HMS Dartmouth (1911)

HMS Dartmouth was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. She was one of the Weymouth sub-class of the Town class. The ship survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1930.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Dartmouth.

History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Dartmouth
NamesakeDartmouth, Devon
BuilderVickers
Laid down19 February 1910
Launched14 February 1911
Commissioned16 October 1911
FateSold for scrapping, 13 December 1930
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeTown-class light cruiser
Displacement5,275 long tons (5,360 t)
Length
  • 430 ft (131.1 m) p/p
  • 453 ft (138.1 m) o/a
Beam47 ft 6 in (14.5 m)
Draught15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) (mean)
Installed power
Propulsion2 × shafts; 2 × Parsons steam turbines
Speed25 kn (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range5,610 nautical miles (10,390 km; 6,460 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement475
Armament
Armour

Construction and design

Dartmouth was laid down by Vickers at their Barrow shipyard on 19 February 1910, one of four Town-class protected cruisers ordered under the 1909–1910 Naval Estimates. The four 1909–10 ships, also known as the Weymouth class, were an improved version of five similar Town-class ships laid down under the 1908–1909 Estimates, known as the Bristol class, with a heavier main armament of eight 6 inch (152 mm) Mk XI guns, compared with the two 6 inch and ten 4 inch of the earlier ships.[1][2] The ships had a secondary armament of four Vickers 3-pounder (47 mm) guns, with two submerged 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes mounted on the ships' beams.[1][3]

Dartmouth was 453 feet (138.07 m) long overall, with a beam of 48 feet 6 inches (14.78 m) and a draught of 15 feet 6 inches (4.72 m). She displaced 5,250 long tons (5,330 t) normal and 5,800 long tons (5,900 t) deep load. Machinery was the same as in the Bristol class, with 12 Yarrow boilers feeding Parsons steam turbines, driving four shafts. The turbines were laid out in three separate engine rooms, with high pressure turbines, located in wing compartments, driving the outer shafts and low pressure turbines in a central compartment. The engines were rated at 22,000 shaft horsepower (16,000 kW), giving a design speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). The ship had four funnels.[1][4]

Dartmouth was launched on 14 February 1911,[4][5][lower-alpha 1] reaching a speed of 25.9 knots (48.0 km/h; 29.8 mph) during sea trials.[8] She was completed in October 1911,[1] at a cost of £320,406.[9]

Service history
Cruiser HMS Dartmouth

On commissioning, Dartmouth joined the Atlantic Fleet,[10] being attached to the Third Battle Squadron from 1912 to 1913.[1] After a 1913 cruise to the Mediterranean Sea, she was briefly attached to the Second Light Cruiser Squadron at Devonport to participate in the 1913 Naval Manoeuvres before leaving to join the East Indies Squadron of the Eastern Fleet.[1][11][12]

On the outbreak of the First World War, Dartmouth was docked at Bombay, but was soon returned to sea,[13] escorting a troop convoy from Karachi to Mombasa in Kenya and then taking part in the search for the German cruiser Königsberg. On 9 October that year she captured the German tug Adjutant in the Mozambique Channel.[1][14] On 30 October, the cruiser HMS Chatham spotted Königsberg moored up the Rufiji delta, and on 2 November, Dartmouth attempted to engage Königsberg or the supporting steamer Somali but the German ships were too far upstream to be successfully engaged.[15][16] On 10 November, the British scuttled the collier Newbridge in the Rufiji River as a blockship to prevent Königsberg from escaping, and on 11 November, Dartmouth left to reinforce the Cape of Good Hope Station in the aftermath of the Battle of Coronel.[17][14] In January 1915, Dartmouth was reassigned to the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet but was detached to operate in the South Atlantic in the search for the commerce raider SMS Karlsruhe.[1][18] (Unknown to the Royal Navy, Karlsruhe had already been lost, sunk by an internal explosion on 4 November 1914 near Barbados.)[19]

In February 1915, Dartmouth was sent to join the forces operating off the Dardanelles in support of the Gallipoli Campaign.[1][18] On 15 March she suffered a boiler explosion that killed 15 of her crew.[20][21] Despite this damage, Dartmouth continued operations, and on 18 March Dartmouth patrolled off the West coast of the Gallipoli peninsula while a final attempt was made by the battleships of the fleet to force the straits during daylight. The attack was a failure, with three battleships sunk by mines, and several more ships heavily damages by mines or by Turkish gunfire. Dartmouth escorted the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible, badly damaged by striking a mine, to Tenedos.[22][23] On 25 April, the Allies landed troops at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula, with Dartmouth taking part in a diversionary simulated landing further north, at Bulair.[22]

In May 1915, Dartmouth was reassigned to the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron at Brindisi, supporting Italian forces in the Adriatic Sea.[1][24] Dartmouth's speed had been reduced to 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) by the boiler explosion in March,[25] and further boiler problems had reduced her speed to 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) by June 1915.[26] As a result, on 30 June Dartmouth paid off at Malta for a refit, not recommissioning until 1 October.[27] On 28 December 1915, an Austrian force of cruisers and destroyers raided the port of Durazzo in Albania, and Dartmouth, together with the Italian cruiser Quarto and several French destroyers, set off to intercept the returning Austrian force, later being joined by Dartmouth's sister ship Weymouth and the Italian cruiser Nino Bixio. In the resulting Battle off Durazzo, Dartmouth scored several hits on the Austrian cruiser SMS Helgoland.[28]

On 14/15 May 1917, Dartmouth took part in the Battle of the Otranto Straits. A force of three Austro-Hungarian cruisers (Helgoland, Novara and Saida carried out an attack on the drifters of the Otranto Barrage, while two destroyers Csepel and Warasdiner carried out a diversionary attack against merchant shipping off Albania.[29] The two destroyers attacked an Italian convoy at about 03:30 Central European Time (CET), sinking the Italian destroyer Borea and the freighter Carrocio, with the main cruiser attack on the drifter line starting at about 04:20 CET, with 14 of the lightly armed drifters sunk and four more damaged.[30] Dartmouth, with the Italian Admiral Alfredo Acton, the overall commander of the Allied naval response aboard, left Brindisi at 05:36 CET in company with the Italian destroyers Simone Schiaffino and Giovanni Acerbi, and was joined in the pursuit of the Austro-Hungarian cruisers by the Italian scout Aquila and the British cruiser Bristol.[31] Dartmouth was hit several times by shellfire from Austro-Hungarian cruisers which she was pursuing, and had to heave to. Returning to port she was hit by a torpedo from the German submarine UC-25 and began sinking. The order to abandon ship was given but a small team volunteered to remain on board manning the pumps while the Dartmouth was towed to port.

Dartmouth was drydocked and repaired and went on to survive the war, following which she was assigned to the America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard, on Ireland Island in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, where she was damaged by a hurricane in 1922, while simultaneously fighting a fire.[32]

She was sold for scrapping on 13 December 1930 to Alloa Ship Breaking Company of Rosyth.[6][33]

Notes
  1. Gardiner and Gray[1] and Dittmar and Colledge[6] state a launch date of 14 December 1910, while Lyon[7] says Dartmouth was launched on 13 February.

Citations
  1. Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 52.
  2. Brown 2010, pp. 63–64.
  3. Lyon Warship Vol. 1 No. 2, p. 57.
  4. The Engineer 17 February 1911, p. 174.
  5. "News in Brief - Launch of the Dartmouth". The Times. 15 February 1911. p. 7 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  6. Dittmar and Colledge 1972, p. 45.
  7. Lyon Warship Vol. 1 No. 3, p. 50.
  8. Hythe 1912, p. 26.
  9. Hythe 1912, p. 187.
  10. "NMM, vessel ID 383247" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol v. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  11. "Fleets and Squadrons at Home and Abroad: Second Fleet: Cruisers". The Navy List: 269b. August 1913. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  12. "Fleets and Squadrons at Home and Abroad: Administrative Distribution of the Second Fleet". The Navy List: 270. August 1913. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  13. Corbett, Julian S. "History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Volume 1, to the Battle of the Falklands December 1914 (Part 1 of 2)". Naval-History.net. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  14. Corbett, Julian S. "History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Volume 1, to the Battle of the Falklands December 1914 (Part 2 of 2)". Naval-History.net. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  15. The Naval Review Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 481–483.
  16. From the Royal Navy log book for HMS Dartmouth, 2 November 1914. Transcribed by the Old Weather[?] project.
  17. The Naval Review Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 485–486.
  18. Corbett, Julian S. "History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Volume 2, December 1914 to Spring 1915 (Part 1 of 2)". Naval-History.net. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  19. Massie 2007, p. 286.
  20. From the Royal Navy log book for HMS Dartmouth, 14 March 1915. Transcribed by the Old Weather[?] project.
  21. Kindell, Don. "1st - 31st March 1915: in date, ship/unit & name order". World War 1 - Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies. Naval-History.net. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  22. Corbett, Julian S. "History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Volume 2, December 1914 to Spring 1915 (Part 2 of 2)". Naval-History.net. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  23. From the Royal Navy log book for HMS Dartmouth, 18 March 1915. Transcribed by the Old Weather[?] project.
  24. Halpern 2004, pp. 15–17.
  25. Naval Staff Monograph No. 21, p. 144.
  26. Naval Staff Monograph No. 21, p. 152.
  27. Naval Staff Monograph No. 21, pp. 178, 209.
  28. Newbolt, Henry. "History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Volume IV, June 1916 to April 1917 (Part 1 of 2)". Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  29. Halpern 1987, p. 358.
  30. Halpern 2004, pp. 54–56, 60–67.
  31. Halpern 2004, pp. 71–73.
  32. "HURRICANE STRIKES BERMUDA WITH FULL FORCE (continued)". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 23 September 1922. p. 6. Commissioners' House was exposed to every angle of the storm, but suffered comparatively slight damage though a length of wall of considerable strength was laid low, carrying with it the poultry run and playing havoc amongst its Inmates.
    The dry canteen got wet, we are told, and suffered a little damage.
    In the Keep Yard the force of the wind blew open a magazine door, while roofs of buildings in the Victualling Yard were badly damaged, the subsequent leakage of water spoiling portions of the stores kept there. The Dockyard Church was in a sad state, the floor being covered with water, a couple of inches deep.
    In the Cambre, the dock, with H.M.S. "Capetown" inside, was half-sunk by the Dockyard authorities in order to afford less resistance to the storm, and came through the ordeal unscathed, though a battle practice target also in the dock received some damage.
    H.M.S. Constance" broke adrift from her bow-lines and was only secured with considerable difficulty. H.M.S. "Valerian" lost her after-mast, while H.M.S. "Dartmouth's" fore-topmast also went by the board.
    To add to the excitement of the morning a fire broke out on board "Dartmouth," due, we believe to a defect in the oil-fuel system, which resisted the efforts of the ship's crew and necessitated the assistance of the three steam fire engines from the Dockyard stations. The fire was then promptly subdued, and the "Dartmouth" has suffered no material damage, we are told.
    The residential portion of Ireland Island while bearing the evidence of a heavy battering shows no signs of serious damage, slates blown off roofs and a few chimneys dislocated being the sum total of the gale's work on the houses.
    On the low-lying ground on which the pumping-station stands however, the storm wreaked its vengeance on several dinghies fitted with outboard motors, and reduced them to pulp-wood. Amongst the smashed boats are those of Messrs. Mastin, Spriddle, and Butler. These boats had all been drawn well up from the water in view of the storm warnings received, but the gale would not be gainsaid.
  33. Lyon Warship Vol. 1 No. 3, p. 51.

Bibliography
  • "Action of May 15, 1917 in the Adriatic; and the Torpedoing of the Dartmouth" (PDF). The Naval Review. 7 (3): 379–384. 1919.
  • Brown, David K. (2010). The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development 1906–1922. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-085-7.
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J.J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
  • Friedman, Norman (2010). British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8.
  • Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
  • Halpern, Paul G. (1987). The Naval War in the Mediterranean 1914–1918. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-448-9.
  • Halpern, Paul G. (2004). The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in WWI. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34379-8.
  • "H.M. Cruiser Dartmouth" (PDF). The Engineer. Vol. 111. 17 February 1911. p. 174.
  • Hythe, Thomas, ed. (1912). "The Naval Annual". Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Monograph No. 21: The Mediterranean 1914–1915 (PDF). Naval Staff Monographs (Historical). Vol. VIII. The Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division. 1923.
  • Moore, John E., ed. (2001). Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. London: Random House Group, Ltd. ISBN 1-85170-378-0.
  • "Narrative of Proceedings of H.M.S. Chatham" (PDF). The Naval Review. 3 (3): 471–487. 1915.
  • Lyon, David (1977). "The First Town Class 1908–31: Part 2". Warship. 1 (2): 54–61. ISBN 0-85177-132-7.
  • Lyon, David (1977). "The First Town Class 1908–31: Part 3". Warship. 1 (3): 46–51. ISBN 0-85177-132-7.
  • Massie, Robert K. (2007). Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-099-52378-9.
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