HMS Katoomba (1889)
|
|
|---|---|
| Pearl class | |
 HMS Katoomba in Hobart in 1903 |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | July 18, 1888 |
| Launch | August 27, 1889 |
| Namesake | the town of Katoomba , New South Wales |
| Commissioning | March 24, 1891 |
| Whereabouts | sold on July 10, 1906 for demolition to Morecambe |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
2,575 tn.l. |
| length |
overall: 84.8 m (278 ft ) |
| width |
12.5 m (41 ft) |
| Draft |
4.7 m (15.5 ft) |
| crew |
217 men |
| drive |
4 double-ended cylinder boilers |
| speed |
18 kn , with fan up to 19.5 kn |
| Armament |
8 x 4.7-in (120-mm) -Schnellfeuergeschütz |
| Coal supply |
300 tn.l., maximum 442 tn.l. |
|
Armor Decks Gun Shields Command Tower |
|
The HMS Katoomba was a protected cruiser third class of the Royal Navy . In 1888 she was commissioned as a Pearl class cruiser from Armstrong in Elswick , now part of Newcastle upon Tyne , and was launched on August 27, 1889 as HMS Pandora . On April 2, 1890, it was renamed Katoomba . On September 5, 1891, she arrived in Sydney as the flagship of the Auxiliary Squadron of Australia Station with the squadron to which the four sister ships HMS Mildura ex Pelorus , HMS Wallaroo ex Persian , HMS Tauranga ex Phoenix and HMS Ringarooma ex Psyche as well as the two torpedo cannon boats HMS Boomerang ex Whiting and HMS Karrakatta ex Wizard belonged to the Sharpshooter class .
From 1903, the Katoomba served primarily for advertising and initial training for Australian seafarers, which enabled the formation of the Royal Australian Navy . She remained on the station until January 16, 1906 and then returned as the last ship of the Australian Auxiliary Squadron to England, where she was sold for demolition on July 10, 1906 in Portsmouth to Morecambe .
Building history
On August 15, 1888, the keel-laying of three cruisers of the Pearl class with hull numbers 542, 543 ( Pelorus ) and 544 ( Persian ) took place in Elswick. It was the Royal Navy's first construction contract for cruisers, which went to the Armstrong shipyard, which had already delivered several protected cruisers to the navies of other countries. Of the cruisers 3rd class type Pearl , the Sir William White had designed, nine ships were built in total. The Australian colonies had contributed to the cost of five cruisers to create the Australian Auxiliary Squadron, which was enacted under the Imperial Defense Act of 1887 . The three Armstrong-built cruisers of the class were assigned to this squadron and therefore received Australian names in 1890, as did the other ships in the squadron. The other two cruisers came from the J. & G. Thomson shipyard in Clydebank . The two torpedo cannon boats procured for this squadron also came from the Armstrong shipyard.
The ships of the Pearl class displaced 2575 tn.l and reached a speed of 19 knots (kn) with artificial pull . They were considered an improved version of the Archer class torpedo cruisers . The main armament with eight 120-mm guns was distinguished only by the use of rapid-fire guns, but was hardly suitable for achieving much success in the fight against warships. Armstrong had already delivered mainly faster and more heavily armed cruisers to other navies.
The three Pearl- class cruisers built by Armstrong were the first to be started and the later Katoomba was launched as the Pandora on August 27, 1889. The completion of the ships at Armstrong was delayed due to problems with the delivered machines. The Royal Navy took over the ships, which had meanwhile been given Australian names, from January 1891.
By December 1892, state shipyards had completed four more Pearl- class cruisers , which were procured on the basis of the British Naval Act of 1889 . They remained the only newly built small cruisers of the Royal Navy until construction of the Pelorus class began in 1896.
Mission history
In August 1891 the new Australian squadron with Katoomba as its flagship met the armored cruiser HMS Orlando , 5600 tn.l. at Thursday Island , which had been the flagship of Australia Station since 1888 and remained until the end of 1897. So far she was the only modern combat ship at the station that also had an older corvette, three sloops, two of which only performed surveying tasks, three gunboats and the schooner HMS Dart . With the station flagship, the squadron ran along the east coast of Australia until September 5, 1891 to Sydney and visited several Australian ports on the way.
A three-year service on the ships of the squadron was planned for the crews of the Auxiliary Squadron, while on the "normal" station ships it usually lasted only two years on a station abroad. Of the seven ships in the Auxiliary Squadron, two cruisers and one gunboat were to be in reserve, for which Mildura , Wallaroo and Karrakatta were earmarked first
The Katoomba began a voyage to South Australia shortly after arrival and then along the west coast that took it to Fremantle . On the way back she was damaged in the port of Adelaide in a collision with the tug Yatala . With the cruiser Protektor (921 t, 14.15 kn, one 8-inch, five 6-inch guns) of the Navy of South Australia , she visited ports there in early 1892. After a brief overhaul, the cruiser ran to Noumea in June 1892 and finally to New Zealand , which had joined the cost regulation for the Australian Auxiliary Squadron . The colony was entitled to two Royal Navy ships stationed there, which could be provided by Australia Station or the Auxiliary Squadron. After a three-month stay there, the cruiser was sent to Samoa because of unrest that had broken out there. From there she did not return to Sydney until October 1893.
In the southern summer of 1895, the Katoomba was stationed in New Zealand with the Auxiliary Squadron's torpedo cannon boat Karrakatta .
From May 14, 1896, the Katoomba took part in the second squadron trip in the southern winter. Led by the armored cruiser Orlando , she and the sister ships Ringarooma and Wallaroo visited various ports in New Zealand after a crossing with a heavy storm and ran on from June 13th to 18th to Suva , from where they returned to the Australian coast in Queensland , which is now simultaneously The gunboat Karrakatta, which had left Sydney, had arrived. The station commander used the Wallaroo as a flagship at times , as the Orlando could not enter many of the ports there. In 1897 a similar voyage followed with the Orlando and the Ringarooma .
Until 1903 the Katoomba made normal station service, where she was often the ship of the commander in Sydney. At the end of 1897 she received a new crew, which the cruiser Flora had transferred to Australia, which also had the exchange crew for the Boomerang on board. In April 1903 the Katoomba received the Chilean training ship General Baquedano in Auckland as a station ship . In November 1903 there was a last change of crew. This time the cruisers Diadem and Scylla had transferred over 800 men to Australia, who were intended for the Mildura , Wallaroo and Katoomba as well as for the re-commissioning of the Tauranga, which had been in reserve for several years .
According to the new agreement from 1901 to 1903, the Australia Station was reorganized and at the same time training of Australian personnel in the Royal Navy began. The Katoomba was intended as a guard ship at the main base in Sydney, while the sister ships Mildura , Wallaroo and Tauranga should serve as drill ships for training. The Ringarooma was to become a reserve ship. On January 7, 1904, there was a boiler explosion on the Wallaroo off Montague Island , killing seven. This first serious accident of the "Australian" Navy was initially portrayed as considerably more severe in the press (43 dead). Since extensive repairs were also necessary, the tasks and crews of Wallaroo and Katoomba , which now became the drill ship responsible for the states of Victoria , South Australia and Western Australia , were swapped. From April 1904 she began to advertise a five-year service in the Royal Navy in her field of sailors and stokers, as did two other drillships for her fields. To do this, she moved regularly between Melbourne , Adelaide and Fremantle , where classes of 20 to 40 men were recruited and trained, which were then given to ships with (partial) Australian crew, such as the cruisers Psyche and Challenger . These advertisements were quite successful, while the advertisements of pure reservists with basic training and four-week annual practice did not live up to expectations. In May 1905 the decision was made to replace the last drillships from the original Auxiliary Squadron with Pelorus-class cruisers. The Katoomba was the last cruiser of the old Auxiliary Squadron to leave Australia Station for Great Britain on January 16, 1906. On July 10, 1906, she was sold to Morecambe for demolition for £ 8,500 .
Fate of the Australian sister ships
The Tauranga had intervened in the civil war on Samoa in 1899 with the torpedo cruiser Porpoise and the Sloop Royalist . From 1901 to 1903 she was in reserve to be the last training ship in New Zealand. Upon their return it was also sold for £ 8,500 in July 1906 to Thomas Ward for demolition.
The most interesting part of the Mildura's service life was accompanying the royal yacht Ophir in 1901, with which the future King George V and his wife Mary visited Australia and New Zealand as Duke of York. The Mildura left Australia in 1905 and was sold to Garnham in London for £ 7200 for demolition in 1906.
The Ringarooma suffered considerable damage when she ran on August 31, 1894 near Makelula Island in the New Hebrides on a reef from which the French cruiser Duchaffault was able to dissuade her. From 1897 to 1900 she was a reserve ship in Sydney and was relocated back to England on August 22, 1904. In May 1906 she was sold to the Forth Shipbreaking Company for £ 8,500 for demolition.
The Wallaroo , which was in reserve until May 9, 1894 immediately after arriving in 1891, was the only ship also outside Australia Station when she was transferred to China in 1900 with a transport of Australian troops during the Boxer Rebellion . After her boiler accident on January 7, 1904, she was only a guard ship in Sydney, and shortly before the Katoomba she began her journey to England. There she was assigned to the HMS Indus training center for mechanics in Devonport as a training ship. In November 1914 she was renamed the guard ship at the shipyard in Chatham and in March 1919 in HMS Wallington , but then sold again in 1920 as Wallaroo to G. Sharpe for demolition.
Use in World War
Of the four other pearl- class cruisers , the HMS Phoebe was used at Australia Station from February 19, 1901 to December 23, 1905 and was also sold for demolition after returning in 1906. The two cruisers Pallas and Pearl last used at the North America station were also sold for demolition in 1906 .
At the beginning of the World War there were only two cruisers of the Pearl class left. The Wallaroo as part of the training center for mechanics in Devonport and the HMS Philomel , which entered service on July 15, 1914, as a training ship for the formation of own naval units in New Zealand. In August 1914 she took part in the occupation of the German colony of Samoa and was then sent to the Middle East. In February 1915 she supported landings in southern Turkey, then relocated to the Red Sea and finally to the Persian Gulf . In 1917 she was released to New Zealand, where she was disarmed, but was not finally canceled until 1947.
The Pearl- class cruisers
| Surname | Shipyard | Launch | Commissioning | fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Katoomba ex Pandora |
Armstrong , Elswick | 08/27/1889 | March 24, 1891 | Part of the Australian auxiliary squadron until 1906, sold for demolition in 1906 |
|
HMS Tauranga ex Phoenix |
J. & G. Thomson , Clydebank | 10/28/1889 | 01/27/1891 | Part of the Australian auxiliary squadron until 1904, sold for demolition in 1906 |
|
HMS Mildura ex Pelorus |
Armstrong, Elswick | 11/15/1889 | 03/18/1891 | Part of the Australian auxiliary squadron until 1905, sold for demolition in 1906 |
|
HMS Ringarooma ex Psyche |
Thomson, Clydebank | 12/10/1889 | 3.02.1891 | Part of the Australian auxiliary squadron until 1904, sold for demolition in 1906 |
|
HMS Wallaroo ex Persian |
Armstrong, Elswick | 5.02.1890 | March 31, 1891 | until 1906 part of the Australian auxiliary squadron, 1906 training ship, 1919 renamed HMS Wallington . 1920 sold again as a wallaroo for demolition |
| HMS Pallas | Portsmouth Dockyard | 06/30/1890 | 06/30/1891 | 5.1900 West Indies, 1904 Dominican Republic, July 1906 sold in Bermuda for demolition |
| HMS Phoebe | Devonport Dockyard | 1.07.1890 | 1.12.1892 | 19 February 1901 to 23 December 1905 Australia Station, sold for demolition in 1906 |
| HMS Pearl | Pembroke Dockyard | 07/28/1890 | .10.1892 | December 1899 Barbados , May 1900 North America, sold for demolition in 1906 |
| HMS Philomel | Devonport Dockyard | 08/28/1890 | 11/10/1892 | 1908 Mediterranean , then East Indies Station , handed over to New Zealand in 1913 . 1914 to 1917 military service, not canceled until January 17, 1947 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Bastock 1988, p. 101.
- ↑ AUSTRALIA'S FIRST FLEET In: The Sydney Morning Herald. September 5, 1891.
- ^ Declaration by the Admiralty in 1888 in the House of Commons
- ^ The New Australian Fleet. In: Australian Town and Country Journal. August 15, 1891.
- ^ The Katoomba-Yatala Collision. In: The Advertiser. December 31, 1891.
- ↑ Cruise of HMS KATOOMBA. In: The Brisbane Courier. October 31, 1893.
- ↑ Auckland Star, April 1, 1895
- ↑ VISIT OF A CHILIAN WARSHIP, Auckland Star, April 8, 1903
-
↑ HMS Diadem had 41 officers and 741 men on board, of which 25 officers and 600 men remained in Australia,
of the 16 officers and 260 men of HMS Scylla , 14 and 188 respectively remained in Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, December 3, 1903 - ^ Australians in the Navy, a great experiment. In: Morning Bulletin. September 12, 1904.
- ↑ Description of the Duchaffault (Eng., Otago Daily Times, October 21, 1892)
literature
- John Bastock: Ships on the Australia Station. Child & Associates Publishing, Frenchs Forest, Australia 1988, ISBN 0-86777-348-0 .
- Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend 1999, ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
- Roger Chesneau, Eugène M. Koleśnik, NJM Campbell: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
