HMS Hawke (1891)
|
|
|---|---|
| Edgar class | |
 HMS Hawke |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| units | 9 |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | June 17, 1889 |
| Launch | March 11, 1891 |
| Whereabouts | sunk
by U 9 on October 15, 1914 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
7,350 t |
| length |
118.18 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 |
|
| Sister ships |
Crescent , Edgar , Endymion , Gibraltar , Grafton , Royal Arthur , St. George , Theseus |
Launched in 1891, HMS Hawke was a 1st class armored cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was one of the nine Edgar- class cruisers . The cruiser was torpedoed by the German submarine U 9 on October 15, 1914 . The Hawke sank in a few minutes and died with her 527 men, only about 65 sailors could be saved.
Building history
The Edgar- class was a class of nine armored cruisers 1st class with a displacement of just under 8,000 tons that were built for the Royal Navy around 1891 . They were part of Flottenbauprogramms of 1889 and were the type to coincide with the protected cruisers 2nd class Apollo and the third class of type Pearl and the battleships of the Royal Sovereign class and the Centurion-class built.
The Edgar class was preceded by the two slightly larger Blake class ships as the first 1st class cruisers of the Royal Navy, which were only protected cruisers and not armored cruisers . The two following 1st class cruisers of the Powerful class were considerably larger at 14,000 t. This was followed by the eight Diadem-class cruisers as 1st class armored cruisers , before the Royal Navy again procured armored cruisers as 1st class cruisers from the Cressy class.
The main armament of the cruisers were 234 mm L / 31.5 cannons as bow and stern guns, as used by the Royal Navy since the Orlando-class armored cruisers on 1st class cruisers. Of the nine ships of the Edgar class, the Crescent and the Royal Arthur were built according to a slightly modified design with a raised foredeck on which two 152 mm guns replaced the 234 mm single gun installed in the other ships.
The ships of the Edgar class were mainly used on the Royal Navy stations abroad. In addition to the HMS St George , which had been the mother ship for destroyers since March 1910 and had been stationed on the Humber since 1913, the eight other Edgar- class cruisers in reserve or entrusted with training tasks became part of the 10th Cruiser Squadron at the beginning of the First World War in 1914 activated for the Northern Patrol , which should block the north of the North Sea .
Mission history
The sixth Hawke of the Royal Navy named after the former First Sea Lord Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke (1705–1781), was the third ship in her class and had two accidents shortly after it was commissioned. She moved from the Channel Squadron to the Mediterranean in July 1893 after the sinking of the HMS Victoria with the new Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet , Sir Michael Culme-Seymour on board under Captain Pelham-Aldrich. On October 16, the Mediterranean fleet ( HMS Sans Pareil , HMS Nile , HMS Inflexible , HMS Dreadnought and the sister ship HMS Edgar ) visited the Italian fleet in Taranto . In 1897 and 1898 the Hawke was under Captain Sir Richard Poore with the sister ship HMS Gibraltar in the Mediterranean fleet around Crete . In the course of the creation of the special status of Crete, a Greek unit was transported from Platania Bay back to Greece. A committee of the commanding admirals from Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy organized the independent Cretan state that was being formed and set Prince George of Greece as high commissioner under the suzerainty of the Turkish sultan . In 1900 the Hawke returned home to the Chatham Reserve. From 1902 to 1904 she served in the Canal Fleet and was then overhauled in Chatham.
The Hawke served from 1905 as a training ship for cabin boys in the 4th cruiser squadron of the Home Fleet but also at the North America-West India station and probably also carried out a trip to the China station with exchange personnel. Unlike the German Navy, which carried out the exchange with chartered passenger steamers, the Royal Navy activated reserve ships for the transfer.
Collision with the Olympic
On September 20, 1911, the Hawke under Commander William Frederick Blunt collided in the Solent with the RMS Olympic of the White Star Line , which overtook them. The pull of the giant ship may have brought the cruiser off course. The Hawke's battering bow was completely destroyed and she got a completely straight bow during the repair. The following Seeamtsverhandlung said the ship's command of Hawke of all guilt-free. This decision was followed by a number of retrial to reverse the decision of the first hearing.
Downfall
At the beginning of the First World War , the Hawke under Captain Hugh PET Williams carried out various tasks in the North Sea with the seven other Edgar- class cruisers for the 10th cruiser squadron . You should block the northern exit from the North Sea with the so-called Northern Patrol. On October 15, 1914, was Hawke from the German submarine U 9 under the command of Otto Weddigen torpedoed what this from Kaiser Wilhelm II. On 24 October 1914 as the first German naval officer after the war began with the le Pour Mérite , the highest Prussian bravery award was personally honored. The torpedo was possibly aimed at the sister ship HMS Theseus , but hit the Hawke , which sank in a few minutes to about 57 ° 4 ′ N , 0 ° 1 ′ E527 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 , which had met to exchange mail, did not stop . The survivors were rescued by a random Norwegian freighter and the destroyers HMS Swift , HMS Contest and HMS Christopher , which, however, were first alerted and arrived later.
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 (Engl.)
- various images of the HMS Hawke
- Photos and CVs of the Edgar class (Engl.)
- Description of the sinking (Engl.)