HMS Niger (1892)

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flag
Alarm class
HMS Niger (1893)
HMS Niger (1893)
Overview
Type Torpedo gunboat
minesweeper
units 10 + 1
Shipyard

Naval Construction & Armament , Barrow

Keel laying September 17, 1891
Launch December 17, 1892
delivery April 25, 1893
Namesake the African river Niger
Whereabouts November 11, 1914 torpedoed and sunk
Technical specifications
displacement

810 ts

length

73.81 m over everything
70.1 m pp

width

8.23 m

Draft

3.66 m

crew

91 men

drive

4 locomotive boilers,
2 triple expansion machines ,
up to 3500 PSi, 2 shafts

speed

18.7 kn (35 km / h )

Range

2500 nm at 10 kn

Bunker quantity

100 tn.l., maximum 160 tn.l.

Armament

2 × 120 mm rapid fire cannons
4 × 47 mm (3 pounder) cannons
3 × 18 inch torpedo tubes
1 × five-barreled Gardner Gun

The fifth HMS Niger the Royal Navy was a 1893 finished Torpedo - gunboat . The Niger belonged to the alarm class comprising eleven boats .

Like many other boats of the class and type, the boat was converted to a minesweeper in 1909 . Niger was lost in the First World War on November 11, 1914. The German submarine U 12 under Walter Forstmann torpedoed the Niger in the Strait of Dover before Deal . It was the first sinking of an enemy warship by a German ship that had sailed from the bases won in Flanders.

Building history

The Alarm class was designed by Sir William White in 1889 as an improved version of the preceding Sharpshooter class . The boats were 242 ft (73.81 m) in length overall, 27 ft (8.23 m) wide and displaced 810 tn. l. The ten boats of the Admiralty draft were propelled by two vertical triple expansion engines of 3500 PSi. The steam for the machines was two locomotive boilers and they worked on two screws. With the artificial train that was widespread at the time, the machines gave the boats a top speed of up to 18.7 knots (kn) (34.6 km / h). However, most of the boats struggled to actually reach this speed. The boats had a coal supply of 100 to 160 tons. l. and had a crew of 91 men.

The Niger was one of three boats of the class built by Barrow Shipbuilding . Her keel was laid on September 17, 1891, and it was launched on December 17, 1892. The Niger was delivered on April 25, 1893.

Armament

The boats were completed with two 4.7-inch (12 cm) rapid-fire cannons , four 3-pounder (47-mm) Hotchkiss cannons and a Gardner machine gun . Niger was one of the boats of the class that received 18-inch torpedo tubes . Like the Jason and Jaseur, also built in Barrow, and Onyx by Laird and Speedy by Thornycroft, it had a rigid tube in the bow and two swiveling individual tubes on the sides of the boat. Like her sister ships, the "torpedo gunboat" came into service at the same time as the first "torpedo boat destroyers" (see HMS Havock ), which proved to be faster and better suited to escort the battle fleet and protect against enemy torpedo boats.

Inserts of Niger

The Niger was one of the Alarm- class boats that took part in the fleet parade in Spithead on June 26, 1897 on the occasion of Queen Victoria 's 60th anniversary to the throne . In 1900 a major overhaul of the boat took place at Palmers in Jarrow , during which the boat received a new drive system with water tube boilers of the Reed type. The boat was used from 1903 by the HMS Vernon torpedo school in Portsmouth as a training ship. The conversion to a minesweeper in 1909 did not change the use of the boat until 1914.

After the outbreak of the World War, the Niger moved , like the torpedo cannon boats Dryad and Harrier of the Dryad class used at the navigation school , to the Downs in order to secure the control of neutral ships after contraband . The boat performed this task at the beginning of November 1914.

The sinking of the Niger

The Niger was anchored about two miles from Deal Pier when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U 12 around noon on November 11, 1914 and sank. The boat was located near the control zone, where boats brought commands to the ships to be controlled. The Harrier gunboat had anchored nearby .

An explosion rang out around noon and black smoke rose from the Niger . From the bank, numerous people watched the ship begin to sink. In strong winds and rough seas, about 100 boats drove towards the Niger to help the crew and took the survivors on board. About 20 minutes after the explosion, the ship sank. Some of the survivors, who were surprised at lunch and some of them were only lightly dressed, were driven to the Royal Marine Hospital. Some were placed with helpers in Deal, 30 were transported on to Ramsgate . Muir testified that he could see the torpedo that destroyed his ship, but did not provide any further information, at least immediately after the Niger was sunk . A smaller ship flying the Dutch flag had anchored near the Niger for two or three days and went out to sea shortly before it was torpedoed in unsuitable weather. It was speculated that this vehicle had been sailing under a false flag and may have covered the movements of the German submarine.

All officers and 77 men of the crew survived the sinking. 15 men could not be saved (otherwise)
The commander, Lieutenant-Commander Arthur Thomas Muir, seriously injured in the explosion, stayed on the bridge until all the other crew members had left the ship.

Others

The Niger was the first ship that U-boat commander Walter Forstmann sank. Forstmann was one of the most successful commander of the Imperial Navy in the First World War . It was also the first sinking of an Allied warship by a German ship stationed in occupied Flanders.

At the time of the torpedoing, the Niger was the lead ship of the association that had to carry out the control of passing ships. This was commanded by Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson , who later became known for the transport of two warships to Lake Tanganyika . Spicer Simson, who had taken over this command a few weeks ago, was not on board at the time of the torpedoing, but was dining in the company of women in a hotel in Deal.

The wreck of the Niger lies at position 51 ° 13 ′ 14 ″  N , 1 ° 26 ′ 24 ″  E. Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 14 ″  N , 1 ° 26 ′ 24 ″  E at a depth of 12 to 14 meters and is sometimes Target of wreck divers.

The Alarm- class torpedo gunboats

The Thornycroft built Speedy

Of the ten boats that were built according to the Admiralty Draft, four were built at the State Shipyard in Sheerness and the Antelope in Portsmouth . The private shipyards Laird Brothers in Birkenhead and Barrow Shipbuilding were commissioned to build the other five boats. In addition, the Speedy was added to the class , which was created by John I. Thornycroft in Chiswick based on a factory design. This boat had a different propulsion system with water tube boilers from the shipyard and three chimneys. She was the only torpedo cannon boat in the Royal Navy that reached a speed of over 20 knots.

Surname Shipyard Launch in service fate
HMS  Jason Barrow Shipbuilding ,
Barrow-in-Furness 		05/14/1892 07/11/1893 1909 Minesweeper, sunk April 7, 1917 after being hit by a mine
HMS Circe Sheerness Dockyard , Sheerness 06/14/1892 02/11/1893 1909 minesweeper, sold for demolition in July 1920
HMS lifting Sheerness Dockyard 06/15/1892 10/9/1894 1909 minesweeper, May 1910 submarine tender, sold for demolition in October 1919
HMS Onyx Laird Brothers ,
Birkenhead 		September 7, 1892 1.1894 1907 U-boat tender, renamed Vulcan II after the end of the war , sold for demolition in August 1924
HMS Leda Sheerness Dockyard 13.09.1892 March 22, 1894 1909 minesweeper, sold for demolition in July 1920, scrapped in Germany in 1922
HMS alarm Sheerness Dockyard 13.09.1892 3.1894 sold for demolition in April 1907
HMS Jaseur Barrow Shipbuilding 09/24/1892 02/13/1893 sold for demolition in July 1905
HMS Renard Laird Brothers 12/6/1892 1.1894 sold for demolition in April 1905
HMS Niger Barrow Shipbuilding 12/17/1892 04/25/1893 1909 Minesweeper torpedoed and sunk on November 11, 1914
HMS Speedy Thornycroft ,
Chiswick 		05/18/1893 02/20/1894 Draft by the shipyard, 1909 minesweeper, sunk on September 3, 1914 after being hit by a mine
HMS  Antelope Devonport Dockyard ,
Plymouth 		07/12/1893 07/18/1894 August 1910 Harbor ship, sold for demolition in May 1919

Renewed use of the name

The name of the African river Niger , which was first given to a Royal Navy ship in 1759, was followed by two other Royal Navy units: the torpedo cannon boat:

  • In 1936 the Navy received a unit with this name again with the minesweeping sloop Niger (J73) of the Halcyon class built by White . She sank on June 4, 1942 near Iceland by a mine hit (148 dead) when she ran into a British minefield due to a navigation error.
  • In September 1945 a new Algerine class mine sweeper was named Niger (J442), which was scrapped in 1966.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels and some of their movements: HMS Niger, 1892
  2. ↑ http://www.worldnavalships.com/directory/shipinfo.php?ShipID=2003
  3. ^ Alarm Class Torpedo Gunboat (1892), Armament
  4. ^ Preston: Destroyers , pp. 9ff.
  5. ^ The Times, July 7, 1900: Naval & Military intelligence, page 6
  6. ^ The Times, London, November 12, 1914, p. 8
  7. ↑ Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, Wednesday, November 11, 1914 named 15 dead
  8. ↑ HMS Niger Torpedo Gun Boat "There were no casualties".
  9. ↑ Ships hit during WWI: HMS Niger "casualties: 1"
  10. ↑ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18333/18333-h/18333-h.htm
  11. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.u-boot-net.de
  12. ↑ http://www.warwickandwarwick.com/pages/medals.htm
  13. ↑ Hans-Volker Gretschel, A question of time or the endless journey of the 'Liemba'. Alex Capus' African novel , in: Hannelore van Ryneveld and Janina Wozniak (eds.), Single Walk and Return through the Ages. Unknown Passages - New Beginnings. Festschrift for Gunther Pakendorf , African Sun Media 2010, ISBN 978-1-920338-46-6 , pp. 111–130, here p. 114
  14. ↑ http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?11620
  15. ↑ Alarm Class Torpedo Gunboat (1892)

Remarks

  1. ↑ The other six boats in the class received five 14 inch torpedo tubes. A rigid bow tube and two pivoting twin sets on the boat sides; for these three torpedoes were carried for reloading.
  2. ↑ Sometimes the name is incorrectly given as AP Muir.
  3. ↑ In most of the documents, the Naval Construction and Armaments Company in Barrow-in-Furness is named as a shipyard, a designation that m. E. was only created when it was taken over by Vickers in 1897

literature

  • Roger Chesneau, Eugène M. Koleśnik, NJM Campbell: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
  • Bodo Herzog: 60 years of German submarines 1906-1966 , JFLehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968
  • Antony Preston: Destroyers , Hamlyn, London a. a. 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0

Web links

Commons : Alarm class  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files