (356 mm) torpedo tubes. Unlike other ships built at the time, Lepanto dispensed with vertical belt armor. Her designer, Benedetto Brin, believed that contemporary steel alloys could not effectively defeat armor-piercing shells of the day, and so he discarded it completely. Lepanto was instead protected by an armored deck that was 4 in (102 mm) thick. Her conning tower was armored with the same thickness of steel plate. The barbette had 19 in (483 mm) of steel armor.

Service history
Construction – 1895


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Drawing of Lepanto under construction at Orlando

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Italia at her launching

Lepanto was under construction for nearly 11 years. She was laid down at the Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando shipyard at Livorno on 4 November 1876, ten months after her sister Italia. She spent nearly six-and-a-half years on the building ways and was not launched until 17 March 1883, two-and-a-half years after Italia. Lepanto was not completed for another four-and-a-half years, her construction finally being finished on 16 August 1887, twenty-two months after the completion of Italia. After entering service, Lepanto took part in the annual 1888 fleet maneuvers, along with the ironclads Caio Duilio, Italia, Enrico Dandolo, and San Martino, a protected cruiser, four torpedo cruisers, and numerous smaller vessels. The maneuvers consisted of close-order drills and a simulated attack on and defense of La Spezia. Later that year, the ship was present during a naval review held for the German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a visit to Italy.

In 1890, Lepanto participated in the annual fleet maneuvers in the First Squadron, along with the protected cruisers Piemonte and Dogali and several torpedo boats. The exercises were conducted in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where the First Squadron was tasked with defending against an attacking "hostile" squadron. The ship served as the flagship of the 1st Division of the Active Squadron during the 1893 fleet maneuvers, along with the ironclad Ruggiero di Lauria, the torpedo cruisers Euridice and Monzambano, and four torpedo boats. During the maneuvers, which lasted from 6 August to 5 September, the ships of the Active Squadron simulated a French attack on the Italian fleet.

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Lepanto in the Mediterranean Seain the late 1880s

In 1895, Italia and Lepanto were assigned to the Reserve Squadron, along with the ironclads Ruggiero di Lauria and Re Umberto. That year, unrest in the Ottoman Empire that killed hundreds of foreign nationals prompted several of the European great powers to send an international fleet to pressure the Ottomans into compensating the victims. In November 1895, a small Italian squadron sent to Smyrna to join the fleet in there; Lepanto was mobilized as part of a larger force in Naples that consisted of the ironclads Francesco Morosini, and Ruggiero di Lauria, the protected cruiser Elba, the torpedo cruisers Calatafimi and Folgore, and five torpedo boats. This second squadron was stocked with coal and ammunition in the event that it would need to reinforce the squadron at Smryna.

1897–1915
In June 1897, Lepanto steamed to Britain to represent Italy at the Fleet Review for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, held on the 26th of the month. For the periodic fleet maneuvers later that year, Lepanto was assigned to the First Division of the Reserve Squadron, which also included the ironclads Caio Duilio and Ruggiero di Lauria and the protected cruiser Lombardia. The following year, the Reserve Squadron consisted of Lepanto, Ruggiero di Lauria, Francesco Morosini, and five cruisers. In 1899, Lepanto, Re Umberto, Sicilia, and the three Ruggiero di Lauria-class ironclads served in the Active Squadron, which was kept in service for eight months of the year, with the remainder spent with reduced crews.

In the early 1890s, the Italian Navy had considered rebuilding Lepanto along the same lines as Enrico Dandolo, which had received new, quick-firing 10-inch (250 mm) guns in place of her slow 17-inch guns. Lepanto and her sister were to have their guns replaced with new 13.4-inch (340 mm) guns, but by 1902 this plan had been abandoned as too costly. Lepanto was withdrawn from front-line service in that year and she became a gunnery training ship. By that time, her armament consisted of her original 17 in guns and four of her 4.7 in guns; to these, nine 57 mm (2.2 in) 40-caliber guns, six 37 mm (1.5 in) 25-caliber guns, and two machine guns had been added. Her torpedo tubes had been removed by this time. In 1910 she became a depot ship at La Spezia.

During the annual fleet maneuvers in September and October 1907, Lepanto was present to carry observers of the exercises, though she did not directly take part in the training. At the start of the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, Lepanto was assigned to the 5th Division of the Italian fleet, along with her sister Italia and the ironclad Enrico Dandolo. In December 1911, Lepanto and Italia were sent to Tripoli, replacing the three Re Umberto-class ironclads, to support the Italian garrison that had captured the city. The two Italias were sent in large part because the Italian Navy had a large stockpile of 17-inch shells. Lepanto was stricken on 26 May 1912, but was reinstated on 13 January 1913 as a first-class auxiliary ship. She was stricken a second time on 15 January 1914, sold for scrap on 27 March 1915, and subsequently broken up.

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Italia at La Spezia in 1897. In 1905–1908, her funnelswere reduced from six to four, and her single mast was replaced by two new masts.

The Italia class was a class of two ironclad battleships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1870s and 1880s. The two ships—Italia and Lepanto—were designed by Benedetto Brin, who chose to discard traditional belt armor entirely, relying on a combination of very high speed and extensive internal subdivision to protect the ships. This, along with their armament of very large 17-inch (430 mm) guns, has led some naval historians to refer to the Italia class as prototypical battlecruisers.

Despite serving for over thirty years, the ships had uneventful careers. They spent their first two decades in service with the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where they were primarily occupied with training maneuvers. Lepanto was converted into a training ship in 1902 and Italia was significantly modernized in 1905–08 before also becoming a training ship. They briefly saw action during the Italo-Turkish War, where they provided gunfire support to Italian troops defending Tripoli. Lepanto was discarded in early 1915, though Italia continued on as a guard ship during World War I, eventually being converted into a grain transport. She was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1921.

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talia as she appeared after her 1905–1908 refit



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_ironclad_Lepanto
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1891 - Mediterranean Sea, Bay of Gibraltar: the America bound steamer "SS Utopia" slammed in heavy weather into the iron-plated British battleship "HMS Amson" and sank; 576 people died

Utopia – Collided with HMS Anson while trying to enter the Bay of Gibraltar on 17 March 1891. She sank in minutes, killing 562 passengers and crew. Two rescuers from HMS Immortalité also drowned; 318 survivors were rescued.

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Sketch of the sinking of Utopia by a witness, Ms. Georgina Smith

SS Utopia was a transatlantic passenger steamship built in 1874 by Robert Duncan & Co of Glasgow. From 1874 to 1882 she operated on Anchor Line routes from Glasgow to New York City, from Glasgow to Bombay and from London to New York City. After 1882 she carried Italian immigrants to the United States.

On 17 March 1891 Utopia accidentally collided with the moored battleship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar. Utopia sank in less than twenty minutes; 562 of 880 passengers and crew of Utopia and two rescuers from HMS Immortalité died in the accident. The sinking of Utopia was blamed on "grave error of judgement" of her captain John McKeague, who survived the accident.


Anchor Liner
Utopia was built by Robert Duncan of Glasgow as a transatlantic steamer for the Anchor Line. Utopia was a sister ship to Elysia(1873) and Alsatia (1876), designed to carry 120 first class, 60 second class and 600 steerage (third class) passengers. She was launched on 14 February 1874 and sailed out on her maiden voyage to New York City on 23 May 1874. After twelve round-trips on the route from Glasgow to New York City she sailed on the route from Glasgow to Bombay. In April 1876, Anchor Line transferred Utopia, Elysia, Anglia and Australia to serve the route from London to New York City. Utopia performed forty round-trip voyages on this route.

In 1882 she was transferred to the Mediterranean, and regularly carried Italian immigrants to the United States. In 1890–1891 she was refitted with a triple expansion steam engine. To maximize revenue on the Italian route, her first class accommodations were reduced to 45 passengers, and second class was removed altogether, thus increasing steerage capacity to 900 bunks.

Sinking
On 25 February 1891 Utopia sailed out from Trieste for New York City with stopovers at Naples, Genoa and Gibraltar. She carried a total of 880 people: 59 crewmembers (most of them stewards), 3 first-class passengers, 815 third-class passengers, and 3 stowaways. There were 85 women and 67 children. According to captain John McKeague's signed statement, Utopia normally carried seven lifeboats that could accommodate up to "460 people in moderate weather" but on the night of the catastrophe one of these boats was missing.

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HMS Anson [1897]

Utopia reached Gibraltar in the afternoon of 17 March. Captain John McKeague steered Utopia to her usual anchorage in the inner harbour, but then realized that it was occupied by two battleships, HMS Anson and HMS Rodney. McKeague later said that he had been temporarily dazzled by Anson's searchlight. When McKeague's eyesight recovered he "suddenly discovered that the inside anchorage was full of ships". McKeague, according to his statement, thought that Anson was "further off than she really was" and attempted to steer Utopia ahead of Anson's bow. Suddenly, a "strong gale combined with current swept the vessel across the bows of the Anson, and in a moment her hull was pierced and cut by the ram of the ironclad". According to third mate Francis Wadsworth, the impact occurred at 6:36 p.m. Anson's ram tore a hole 5 metres (16 ft) wide below Utopia's waterline, and her holds quickly flooded.

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Engraving based on a sketch made by Georg Bergman, an officer on the Freya who was in command on one of the rescue boats (Herman Feychting )

McKeague at first considered beaching the ship, but Utopia almost instantly lost engine power: The engineers had shut down the engines to prevent a steam explosion. McKeague ordered the lowering of the lifeboats and to abandon ship, but Utopia suddenly listed 70 degrees, crushing and sinking the boats. The survivors clung to the starboard of Utopia while hundreds were trapped inside steerage holds. Twenty minutes after the impact Utopia sank to the depth of 17 metres (56 ft). The masts, protruding above the waves, became the last refuge for the survivors.

Anson, the Swedish corvette Freja, and other nearby ships immediately sent rescue teams to the site, but rough weather and a strong current made it difficult for them to approach the wreck: "rescuers, blinded by the wind and rain, saw nothing but a confused, struggling mass of human beings entangled with wreckage." Two sailors from HMS Immortalité, James Croton and George Hales, drowned attempting to rescue survivors when their boat drifted on the rocks. Search and rescue continued until 11 p.m. Out of 880 passengers and crewmembers of Utopia, there were 318 survivors: 290 steerage passengers, 2 first class passengers, 3 Italian interpreters, and 23 crewmembers. The remaining 562 passengers and crewmembers of Utopia were dead or missing.

Aftermath

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Taken on the day after the disaster the photograph shows the wreck of the Utopia with the Swedish corvette Freja just next to it. She was captained by Prince Oscar Bernadotte, King Oscar's second son. The two warships on the left are the HMS Anson and HMS Curlew - The one on the right might be HMS Howe ( Swedish Maritime Museum )

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Wreck of Utopia in Gibraltar Harbour

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Members of the Gibraltar Port Authority – most of them unidentified Gibraltarian men – wearing medals awarded for their bravery during the disaster. Tentative id can be found at .

Croton and Hales were buried with military honours on 19 March. The first group of Utopia victims, 28 adults and 3 children, were buried in a trench in Gibraltar on 20 March. Divers sent to examine the wreck reported that the inner spaces of Utopia "were closely packed with the bodies ... who had become wedged into an almost solid mass"; and that "the bodies of many of the drowned were found so firmly clasped together that it was difficult to separate them." Hundreds of bodies remained trapped in the steerage holds of the sunken ship.

Captain McKeague was arrested and released on the same day for a bail of £480. The British court of inquiry chaired by Charles Cavendish Boyle, Captain of the Port of Gibraltar, convened on 23 March 1891 "under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, Gibraltar, 1886". McKeague was found guilty of grave errors in judgement: "firstly, in attempting to enter the anchorage ... without having first opened out and ascertained what vessels were there" and "secondly, in attempting to turn his ship out across the bows of HMS Anson."

After the accident the port authority of Gibraltar obliged Anchor Line to light up the remains of Utopia. For a few days the wreck was illuminated by lights hoisted on each masthead. The precaution, however, did not prevent another incident: SS Primula, entering the harbour, collided with the wreck of Utopia. At the inquiry the crew of Primula said that they did see the lights, but not the ship. They recognized the masts and funnel protruding above the water when the collision was already inevitable. The court ruling on the second Utopia collision set a precedent of maritime law that remained in place for thirty-five years. Judge Sir Frances Jeune, contrary to established practice, absolved the owners of Utopia from liability because they had legitimately transferred "control and management of the wreck" to the Port of Gibraltar. In 1928 his obiter dictum was expressly overruled in Dee Conservancy Board vs. McConnell.

The wreck of Utopia was raised in July 1892; the shipwreck was brought back to Scotland. The owners gave up their plans of reviving the ship, and she was left to rust in the River Clyde and was finally scrapped in 1900.


HMS Anson was the last of six Admiral-class ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s. The ship was completed, except for her armament, in 1887, but had to wait two years for her guns to be installed. She was assigned to the Channel Fleet in mid-1889 as a flagship for the fleet's second-in-command. Two years later, the passenger ship SS Utopia sank with the loss of 562 lives after colliding with Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar. In mid-1893, Anson was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, subsequently returning home in 1900 when she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. She recommissioned for the Home Fleetin early 1901. Anson was paid off three years later and then sold for scrap in 1909.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Utopia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Immortalité_(1887)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1893 – Launch of HMS Astraea, an Astraea-class second class cruiser of the Royal Navy.


HMS Astraea
was an Astraea-class second class cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built towards the end of the nineteenth century, and survived to serve in the First World War.

sistership
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HMS Forte (1893)

Construction and commissioning
Astraea was ordered as part of the eight-ship Astraea class under the Naval Defence Act of 1889. She was laid down at Devonport Dockyard in August 1890 and launched from there on 17 March 1893. She was completed and commissioned for service in November 1895.

Career
Astraea served in the Mediterranean Sea in early 1900 under the command of Captain Alfred Paget, and was in China the following year under the command of Captain Casper Joseph Baker. She left Hong Kong on 27 March 1902, homeward bound, arriving in Singapore on 2 April, Colombo on 10 April, Suez on 27 April, Malta on 2 May, and in Plymouth on 14 May, having convoyed the destroyer Skate from the Mediterranean. She paid off at Chatham on 12 June 1902, and was placed in the B Division of the Fleet Reserve.

She was again sent to the China Station in 1906, followed by a period at Colombo between 1908 and 1911. She returned to Britain in January 1912, where she was refitted to return to service. She was recommissioned[clarification needed] at the Nore in June 1912, and joined the Third Fleet.[8] By April 1913 she had been reassigned to operate off the Cape of Good Hope as part of the squadron assigned to the West Africa Station. She was serving off East Africa at Zanzibar when the First World War broke out, and the squadron was initially assigned to protect British Empire shipping travelling on the trade routes around the African coast. On 8 August 1914 Astraea bombarded Dar-es-Salaam, part of the German colony of German East Africa. Astraea's guns destroyed a radio station, and fearing an imminent landing, the German authorities scuttled their floating dock to block the harbour.[9] This had the subsequent effect of preventing the German commerce raider SMS Königsberg from being able to return to the port. Astraea was later one of the ships assigned to hunt and blockade Königsberg in the Rufiji Delta.

In May 1915 Astraea became the ship of the senior naval officer assigned to support the invasion of Kamerun, replacing the cruiser Challenger in the role.

Ghostly encounter
One of Astraea's First World War officers was Harold Owen, younger brother of the wartime poet Wilfred Owen. Shortly after the signing of the Armistice, Astraea was anchored in Table Bay. Harold later wrote:

I had gone down to my cabin thinking to write some letters. I drew aside the door curtain and stepped inside and to my amazement I saw Wilfred sitting in my chair. I felt shock run through me with appalling force and with it I could feel the blood draining away from my face. I did not rush towards him but walked jerkily into the cabin—all my limbs stiff and slow to respond. I did not sit down but looking at him I spoke quietly: "Wilfred, how did you get here?"

He did not rise and I saw that he was involuntarily immobile, but his eyes which had never left mine were alive with the familiar look of trying to make me understand; when I spoke his whole face broke into his sweetest and most endearing dark smile. I felt not fear—I had none when I first drew my door curtain and saw him there—only exquisite mental pleasure at thus beholding him. He was in uniform and I remember thinking how out of place the khaki looked amongst the cabin furnishings. With this thought I must have turned my eyes away from him; when I looked back my cabin chair was empty ...

I wondered if I had been dreaming but looking down I saw that I was still standing. Suddenly I felt terribly tired and moving to my bunk I lay down; instantly I went into a deep oblivious sleep. When I woke up I knew with absolute certainty that Wilfred was dead.
Harold only later learned that Wilfred had been killed in action on 4 November 1918, a week before he had apparently appeared to him on Astraea.

Scrapping
Astraea returned to the UK and was paid off in July 1919. She was sold on 1 July 1920 to the ship breakers Castle, but was subsequently resold and was broken up in Germany in 1920.


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HMS Fox, pictured with the captured Russian battleship Chesma at Archangel in 1919

The Astraea class was an eight ship class of protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the 1890s. The ships served on a number of foreign stations during their careers, particularly in the waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and around the Cape of Good Hope. Already obsolete by the outbreak of the First World War, most continued to see service in a variety of roles, though rarely in a front line capacity. By the end of the war the majority were being used as training or depot ships, and they were soon sold out of the service and scrapped. However one ship, HMS Hermione, was bought by the Marine Society and used as a training ship until 1940.

Design and construction

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Right elevation, deck plan and hull section as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1897

The eight ships were ordered under the provisions of the 1889 Naval Defence Act as an improved design of the preceding Apollo-class cruisers. They were to displace 1000 tons more than the Apollos, and were to have improved sea-keeping abilities, and heavier and better placed armament. The result was a design with a full length deck that gave a higher freeboard amidships, and placed the main armament higher on the superstructure. Though this made them drier ships, the design was criticised for being a larger and more expensive development of the Apollos, but without offering any substantial increase in armament, speed or endurance. The increased weight did however make them more seaworthy, and the design provided the basis for the development of future protected cruisers. The ships were built at several of the principal navy dockyards: three at Devonport, two at Pembroke, and one each at Sheerness, Chatham and Portsmouth.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Astraea_(1893)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1917 – The Action of 17 March 1917 was a German raid on British shipping in the Strait of Dover as well as the harbours of Ramsgate and Margate.


The Action of 17 March 1917 was a German raid on British shipping in the Strait of Dover as well as the harbours of Ramsgateand Margate. Two flotillas of German torpedo boats set out from the coast of Flanders and split. One group attacked the British drifters and destroyers patrolling near Goodwin Sands, while the other attacked the towns of Ramsgate and Margate, shelling the towns and shipping in their harbors. While attempting to fight off the German squadron near Goodwin Sands, the destroyers HMS Paragon and HMS Llewellyn were torpedoed. Paragon was sunk and Llewellyn damaged before the Germans withdrew with no casualties.

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HMS Paragon was an Acasta-class destroyer that served in the Royal Navy during the First World War. She was launched in 1913, and joined the 4th Destroyer Flotilla upon completion. Serving with the Grand Fleet in August 1914, Paragon moved to the Humberin the summer of 1916, then to Portsmouth, then to Devonport by 1917. On 17 March 1917, fighting alongside HMS Llewellyn in an action in the Dover Strait with eight German torpedo boats, Paragon was sunk by torpedo.

sistership
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HMS Ardent

 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1930 – Launch of Gertrude L. Thebaud, an American fishing and racing schooner built and launched in Essex, Massachusetts in 1930.


Gertrude L. Thebaud was an American fishing and racing schooner built and launched in Essex, Massachusetts in 1930. A celebrated racing competitor of the Canadian Bluenose, it was designed by Frank Paine and built by Arthur D. Story for Louis A. Thebaud, and named for his wife, Gertrude Thebaud. In their first meeting at Gloucester, Massachusetts in October 1930, Gertrude L. Thebaud bested Bluenose 2-0 to win the Sir Thomas Lipton International Fishing Challenge Cup. However, in 1931, two races to none, and again in 1938, three races to two, Bluenose defeated Gertrude L. Thebaud to remain the undefeated holder of the International Fisherman's Trophy. During World War II, the schooner saw service with the United States Coast Guard. The vessel sank in 1948 off the coast of Venezuela.

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Career
In 1930 Gloucester, Massachusetts was celebrating its 300th anniversary and wanted to hold a schooner race off its shores as one of the events. A challenge was sent to Bluenose to race Gertude L. Thebaud in a series of races for the newly established Sir Thomas Lipton International Fishing Challenge Cup. The captain of Bluenose, Angus Walters, accepted the challenge. Gertude L. Thebaud was to be captained by Ben Pine, the former master of Columbia, the fishing schooner that had tied Bluenose in the last International Fisherman's Trophy race. In the first race, Gertude L. Thebaud, finished ahead of Bluenose by 15 minutes. The second race was controversial, as it was called off twice when Bluenose was in the lead. The third attempt saw Gertude L. Thebaud defeat the Canadian schooner by eight minutes. The Americans won the Lipton Cup and handed the Canadian schooner its first defeat in competitive racing.

With Bluenose's loss, the Americans saw their chance at returning the International Fisherman's Trophy to the United States. They issued a challenge for the trophy to Bluenose in a series of races to be sailed off Halifax, Nova Scotia in October 1931. The first race, which Bluenose won, ran overlong and did not count. The second attempt saw Bluenose win again, by 32 minutes. The second race was won by Bluenose again, this time by only 12 minutes, keeping the International Fisherman's Trophy in Canadian hands.

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Pennants flying on the fishing schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud, off Gloucester


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The race with Bluenose

In 1933, Gertrude L. Thebaud was invited to the World Fair in Chicago, Illinois. There, along with Bluenose, the vessel welcomed aboard visitors. The schooner returned to Gloucester that year with renewed interest in a rematch with Bluenose. In 1937, a challenge was sent to Bluenose to race for the International Fisherman's Trophy. However, the Canadian ship was no longer a pure sailing ship as the vessel had a diesel engine installed in 1936 and her owners did not have the financial ability to return her to that state. American investors offset some of the costs and Bluenose sailed for Massachusetts in 1938.

The 1938 competition for the International Fisherman's Trophy between Gertrude L. Thebaud and Bluenose was different than previous versions. The competition was a best-of-five instead of a best-of-three and all the races would be sailed off Massachusetts. The first race, sailed off Boston on 9 October 1938 was won by Gertrude L. Thebaud. The second race, sailed off Gloucester, was won by Bluenose. However, controversy over Bluenose's ballast and waterline length led the Canadians to perform modifications to their ship before the next race could be sailed.

The third race, sailed off Gloucester, was won by Bluenose by more than six minutes. During the fourth race off Boston, Bluenose suffered a 12-meter (39 ft) tear in its sail and the vessel's fore topmast snapped, slowing the ship considerably. Gertude L. Thebaud won the fourth race, setting up the winner-takes-all fifth race off Gloucester. Gertude L. Thebaudl ost the fifth race and the cup to Bluenose. This was the last race between North Atlantic sail-driven fishing schooners.

During World War II, the schooner was commissioned into the United States Coast Guard on 24 December 1942 with the hull identification number WPYc 386. After brief service, the vessel was decommissioned on 10 February 1944 and returned to its owners. Gertude L. Thebaud saw continued service as a fishing vessel until 6 February 1948, when the schooner sank off the coast of La Guaira, Venezuela.






 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 March 1927 – Launch of HMAS Australia (I84/D84/C01), a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN)


HMAS Australia (I84/D84/C01)
was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One of two Kent-subclass ships ordered for the RAN in 1924, Australia was laid downin Scotland in 1925, and entered service in 1928. Apart from an exchange deployment to the Mediterranean from 1934 to 1936, during which she became involved in the planned British response to the Abyssinia Crisis, Australia operated in local and South-West Pacific waters until World War II began.

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HMAS Australia in October 1937

The cruiser remained near Australia until mid-1940, when she was deployed for duties in the eastern Atlantic, including hunts for German ships and participation in Operation Menace. During 1941, Australia operated in home and Indian Ocean waters, but was reassigned as flagship of the ANZAC Squadron in early 1942. As part of this force (which was later redesignated Task Force 44, then Task Force 74), Australia operated in support of United States naval and amphibious operations throughout South-East Asia until the start of 1945, including involvement in the battles at the Coral Sea and Savo Island, the amphibious landings at Guadalcanal and Leyte Gulf, and numerous actions during the New Guinea campaign. She was forced to withdraw following a series of kamikaze attacks during the invasion of Lingayen Gulf. The prioritisation of shipyard work in Australia for British Pacific Fleet vessels saw the Australian cruiser sail to England for repairs, where she was at the end of the war.

During the late 1940s, Australia served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, and participated in several port visits to other nations, before being retasked as a training ship in 1950. The cruiser was decommissioned in 1954, and sold for scrapping in 1955.


Design
Australia was one of seven warships built to the Kent design of County-class heavy cruiser, which were based on design work by Eustace Tennyson-D'Eyncourt. She was designed with a standard displacement of 10,000 tons, a length between perpendiculars of 590 feet (180 m), a length overall of 630 feet 4 inches (192.13 m), a beam of 68 feet 3 inches (20.80 m), and a maximum draught of 21 feet 4 inches (6.50 m).

The propulsion machinery consisted of eight Yarrow superheated boilers feeding Curtis high-pressure and Parsons low-pressure geared turbines. This delivered up to 80,000 shaft horsepower to the cruiser's four three-bladed propellers. The cruiser's top speed was 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph), with a range of 2,270 nautical miles (4,200 km; 2,610 mi), while her economical range and cruising speed was 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph).

The ship's company consisted of 64 officers and 678 sailors in 1930; this dropped to 45 officers and 654 sailors from 1937 to 1941. While operating as flagship, Australia's company was 710. During wartime, the ship's company increased to 815.

Armament and armour
Australia was designed with eight 8-inch guns in four twin turrets ('A' and 'B' forward, 'X' and 'Y' aft) as primary armament, with 150 shells per gun. Secondary armament consisted of four 4-inch guns in four single mounts, with 200 shells per gun, and four 2-pounder pom-poms for anti-aircraft defence, with 1,000 rounds each. A mixture of .303-inch machine guns were carried for close defence work: initially this consisted of four Vickers machine guns and twelve Lewis machine guns, although four Lewis guns were later removed. Two sets of quadruple 21-inch torpedo tubes were fitted. Four 3-pounder quick-firing Hotchkiss guns were used as saluting guns. During her 1939 modernisation, the four single 4-inch guns were replaced by four twin Mark XVI guns. The torpedo tubes were removed in 1942, and the 8-inch 'X' turret was taken off in 1945.

The close-range anti-aircraft armament of the ship fluctuated during her career. During the mid-1930s, two quadruple .5-inch machine gun mounts were installed to supplement the .303-inch weapons. These were replaced in late 1943 by seven single 20mm Oerlikons. By early 1944, all seven Oerlikons had been upgraded to double mountings. These were in turn replaced by eight single 40 mm Bofors guns in 1945.

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A Supermarine Walrus stowed on Australia's catapult while the ship was alongside in Brisbane during 1937

Australia was designed to carry a single amphibious aircraft: a Supermarine Seagull III aircraft, which was replaced in 1936 by a Supermarine Walrus.[3] Both aircraft were operated by the Royal Australian Air Force's Fleet Co-operation Unit; initially by No. 101 Flight RAAF, which was expanded in 1936 to form No. 5 Squadron RAAF, then renumbered in 1939 to No. 9 Squadron RAAF. As the aircraft catapult was not installed until September 1935, the Seagull was initially lowered into the water by the ship's recovery crane to launch under its own power. The catapult and Walrus were removed in October 1944.

Armour aboard Australia was initially limited to an armour deck over the machinery spaces and magazines, ranging from 1.5 to 3 inches (38 to 76 mm) in thickness. Armour plate was also fitted to the turrets (up to 2 inches (51 mm) thick) and the conning tower (3 inches (76 mm) thick). Anti-torpedo bulges were also fitted. During 1938 and 1939, belt armour up to 4.5 inches (110 mm) thick was fitted along the waterline to provide additional protection to the propulsion machinery.

Acquisition and construction
Australia was ordered in 1924 as part of a five-year plan to develop the RAN. She was laid down by John Brown and Company at their shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, on 26 August 1925. The cruiser was launched on 17 March 1927 by Dame Mary Cook, wife of Sir Joseph Cook, the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and former Australian Prime Minister.

The cruiser was initially fitted with short exhaust funnels, but during sea trials of Australia and other Kent-class ships, it was found that smoke from the boilers was affecting the bridge and aft control position. The funnel design was subsequently lengthened by 15 feet (4.6 m); the taller funnels on the under-construction HMAS Canberra were later switched over to Australia as she neared completion.

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Australia under way during sea trials. The original, shorter exhaust funnels are still fitted to the cruiser.

When the ship's badge came up for consideration on 26 December 1926, both Richard Lane-Poole, commander of the Australian Squadron, and William Napier, First Naval Member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board disapproved of the design previously carried by the battlecruiser Australia, and requested new designs. On 26 July 1927, it was decided to use the Coat of arms of Australia as the basis for the badge, with the shield bearing the symbols of the six states and the Federation Star crest depicted in the design. No motto was given to the ship, but when the badge design was updated prior to the planned 1983 acquisition of the British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible (which was to be renamed HMAS Australia), the motto from the battlecruiser, "Endeavour", was added.

The warship was commissioned into the RAN on 24 April 1928. Construction of Australia cost 1.9 million pounds, very close to the estimated cost. Australia and sister ship HMAS Canberra (also constructed by John Brown) were the only County-class vessels built in Scotland.

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Australia transiting the Panama Canal in March 1935


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Australia_(D84)
 
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