HMS Valerian (1916)

After the commissioning, the Valerian completed security tasks off the British east coast, being used in 1917 and 1918 mainly to monitor coastal convoy routes and the mine barriers of the North Sea Mine Barrage. The sloop was not involved in combat operations, although it was briefly suspected that the she had sunk the German submarine SM U-99 in the northern North Sea in July 1917. However, this submarine was sunk by the British submarine HMS J2.

Valerian recommissioned at Devonport with Commander Hugh Turnour England, five other officers, and 96 Ratings on 29 December, 1920, and was assigned with sister ship HMS Wistaria to the America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard (HMD Bermuda) on Ireland Island in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, where she arrived on the 2nd of April, 1921,[1] and recommissioned there on 27 February, 1923, under Commander Evan Bruce-Gardyne, DSO, and six other officers.[2] Valerian re-commissioned there again on 22 July, 1925, under Commander William Arthur Usher and six other officers.[3][4]

On 21 October 1922, Bermuda was struck with little warning by a hurricane which caused extensive damage ashore,[5] primarily removing roof slates from homes,[6] commercial and government buildings, including at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Boaz Island, Prospect Camp and St. George's Garrison. The Captain of HMS Valerian was attending a function at Prospect Camp the night before as the storm approached and, not liking the look of the weather, returned to his ship at the dockyard. HMS Valerian, berthed alongside at the Royal Naval Dockyard (preparing to depart the next day on a cruise, having spent the 7 to 16 September in Admiralty Floating Dock No. 1, or "AFD1", having her bottom cleaned and re-painted), lost its main mast and wireless aerial, and was pushed so forcefully from the wharf that a hawser that secured her aft cut through her side. The storm caused two fatalities, including a sailor from HMS Capetown who fell into the camber and drowned. A skiff was sent by HMS Valerian,[7] and a sailor from HMS Valerian, a cook named McKenyon, dove overboard but was unable to save him.[8][9]

Four years later, HMS Valerian, under her Captain, Commander W. A. Usher, was returning to HM Dockyard Bermuda from providing hurricane relief in the Bahamas (her second post-hurricane mission of mercy to the British West Indies that autumn), trailed by another hurricane. A shortage of coal in the Bahamas had forced her to put to sea with only enough to complete her journey, which meant that her mass, and hence her displacement, was a great deal less than would normally be the case, reducing her stability in rough seas. She last radioed after sighting Gibb's Hill Lighthouse early in the morning of the 22 October 1926, at which time the crew saw no sign of an approaching storm. By the time she reached the Five Fathom Hole, she was being overtaken by the storm and conditions were too rough to risk the channel through the reefs. The crew were forced to turn southward to obtain sea room from the reefline lest they be driven on the rocks, and headed directly into the storm. She fought the storm for more than five hours, but after the eye passed overhead conditions became more dangerous with the wind more powerful and no longer coming from the same direction as the sea. As the ship's Captain, Commander William Arthur Usher, described at the Court Martial:

Just before 1300, a series of squalls struck the ship on the port side with a fury that beggars all description. The ship was thrown on her beam ends, heeling 70 degrees over to starboard. The helm was hard-a-port, to keep her head to sea, but this was evidently holding her over and on letting go the helm and putting it hard-a-starboard, the ship righted and came slowly up to the wind, wallowing heavily in the trough of the sea as she came round. It was at this moment the mainmast and wireless were carried away. The ship was brought within about 6 points of the wind, but these tremendous squalls kept forcing her over to leeward and it seemed only a matter of moments before the ship must go. Soon after the engines stopped and the report came up that the ship was ashore but this seems more than doubtful as nothing was felt on the bridge, and although the ship was in a mass of blinding spray, nothing in the nature of breakers was seen. At the time the engines stopped the ship was heeled over to about 60 and then went slowly over.

The ship sank with most of her crew going overboard without lifeboats or rafts. Men clung to floating wreckage. The Captain was one of 28 on or clinging to the same raft.

The N.W. wind felt bitterly cold to those parts which were exposed, Sunset came and as it grew dark we looked for Gibbs Hill Light or some other Light, as we had no idea of our position, but nothing was seen, not even the glare. The twelve hours of night, with waves breaking over us, were an experience never to be forgotten and many gave up during that time. They got slowly exhausted and filled up with water and then slipped away. The raft was slowly losing its buoyancy and as everyone wanted, as far as possible, to sit on the edge, it capsized about every 20 minutes, which was exhausting; we all swallowed water in the process and the effort of climbing back again began to tell. Twelve held out until the end, when H.M.S. "Capetown" was most thankfully sighted at about 1000 the following day.

In all, 85 of her crew were lost with the Valerian. The British merchant ship Eastway was also sunk near Bermuda.[10] When the centre of the storm passed over Bermuda, winds increased to 114 mph (183 km/h) at Prospect Camp, whereupon the Army took down its anemometer to protect it. The Royal Naval Dockyard was being hammered and never took its anemometer down. It measured 138 mph (222 km/h) at 13:00 UTC, before the wind destroyed it.[11] This roughly coincided with the moment Valerian was overwhelmed.

The report of the court martial of the survivors of the Valerian included survivors' descriptions of her loss:[12]

MEMBERS OF THE COURT.
The Court was composed of: -
Captain A. B. Cunningham, D.S.O., Chief of Staff, North America and West Indies Station, H.M.S. Calcutta;
Captain A. T. Tillard, D.S.O., H.M.S. Malabar.
Captain H. D. Bridges, D.S.O., H.M.S. Curlew.
Captain A. M. Lecky, D.S.O., H.M.S. Colombo.
Commander H. B. Maltby, H.M.S. Calcutta.
Captain O. H. Dawson, H.M.S. Capetown, was Prosecutor, and Paymaster-Commander G. H. DeDenne, D.S.O., H.M.S. Calcutta (Admiral's Secretary), was Deputy Judge Advocate.
Commander W.A. Usher, who was in command of the Valerian, Lieutenant F. G. Hughes, Navigator, and the other 17 members of the crew who were saved, attended the Court as the accused.

Among its findings, the Court determined "that there was no error in navigation. Nothing the Commanding Officer could do would have diverted the loss of the ship, and that no blame is attributable to the survivors whose conduct throughout was exemplary", and "The Court is of opinion that none of the survivors are to blame and formally acquits them".