HMS Ghurka (1907)

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The Ghurka
The Ghurka
Overview
Type destroyer
Shipyard

Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. , Newcastle Building No. 408

Keel laying February 6, 1906
Launch April 29, 1907
Namesake the Nepalese tribe of Gurkha
Commissioning December 19, 1908
Whereabouts sank after being hit by a mine on
February 8, 1917
Technical specifications
displacement

890 ts

length

77.8 m (255 ft)

width

7.8 m (25.5 ft)

Draft

2.6 m (8.5 ft)

crew

79 men

drive

3 steam turbines with single gears
12,500 HP (9,300 kW ),

speed

33 kn , 3 screws

Range

3000 nm at 13.5 kn

Armament

4 - 12 pdr guns (76 mm L / 40)
2 - torpedo tubes (450 mm / 18 in)

Fuel supply

90 ts of oil

The first HMS Ghurka was one of a total of twelve destroyers of the (first) Tribal class of the British Royal Navy . It was part of the first British class of turbine-powered oil-fired destroyers. During the First World War , she was mainly used on the English Channel and was lost on February 8, 1917 by a mine hit with almost the entire crew (only five survivors).

history

The HMS Ghurka was actually launched on April 29, 1907 at the Hawthorn, Leslie & Company shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne as the third boat of the class with a misspelled name, which she kept.

HMS Zulu , the last boat in the class built by the same shipyard

She belonged to the first lot of the class of five boats that were built at five different shipyards. In 1908 two more boats followed and in 1909 another five, with the Hawthorn Leslie shipyard delivering another boat with the HMS  Zulu .

The 890 ts displacement destroyer was 77.8 m long, 7.8 m wide and had a draft of 2.6 m. Five Yarrow boilers were set up in three boiler rooms . The turbines built at the shipyard under license from Parsons consisted of seven turbines for propulsion and two turbines for reverse travel and developed 15,000 hp over the three shafts at maximum speed. A marching turbine, a low-pressure turbine and a reverse turbine each acted on the side waves. The high pressure main turbine, a high pressure and a medium pressure marching turbine acted on the longer main shaft. Different combinations were then used for the different speed levels. When moving slowly and in reverse, only the side waves drove the ship. All ships of the class had this complicated turbine installation. In her six hour high speed test, the Ghurka reached 33.997 knots.
The ship was initially armed with three, from 1909 five 12-pdr rapid fire guns and two 18-in torpedoes. In 1909, all ships were among the first destroyers to receive radio equipment. Her second in command was Lieutenant Commander Loftus William Jones (1879 - May 31, 1916) from 1910 to 1913 , who died as commander of HMS Shark in the Battle of the Skagerrak and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross .

During the First World War, the Ghurka served as part of the 6th destroyer flotilla in the North Sea and the English Channel. The twelve boats formed an essential part of the "Dover Patrol", which was supposed to prevent German naval forces from entering the canal. The smoothest possible traffic over the canal was of great importance for the warfare of the Entente on the Western Front. War material and troops were transferred to France and the wounded were brought back from there. The boats were on alert for 17 days or at sea and then cleaned the boilers for three days. Every four months, the boats were repaired for three weeks. This rhythm put the boats and crews under considerable strain.

On March 4, 1915, the Ghurka and the Maori sank the German submarine U 8 , which they had previously forced to surface with an explosive device.

On February 8, 1917, the Ghurka ran off Dungeness on a German sea ​​mine , which had been laid by the German submarine UC 47 under Paul Hundius , and sank in a very short time. Only five crew members survived the sinking, 74 men lost their lives.
It was the second total loss of a boat in the class after HMS  Maori in 1915, which was also lost to a mine hit. However, the HMS  Nubian and the Zulu were so badly damaged in 1916 that their less damaged parts were joined together in the Chatham Dockyard to form a boat that was named HMS  Zubian .

The wreck of Ghurka lies at a depth of 30 meters at the position 50 ° 51 '  N , 0 ° 53'  O coordinates: 50 ° 51 '20 "  N , 0 ° 53' 17"  O and having the status of a protected place to the Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986.

Renewed use of the name

The frigate HMS Gurkha (F122), in service with the Royal Navy from 1963 to 1984

Before the tribal destroyer HMS Ghurka , a torpedo boat had already carried the name in the same incorrect spelling from 1888 to 1901, which was still there until 1920 with the number 101. In 1937 the HMS Gurkha of the second tribal class was launched, which was sunk in 1940 by a German air raid southwest of Bergen .

In 1940 the L-class destroyer planned as Larne was named HMS Gurkha in honor of the sunk ship . The fourth Gurkha was sunk on January 17, 1942 by U 133 off Sidi Barrani . In 1963 a third Tribal class frigate entered service with the Royal Navy as HMS Gurkha (F122) . It was sold to Indonesia in 1984 , where it was used as Wilhelmus Zakarias Yohannes until 1999.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ocean going Destroyers The Times , Wednesday, March 31st, 1909
  2. ↑ HMS Ghurka (1907)
  3. ^ Preston, p. 22
  4. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 11.
  5. ↑ Diving page to Ghurka

literature

  • Bodo Herzog: 60 years of German submarines 1906–1966. JFLehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968.
  • Anthony Preston: Destroyer. Hamlyn, London 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .

Web links