Edgar class (1890)
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|---|---|
| Edgar class | |
 HMS Edgar |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| units | 9 |
| Shipyard |
Devonport Dockyard |
| Keel laying | June 1889 to October 1890 |
| Launch | November 1889 to September 1892 |
| Commissioning | March 1893 to November 1894 |
| Whereabouts |
Hawke sunk in 1914, remainder canceled from 1920 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
7,770 t |
| length |
118.1 m over everything, |
| width |
18.3 m |
| Draft |
7.3 m |
| crew |
544 men |
| drive |
2 expansion |
| speed |
20 kn |
| Range |
10,000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply | |
| Sister ships |
HMS Crescent , HMS Edgar , HMS Endymion , HMS Gibraltar , HMS Grafton , HMS Hawke , HMS Royal Arthur , HMS St. George , HMS Theseus |
The Edgar class was a class of nine protected cruisers first class within the Flottenbauprogramms of 1889 for the Royal Navy were built. They mainly served on the Royal Navy stations abroad. At the beginning of the First World War , eight Edgar- class cruisers were activated for the 10th cruiser squadron, which was supposed to block the northern exit from the North Sea with the so-called Northern Patrol . The HMS Hawke was lost with 527 men on October 15, 1914 when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U 9 east of Aberdeen. Four ships of the class were provided with pronounced torpedo bulges and used from 1915 off the Dardanelles.
Building history
The Edgar -class followed the two somewhat larger ships of the Blake-class , which were the first "1st class cruisers" of the Royal Navy to be only protected cruisers and not armored cruisers . The nine ships of the class were built between 1889 and 1894 at six shipyards as part of the fleet building program of 1889 at the same time as the protected "2nd class cruisers" of the Apollo and "3. Class "type Pearl and the battleships of the Royal Sovereign - and the Centurion class built.
The Edgar class was followed by the two first class cruisers of the Powerful class , which were considerably larger at 14,000 t. This was followed by the eight Diadem-class cruisers as 1st class protected cruisers, before the Royal Navy again procured armored cruisers as "1st class cruisers" with the Cressy class from 1898 .
The main armament of the Edgar class was 234 mm L / 31.5 Mk.VI cannons as bow and stern guns, as used by the Royal Navy on 1st class cruisers since the Orlando-class armored cruisers. These cannons as heavy bow and stern guns remained the main armament of the "1st class cruisers" up to the armored cruisers of the Drake class . In addition, the Edgar -class cruisers had ten Armstrong 152 mm L / 40 rapid-fire guns. Six guns were set up on the upper deck, of which the front and rear were on slightly projecting platforms in order to have a larger field of fire. The other four guns were one deck below in casemates in the middle of the hull. For defense against torpedo boats, the cruisers still had twelve 6-pounder Hotchkiss L / 40 rapid-fire cannons distributed over the superstructures . Four 38 cm torpedo tubes completed the armament.
Of the nine ships of the Edgar class, the HMS Royal Arthur and the HMS Crescent from Portsmouth Dockyard were built according to a slightly modified design with a raised foredeck, on which two 152 mm guns the 234 mm single gun installed in the other ships replace.
The ships' machinery was only built by the shipyard at HMS Endymion and HMS Gibraltar , otherwise they were supplied. The mechanical engineering company Maudslay, Sons and Field in London supplied them for three of the cruisers. The shipyards that built two ships of the class also had different machine suppliers. All had a blower device for accelerated travel, a device common at the time. The boiler system consisted of cylinder boilers. Four ships of the class (HMS Royal Arthur , HMS Crescent , HMS St. George , HMS Gibraltar ) had a wood and copper clad underwater hull for service on tropical stations, displacing 350 tons more than the other ships and had one by 0.5 Knots reduced top speed and a slightly shorter range.
In 1915, the heavy 234 mm bow and stern guns were removed from the Edgar- class cruisers and used to arm the HMS M 15 monitors . The active cruisers received an additional 152 mm gun as a bow and stern gun. The four existing ships with a pure steel hull ( Edgar, Theseus, Endymion, Grafton ) were the first ships ever to be equipped with torpedo bulges.
Mission history
The ships of the Edgar class were mainly used on the Royal Navy stations abroad. The Mediterranean Fleet was the first duty station for HMS Edgar , HMS Hawke and HMS Theseus , the HMS Royal Arthur was flagship of the Pacific Station on the West coast of Chile to Canada , HMS Crescent made a demonstration ride to Australia before the flagship of the West Indies Station was and HMS St. George became the flagship of Cape Station and took part in the Zanzibar War on August 27, 1896 , which lasted only 38 minutes. The ships that were not assigned to a foreign station made foreign trips in the "particular service" such as Crescent in order to bring replacement crews to the foreign stations and return them. The HMS Grafton became the flagship of the cruisers of the China Squadron in 1897 , to which other cruisers of the class were also seconded.
At the end of 1898, five years after the first ships of the class had been commissioned, Edgar and Grafton had returned from China Station, Hawke and HMS Gibraltar in the Mediterranean, Royal Arthur new flagship of the Australian squadron, St. George had returned from Cape Station, Theseus and HMS Endymion for overhaul in the UK and Crescent overhaul on the Canal Fleet. By 1905, Edgar- class cruisers retired from the more prominent positions and were assigned to secondary duties or the reserve. St. George was disarmed as a cruiser in 1909 and served as a mother ship for destroyers from March 1910.
Use in World War
At the beginning of the First World War , eight of the Edgar-class cruisers were activated for the 10th Cruiser Squadron, which was supposed to block the northern exit from the North Sea with the Northern Patrol . On October 15, 1914, the Hawke was torpedoed by the German submarine U 9 . 527 men died with it, only about 65 men were rescued. Unlike the sinking of the three Cressy-class cruisers , the sister ships Theseus and Endymion did not stop . The survivors were rescued by a passing Norwegian freighter and destroyers dispatched to the sinking site. The Theseus made another trip to Kola Bay to convey the merchant ships there that the Navy would secure this route to Russia. On the way back she took Russian couriers with her.
In the Northern Patrol, the old cruisers were replaced by auxiliary cruisers . All of them gave up their heavy artillery to equip the monitors of the M 15 class under construction . Royal Arthur , Crescent and Gibraltar remained as base and guard ships with the Orkneys and Shetlands , while Edgar , Theseus , Grafton and Endymion were torpedo bulbs before use in the Mediterranean. The first three ships arrived off the Dardanelles in July 1915 .
On August 7, 1915, Theseus and Endymion landed 1,000 men each in the Bay of Suvla and gave them fire support. With the renewed landing further north, the Allies wanted to bypass the Turkish front, which failed. On October 21, the Theseus was involved in the bombardment of the Bulgarian port of Dedeagatch on the Aegean Sea. Finally she secured the retreat at Anzac Cove with the sister ship Grafton .
After the end of the war with Turkey, the Theseus was briefly in Batumi and the Grafton in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea.
The Edgar-class cruisers
| Surname | Shipyard machines from |
Data of the | Mission history | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keel laying | Launch | delivery | |||
| Edgar |
Devonport Dockyard Elder |
3.06.1889 | 11/24/1890 | 2.03.1893 | 1893 to 1894 Mediterranean, 1895 to 1896 in China , 48 seamen lost with steamboat at Nagasaki, November 1897 to 1900 back to China, 1901 to 1903 reserve in Devonport, stationary training ship in Holyhead, 1904 overhaul in Chatham, 1905 4th cruiser squadron Home Fleet , November 1906 Ireland
1914 10th cruiser squadron, re-armed in February 1915 and torpedo bulges added, 1915–1916 off the Dardanelles , 1917 in the Aegean Sea, south of Malta on April 4, 1918 by the Austrian submarine U 29 torpedoed at 35 ° 6 ′ N , 14 ° 24 ' O , May 9, 1921, sold for demolition, arrived in Morecambe on April 24, 1923 |
|
Royal Arthur ex- Centaur |
Portsmouth Dockyard Maudslay |
January 20, 1890 | 02/26/1891 | 2.03.1893 | 1893 to 1896 flagship of Pacific Station , 1897 to 1904 flagship of Australia Station , March 31, 1901 in Sydney , July 1905 to May 1906 flagship of the West Indies Station, 4th Cruiser Squadron Home Fleet , 1910 with relief teams to China,
1914 10th cruiser squadron, February 20, 1915 guard ship in Scapa Flow , 1915 submarine mother ship, sold for demolition on 22 September 1921, which took place in Germany |
| Hawke |
Chatham Dockyard Elder |
06/16/1889 | 03/11/1891 | 05/16/1893 | 1893 to 1900 in the Mediterranean , 1902 to 1904 Channel Fleet , 1905 Home Fleet, January to August 1906 cadet training ship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron at the North America-West India station, a trip to China
10th Northern Patrol cruiser squadron , sunk by U 9 on October 15, 1914 |
| Theseus |
Thames Ironworks Leamouth Maudslay |
July 16, 1890 | September 8, 1892 | 01/14/1894 | in Chatham, 1895 Mediterranean voyage, 1896 part of the Particular Service Squadron set up because of the tensions in South Africa , with them to the Mediterranean, February 1897 to Benin , 1897 participation in the jubilee parade, 1899 to 1902 Mediterranean (March 31, 1901 in Malta ), 1904 Canal Fleet , 1905 to 1913 tender of the Plymouth Artillery School , February 1913 Queenstown Training Squadron
1914 10th cruiser squadron, re-armed in February 1915 and torpedo bulges added, 1915–1916 off the Dardanelles, further in the Mediterranean, 1918 mother ship for minesweepers in the Aegean Sea, 1921 sold for demolition |
| Crescent | Portsmouth Dockyard Penn |
10/13/1890 | 03/30/1892 | 02/22/1894 | in Portsmouth, 1894/1895 trip to Australia, 1895 to August 1897 flagship of the West Indies station, 1899 to 1902 again flagship of the West Indies station, 1904 to 1907 flagship of Cape Hope Station, 1908 with reliever teams to China, 1908 to 1913 Portsmouth Division , Home Fleet (4th Cruiser Squadron),
1914 10th cruiser squadron, February 16, 1915 guard ship in Hoy , November 1915 submarine mother ship, sold in 1920 for demolition, which took place in Germany |
| Endymion |
C&W Earle , Hull Earle |
11/22/1889 | 07/22/1891 | 05/26/1894 | 1894 to 1895 Channel Squadron, 1896 to 1897 Distribution of replacement crews, 1899 to 1901 China, April 1904 to 1906 Channel Squadron (visit to the USA), 4th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet,
1914 10th cruiser squadron, re-armed in February 1915 and torpedo bulges added, 1915–1916 off the Dardanelles, 1917 in the Aegean Sea, 16 March 1921 sold for demolition to Cardiff |
| Grafton | Thames Ironworks, Leamouth Humphrys |
1.01.1890 | 01/30/1892 | 10/18/1894 | in Chatham, 1894 to 1896 distribution of substitute crews, 1897 to 1899 in China flagship of cruisers, 1902 to 1904 flagship of Pacific Station, 1905 tender of the Portsmouth Artillery School,
1914 10th cruiser squadron, re-armed in February 1915 and torpedo bulges added, 1915–1916 off the Dardanelles, 10 June 1917 torpedoed and damaged in the Mediterranean by UB 43 150 nm east of Malta, brought into Malta, 1917 in the Red Sea, 1918 Aegean Sea, 1. July 1920 sold to Plymouth for demolition |
| St George | C. & W. Earle, Hull Maudslay |
04/23/1890 | 06/23/1892 | 10/25/1894 | in Portsmouth, 1895 flagship of Cape Station, 27 August 1896 participation in the Zanzibar War , February 1897 off Benin , 31 March 1901 Training Squadron ( Aden ), from there securing the yacht Ophir via Colombo, Singapore, Australia to Auckland , 1902 Canal fleet, 1904 South Atlantic, since March 1910 mother ship for destroyers,
in the Humber since 1913, relocated to the Mediterranean as a depot ship in 1915, submarine mother ship in the Aegean Sea in 1917, sold to Plymouth for demolition on July 1, 1920 |
| Gibraltar |
R. Napier & Sons , Govan Napier |
December 2, 1889 | 04/27/1892 | 1.11.1894 | in Portsmouth, 1894 to 1895 with exchange crews to China, in 1896 part of the Particular Service Squadron set up because of the tensions in South Africa, with this in the Mediterranean until 1899, 1901 to 1904 Cape and West Africa station (observation of the 2nd Russian Pacific Squadron on the march ),
1914 10th Cruiser Squadron, June 1915 Northern Patrol basestar , Shetlands , sold for demolition September 1923 |
swell
- Roger Chesneau (Ed.): Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
- James J. Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy. The complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present. New revised edition. Chatham, London 2006, ISBN 1-86176-281-X .
Web links
- Edgar class in World War II (English)
- Pictures and résumés of the Edgar class (English, pictures of the Endymion in the dock, showing the torpedo bulges)
Footnotes
- ↑ China Squadron 1898
- ^ Edgar in China, NYT November 13, 1895
- ↑ 48 deaths, NYT November 16, 1895 according to another source see HMS Edgar the accident occurred off Chemulpo
- ^ Grafton Fall 1904, NYT September 15, 1904