HMS Sparrowhawk (1912)
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 The HMS Sparrowhawk 1913 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| Shipyard |
Swan Hunter , Wallsend , construction no. 905 |
| Keel laying | October 27, 1911 |
| Launch | October 12, 1912 |
| Namesake | the sparrowhawk |
| Commissioning | May 2, 1913 |
| Whereabouts | Self-sunk June 1, 1916 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
1072 ts , max. 1300 t |
| length |
81.5 m above sea level, 79.2 m pp |
| width |
8.2 m |
| Draft |
2.9 m |
| crew |
73 men |
| drive |
4 Yarrow boilers , |
| speed |
29 kn |
| Armament |
3 × 102 mm Mk.IV cannons |
| Bunker quantity |
258 ts of heating oil |
The HMS Sparrowhawk was one of 20 destroyers of Acasta class of the Royal Navy . She was the second ship of this class built by the Swan Hunter shipyard and belonged to the 4th destroyer flotilla of the Grand Fleet in the Battle of the Skagerrak . During an attack on the German deep-sea fleet , the destroyer was badly damaged by collisions with the Flotilla Leader Broke and the sister ship Contest . After an attempt to tow the Sparrowhawk , the flotilla leader Marksman was ordered on June 1, 1916 to sink the destroyer after taking over the survivors and the secret papers.
History of the Sparrowhawk
The Sparrowhawk was started at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd in Wallsend on October 25, 1911 as a new building with hull number 905 one week after the sister ship Shark . The Navy's second Sparrowhawk was launched on October 12, 1912. Its name predecessor was a 30-knotter ( B-Class ) completed by Laird in 1897 , which was lost on June 17, 1904 in the Yangtze estuary due to stranding. The Acasta- class destroyers were the last destroyers in the British Navy with different names without uniform initials. The ships were to be given names starting with K. The Sparrowhawk was to be renamed Kingsmill in October 1913 . But the ships with these new names were not used. The renaming was only implemented with the following L-Class . The ships of the Acasta class only received a white K on the hull below the bridge because of their classification as K class.
The twenty ships of the class came after completion to the 4th destroyer flotilla, the so-called "Portsmouth Flotilla". The Swift served as the flotilla leader until it had to be overhauled in late November 1914.
Use in the Battle of the Skagerrak
During the Battle of the Skagerrak , the 4th Destroyer Flotilla (4th DF) ran south behind the 2nd Battle Squadron at 17 knots on the evening of May 31 . At the head of the flotilla, the flotilla leader Tipperary ran ahead of the Spitfire and Sparrowhawk , followed by Garland , Contest and Broke . Shortly before midnight, ships on the same course were discovered to starboard and overtook the flotilla. The lead ship had three funnels, but could not be clearly identified due to the poor visibility. It suddenly illuminated the flotilla with its headlights and opened fire. The 4th DF should respond with torpedoes. She had come across the head of the German deep-sea fleet , which was about to pass behind the British fleet. The destroyers faced the small cruisers Stuttgart , Hamburg , Rostock and Elbing as well as the ships of the line Westphalia and Nassau . The forward boats Tipperary , Spitfire , Sparrowhawk , Garland , Contest and Broke immediately attacked with torpedoes. With the ships close to each other, the use of torpedoes was difficult. There was uncertainty as to who was meeting whom. The Elbing received at this stage probably hit by a torpedo, which reduced their maneuverability, what with the collision with the battleship Posen contributed. Their damage later led to the abandonment of the ship. The Fortune was hit by the fire of the German ships of the line and sank burning with 67 men of her crew. Only one man could be saved. The Tipperary was also hit early by the 15 cm guns of the Westphalian medium artillery , caught fire and lay there. The Broke tried to take the lead of the remaining boats, accelerated to get to the top and was badly hit in this maneuver. She got out of control and rammed the Sparrowhawk . Orders were issued on both ships to leave their own ship, which only parts of the crews obeyed. The contest ran into the wedged destroyer , hit the stern of the Sparrowhawk and severed part of it. After half an hour, Sparrowhawk and Broke were released from each other. The badly damaged Broke was able to march back and had 30 Sparrowhawk men on board after considerable personnel losses due to the German hits . Sparrowhawk machine was ready for use, but its rudder was unusable due to the ramming of the contest . So she ran in circles near the still burning Tipperary . After its sinking, a raft with 20 survivors and three dead of the flotilla leader reached the circling Sparrowhawk , five of whom died.
Early in the morning of July 1st, British destroyers found the uncontrollable Sparrowhawk and Marksman tried to tow it to safety. In heavy seas, the tow ropes broke, and German submarines were reported nearby. It was decided to abandon the Sparrowhawk and Marksman sank her with 18 rounds after taking over the remaining crew and the rescued.
The wreck
The Sparrowhawk wreck was discovered in August 2016 by Dr. Innes McCartney of Bournemouth University and a team from the Sea War Museum Jutland . The remains of the Sparrowhawk are now a protected naval war grave under the British Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 .
literature
- Geoffrey Bennett: The Skagerrak Battle. Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-453-00618-6 .
- NJ Campbell: Jutland: An analysis of the fighting. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md . 1987, ISBN 0-85177-379-6 .
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981. Ian Allan 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7 .
- James J. Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy. Chatham, 4th ed. London 2010, ISBN 978-1-935149-07-1 .
- Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, Volume 1. 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 .
- Robert K. Massie : Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea , Random House 2003, ISBN 0-345-40878-0 .
- Innes McCartney : Scuttled in the Morning: the discoveries and surveys of HMS Warrior and HMS Sparrowhawk, the Battle of Jutland's last missing shipwrecks. in The International Journal of Nautical Archeology
- Antony Preston: Destroyers. Hamlyn 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
- Nigel Steel, Peter Hart: Jutland 1916: Death in the Gray Wastes. Cassell, London 2004, ISBN 0-304-36648-X .
Web links
- Sparrowhawk 1913 Swan Hunter
- History of the GREAT WAR, NAVAL OPERATIONS, Vol. II by Sir Julian S. Corbett
Footnotes
- ^ "Arrowsmith" List: Royal Navy WWI Destroyer Pendant Numbers
- ↑ Campbell, pp. 309f.
- ^ Campbell, p. 318.
- ^ Campbell, p. 320.
- ↑ Bennett, pp. 141f.
- ↑ Campbell, p. 374.
- ↑ Innes McCartney: Scuttled in the Morning: the discoveries and surveys of HMS Warrior and HMS Sparrowhawk, the Battle of Jutland's last missing shipwrecks. In: The International Journal of Nautical Archeology . 2018, doi : 10.1111 / 1095-9270.12302 .
- ↑ Statutory Instrument 2008/0950, Office of Public Sector Information, 1 April 2008