HMS Vengeance (1899)

Launch of HMS Vengeance (1899)

HMS Vengeance was laid down by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness on 23 August 1898 and launched on 25 July 1899. Her completion was delayed by damage to the fitting-out dock, and she was not completed until April 1902. She was the first British battleship completely built, armed, and engined by a single company.[4] HMS Vengeance was commissioned at Portsmouth by Captain Leslie Creery Stuart on 8 April 1902 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet.[5] She left the United Kingdom early the following month,[6] arriving at Malta on 12 May.[7] In September 1902 she visited the Aegean sea with other ships of the station for combined manoeuvres near Nauplia,[8] and two months later she was back visiting Plataea.[9] In July 1903 she transferred to the China Station to relieve her sister ship Goliath, and underwent a refit at Hong Kong in 1903–1904.[10]

In 1905, the United Kingdom and Japan ratified a treaty of alliance, reducing the need for a large Royal Navy presence on the China Station and prompting a recall of all battleships from the station.[11] Vengeance was recalled on 1 June 1905[10] and proceeded to Singapore, where she and her sister ship Albion rendezvoused with their sister Ocean and the battleship Centurion. The four battleships departed Singapore on 20 June 1905 and steamed home in company, arriving at Plymouth on 2 August 1905.[11] Vengeance paid off into the Devonport Reserve on 23 August 1905, and underwent a refit that lasted into 1906[10] during which her machinery was repaired.[12]

On 15 May 1906, Vengeance commissioned for service in the Channel Fleet. She transferred to the Home Fleet on 6 May 1908, and on 13 June 1908 was damaged in a collision with the merchant ship SS Begore Head at Portsmouth.[10] She moved to the Nore Division, Home Fleet, at the Nore in February 1909, where she became a parent ship to special service vessels, and grounded in the Thames Estuary on 28 February 1909 without damage. In April 1909, she became tender to the Chatham Dockyard gunnery school, where she acted as a gunnery drill ship. On 29 November 1910, Vengeance suffered another mishap when she collided in fog with the merchant ship SS Biter, suffering damage to her side, net shelf, and net booms. Vengeance then served in the 6th Battle Squadron based at Portland, then became a gunnery training ship at the Nore in January 1913.[12][13]The 6th Squadron, together with the 5th Battle Squadron, formed the core of the Second Fleet.[14]

Vengeance in 1908

On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the Royal Navy mobilised to meet the German High Seas Fleet. On 7 August, the 6th Battle Squadron was dissolved, the more modern Duncan-class battleships being transferred to the Grand Fleet;[15] Vengeance was assigned to the 8th Battle Squadron, Channel Fleet. The 8th Squadron was tasked with patrol duties in the English Channel and Atlantic,[12] though Vengeance was quickly transferred to the 7th Battle Squadron on 15 August 1914 to relieve the battleship Prince George as the squadron flagship. Shortly thereafter, half of the 7th Squadron battleships were dispersed to strengthen the detached cruiser squadrons patrolling for German commerce raiders, leaving only Vengeance, Prince George, Caesar, and Goliath and the protected cruiser Proserpine. She covered the landing of the Plymouth Marine Battalion at Ostend, Belgium, on 25 August 1914. For this operation, she and the other five ships of the squadron, along with six destroyers, escorted the troopships; at the same time, elements of the Grand Fleet attacked the German patrol line off Heligoland to occupy the High Seas Fleet.[13][16]

In November 1914, she was transferred to Alexandria to replace a pair of older French vessels, the battleship Bouvet and the armoured cruiser Amiral Charner that had in turn relieved the armoured cruisers Black Prince and Warrior as guard ships for the Suez Canal.[17] She later moved on to the Cape Verde-Canary Islands Station to relieve Albion as guard ship at Saint Vincent.[18][12]

Map showing the Ottoman defences at the Dardanelles in 1915

On 22 January 1915, Vengeance was selected to take part in the Dardanelles campaign. She stopped at Gibraltar that month to embark Admiral John de Robeck and become second flagship of the Dardanelles squadron, and arrived at the Dardanelles in February 1915.[12][19][20] Admiral Sackville Carden, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, devised a plan to force the straits and attack the Ottoman capital by neutralising the Ottoman coastal defences at long range, clearing the minefields in the Dardanelles, and then entering the Sea of Marmara.[21]

Vengeance participated in the opening bombardment of the Ottoman Turkish entrance forts on 18 February and 19 February 1915, though her role as de Robeck's flagship limited her to observing the fire of the other ships in his formation. The battleship Cornwallis developed problems with her capstan and so could not anchor in her firing position, forcing Vengeance to take her place. She bombarded the Orkanie fortress with direct fire, but aerial reconnaissance proved that the fortress guns had not been disabled. Nevertheless, Carden ordered Vengeance and several other battleships to close with their targets and engage them at close range. The French battleship Suffren joined Vengeance in shelling Orkanie. Later in the afternoon, both ships began to engage a battery at Kumkale with their main guns, while their secondary battery kept firing at Orkanie. At 16:10, Carden ordered them to cease fire and inspect the fortification. On closing, Vengeance came under heavy fire from Orkanie and a battery at Cape Helles. Contre-amiral (Rear Admiral) Émile Guépratte, the commander of the French contingent, later wrote that "the daring attack of the Vengeance in flinging herself against the forts when their fire was in no way reduced was one of the finest episodes of the day." She suffered some damage to her masts and rigging from gunfire from the forts, but she was not hit directly. Several other battleships came to her aid, and at 17:20, Carden ordered a retreat.[19][22]

On 25 February, Vengeance took part in another attack on the Dardanelles fortresses. Along with Cornwallis and the French battleships Suffren and Charlemagne, she led the assault, which was supported by one French and three British battleships. Once the four supporting battleships had taken up their positions and begun firing at long range to suppress the Ottoman batteries, Vengeance and Cornwallis made the first pass at close range, intending to destroy the guns with direct hits. De Robeck took Vengeance to within 4,000 yards (3,700 m) of the fortifications at Kumkale and fired for ten minutes, before turning about to allow Cornwallis to engage the guns. The two French ships then followed, and by 15:00, the Ottoman guns had been effectively silenced, allowing for minesweepers to advance and attempt to clear the minefields; most of the fleet withdrew while the minesweepers worked, though Vengeance and the battleships Albion and Triumph remained behind to cover them. By clearing these fields, Allied warships could now enter the Dardanelles themselves, opening the route to attack additional fortifications around the town of Dardanus. While other vessels shelled the forts there, Vengeance and the battleship Irresistible sent men ashore to destroy an abandoned artillery battery near Kumkale, with both ships remaining off shore to support the raid. The men landed unopposed, but the detachment from Vengeance quickly came under fire from Ottoman infantry on the far side of Kumkale. Lieutenant-Commander Eric Gascoigne Robinson, who led Vengeance's demolition party, went forward by himself to destroy an Ottoman anti-aircraft gun, then led his detachment to destroy a second anti-aircraft gun and the one remaining gun at the Orkanie battery. For his actions, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Ottoman resistance prevented any further action, and the men returned to Vengeance.[23]

By late February, Vengeance was in need of boiler maintenance, so de Robeck transferred his flag to Irresistible while Vengeance went to Mudros for repairs. She had returned by 6 March, in time for another bombardment of the Ottoman defences; de Robeck again transferred his flag back to the ship for the operation. This time, the plan involved using Albion to spot for the powerful dreadnought battleship Queen Elizabeth, which was to fire indirectly in the hopes of being able to neutralise the Ottoman guns at a range at which they could not respond. Vengeance and three other battleships covered Albion inside the straits. The ships quickly silenced the Ottoman guns at Dardanus, but mobile artillery batteries continually forced both Albion and Queen Elizabeth to shift position, largely preventing the latter from firing and the former from relaying corrections for the few shots Queen Elizabeth had been able to make. Nightfall and the lack of progress led to the operation being called off. Two days later, Queen Elizabeth was sent into the straits in an attempt to destroy the guns with direct fire, while Vengeance and three other battleships covered her from the mobile howitzers. Poor visibility hampered Queen Elizabeth's gunners, and at 15:30 Carden called off the attack, having achieved nothing.[24]

Vengeance also took part in the main attack on the Narrows forts on 18 March 1915, by which time Carden had fallen ill and had to resign, leaving de Robeck to take overall command of the fleet. He therefore shifted his flag to Queen Elizabeth, and Vengeance returned to the Second Division as a private ship. Vengeance did not engage the Ottomans until later in the afternoon, after Bouvet had been mined and sunk. Vengeance attacked the Ottoman "Hamidieh" battery, but most of her shells fell harmlessly in the center of the fortification, away from the guns. When it became clear that the Ottoman fortresses could not be silenced in time to allow the minesweepers to begin clearing the minefields further in the straits, de Robeck ordered the fleet to withdraw. In the process, two British battleships were also mined and sunk, and the battlecruiser Inflexible had also struck a mine, though she managed to return to Malta for repairs.[25]

By late-April, the First Squadron included Vengeance, seven other battleships, and four cruisers, and was commanded by Rear Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss. The First Squadron was tasked with supporting the Landing at Cape Helles, which took place on 25 April. Vengeance and the battleship Lord Nelson were initially assigned to support the landing at Morto Bay, taking up their firing positions at 05:00 and opening fire at Ottoman positions in the heights around the bay shortly thereafter. Lord Nelson was later sent to support other landing beaches further south on the peninsula, and Vengeance was joined by Prince George. As the allied ground forces advanced on Krithia, Vengeance and several other battleships provided fire support, though the Ottomans blocked the attack in the First Battle of Krithia.[26]

Through early May, she remained off the beachhead, supporting the allied right flank along with Lord Nelson and the French battleship Jauréguiberry.[27] She supported the ground troops during the Ottoman attack on Allied positions at Anzac Cove on 19 May 1915,[19] before retiring to Mudros to replenish her fuel and ammunition. She returned to Gallipoli on 25 May to relieve her sister Canopus. A submarine attacked her that day while she was steaming up from Mudros, but Vengeance quickly turned to starboard to avoid the torpedo and fired several shots at the submarine's periscope, forcing her to withdraw.[28] By July 1915, Vengeance had boiler defects that prevented her from continuing combat operations, and she returned to the United Kingdom and paid off that month. She was under refit at Devonport until December 1915.[19]

Vengeance recommissioned in December 1915 and left Devonport on 30 December 1915 for a deployment to East Africa.[19] The Royal Navy had begun sending reinforcements to the area in November to support the East African Campaign; on her arrival there, she joined three monitors, two cruisers, two armed merchant vessels, and two gunboats.[29] While there, she supported operations leading to the capture of Dar es Salaam in 1916. In February 1917, Vengeance returned to the United Kingdom and paid off. She was laid up until February 1918, when she recommissioned for use in experiments with anti-flash equipment for the fleet's guns. She completed these in April 1918, and then was partially disarmed,[19] with four 6-inch (152-mm) main-deck casemate guns removed and four 6-inch guns being installed in open shields on the battery deck.[12] She became an ammunition store ship in May 1918. Vengeance was placed on the sale list at Devonport on 9 July 1920, and was sold for scrapping on 1 December 1921. She had an eventful trip to the scrapyard. After she departed Devonport under tow on 27 December 1921 en route to Dover, her tow rope parted in the English Channel on 29 December 1921. French tugs located her and towed her to Cherbourg, France. From there she was towed to Dover, where she finally arrived for scrapping on 9 January 1922.[19]