HMS Valerian (1916)
 Artist's impression of the Valerian in a hurricane (picture from 1926).
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The HMS Valerian was a British Navy sloop that entered service during World War I and sank in a hurricane in 1926 . The ship belonged to the Arabis- class, a sub-group of the Flower-class , which was built on a large scale at the time , and was commissioned as the 33rd unit of this type. The keel was laid on July 1, 1915 at the shipyard of JP Rennoldson & Sons Ltd. in South Shields , England . The Valerian , named after the plant genus of valerians ( Valeriana ), was put into service on 4 May in 1916.
Technical details
The Valerian was a maximum of 81.71 m long and 10.21 m wide. Two coal-fired steam locomotive boilers and a vertically installed triple expansion machine , which controlled a shaft and produced 2,100 PSi , enabled the sloop to reach a top speed of 16.25 knots (around 30 km / h). The Sea endurance , with a maximum carbon loading of 130 tons on board was, about 2,000 nautical miles (at most 15 kn cruising speed). When fully loaded, the draft was 3.64 m.
According to the range of applications, with the ships of Arabis class both backup, anti-submarine - and escort duties and minesweeping operations should perform received Valerian , in addition to the two 12-cm guns and two 4.7-cm Vickers Cannons existing artillery armament, two depth charges (with 16 depth charges ) and a mine clearing gear. The crew consisted of 109 men (1926).
period of service
After the commissioning, the Valerian completed security tasks off the British east coast, with the ship being used in 1917/18 primarily to monitor coastal convoy routes and the mine barriers of the North Sea Mine Barrage . The sloop was not involved in combat operations, even if it was temporarily suspected that the ship could have sunk the German submarine U 99 in the northern North Sea in July 1917 . However, this submarine was sunk by the British submarine J2 .
The Valerian survived the First World War unscathed and moved to Bermuda as a station ship in 1919 . The ship remained there until it was lost, and in the years that followed it performed security, supply and relief services between Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas .
Downfall
On the night of 21./22. In October 1926, the Valerian was on her way back from Nassau to New Providence , where the ship had brought relief supplies, to Grand Bermuda . The day before, the so-called Havana hurricane had caused severe damage in the Bahamas and Cuba . Although there were indications from US weather officers that the storm had changed its path and was moving back out to the Atlantic (and could thus hit the ship's route), the Valerian nevertheless started the voyage home, also against the background that Bermuda had not been hit by a major hurricane in the previous 100 years.
In the early morning hours of October 22nd, however, the hurricane hit Bermuda faster and more severely than feared. At 8:30 pm, the announced Valerian that one of the bridge from the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse could see at Grand Bermuda, but can not enter the port because of the strong storm. The crew of the sloop battled the weather for several hours, with the wind speed being around 90 kn (about 167 km / h). Around 1 p.m., peak gusts of 138 kn (around 256 km / h) were measured on Grand Bermuda, after which the anemometer used failed . At almost the same time the Valerian capsized and swam up keel for several minutes before sinking. Possibly the ship had touched a reef before sinking , which could have contributed to the capsizing and the rapid sinking. The place of ruin is about six nautical miles south of the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse.
Sacrifice and Consequences
A total of 88 crew members (four officers and 84 crew ranks) of the Valerian were killed in the sinking. Survivors later reported that two of the castaways floating in the water were killed by sharks the morning after the sinking. Ultimately 21 survivors (or 29?) Were picked up on October 23, around 10 a.m., by the British light cruiser Capetown , which was sent to search . Among those rescued who had held onto two life rafts during the night was the Valerian's commander , Commander WA Usher. A Royal Navy investigative committee later found that the crew was not to blame for the loss of the ship. On Grand Bermuda itself, almost 40 percent of all buildings were destroyed or damaged by the storm.
literature
- Neely, Wayne: The Great Bahamian Hurricanes 1926. The story of three of the greatest hurricanes to ever affect the Bahamas . iUniverse Press. Bloomington (IN) 2009.
Web links
- About the loss of the ship at The Royal Gazette. (English)
- Image of a recovered Valerian life raft . (English)
- The Valerian at the Wrecksite-Database. (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.uboat.net/wwi/boats/index.html?boat=99
- ^ Neely, Wayne: The Great Bahamian Hurricanes 1926. The story of three of the greatest hurricanes to ever affect the Bahamas . iUniverse Press. Bloomington (IN) 2009, p. 158.
- ^ Neely: Hurricanes , p. 159.
- ↑ http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20121020/ISLAND09/710209952
- ↑ http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?457
- ↑ http://sharkattackfile.net/spreadsheets/pdf_directory/1926.10.23.a%20-%20HMS%20Valerian.pdf
- ↑ http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-06CL-Capetown.htm
- ^ Neely: Hurricanes , p. 162.