HMS Zulu (1909)
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 The Zulu |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| Shipyard |
Hawthorn, Leslie & Co , Hebburn Building No. 428 |
| Keel laying | August 18, 1908 |
| Launch | September 16, 1909 |
| Namesake | the South African ethnic group of the Zulu |
| Commissioning | March 16, 1910 |
| Whereabouts | November 8, 1916 Mine hit forecastle for new HMS Zubian related |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
1027 t, max. 1136 t |
| length |
86.9 m (285 ft) |
| width |
8.14 m (27 ft) |
| Draft |
2.9 m (9.5 ft) |
| crew |
71 men |
| drive | |
| speed |
33 kn, 3 screws |
| Range |
2250 nm / 15 kn |
| Armament |
2 × 102 mm L / 40 Mk.IV cannon |
| Fuel supply |
205 tons of oil |
The first HMS Zulu was one of a total of twelve Tribal class destroyers of the British Royal Navy that entered service from 1908. It was part of the first British class of turbine-powered oil-fired destroyers. The Zulu was one of the last boats to join the Home Fleet in March 1910 . During the First World War she was used with her sister boats on the English Channel . On November 8, 1916, she lost her stern in a mine hit. The towed bow was connected to the aft of the equally badly damaged sister boat Nubian . In 1917 this newly assembled destroyer came into service as HMS Zubian .
history
The Zulu was one of five destroyers in the Royal Navy's second reorder of Tribal-class destroyers. The Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. shipyard in Hebburn on the Tyne , which had already built a first series tribal destroyer with the Ghurka , received the order to build the Zulu . The shipyard had previously built one of the first test turbine destroyers, the HMS Viper , which was followed by the Velox with a combined machine and then the Eden as the first turbine destroyer in a normal destroyer series.
The requirements of the Admiralty left a lot of space for the manufacturers' plans, so that the new boat differed from the shipyard's previous Ghurka . The Zulu was also a four-chimney boat, but 25 ft longer than its predecessor, had an additional boiler, and was also slightly wider. The armament consisted of two 4-inch Mk-IV cannons and two 18-in (450-mm) torpedo tubes , as with all re-ordered boats .
The keel of the Zulu took place in Hebburn on August 18, 1908 and launched on September 16, 1909 as the twelfth boat of the class. On March 16, 1910, the Zulu was put into service as the eleventh boat of the Tribal class.
Calls
The Zulu came as the other boats of the class to "1st. Destroyer Flotilla "in the Home Fleet , which in addition to the Tribal destroyers nor the flotilla Swift , thirteen destroyers of the River class and Spähkreuzer (Scouts) HMS Boadicea as a flagship and Adventure and Pathfinder as well as the old cruiser Blenheim as a residential and storage ship belonged. With the sister boats, the Zulu took part in the Great Fleet Parade on the occasion of the coronation of King George V as part of the 1st DF .
In 1911, twelve newer Beagle-class destroyers replaced the River-class boats, and the Patrol and new Blanche replaced the Adventure and Pathfinder . In 1912 the tribal destroyers moved to the “4th Destroyer Flotilla” in Portsmouth , where they were marked with the letter “F” on the bow in October, since the class was now officially designated as the F-class. In February 1914, the boats of the class moved to Dover because their range was too short to be used effectively as deep-sea boats with the fleet. The boats of the tribal class came there to the reformed "6th Destroyer Flotilla".
War missions
When the First World War broke out , the 6th Destroyer Flotilla formed the core of the "Dover Patrol" and the Zulu remained in this service until the heavy mine hit in 1917. The flotilla also included the three reconnaissance cruisers Adventure , Attentive and Foresight and twelve old "30-knotters" - torpedo boat destroyer of B- and C-class . In autumn the light cruiser HMS Sapphire joined the flotilla. In the spring of 1915, several River class destroyers and torpedo boats also joined the association. From November 1915 to April 1918, the seaplane carrier Riviera , a former canal ferry, also belonged to the 6th Destroyer Flotilla.
The Zulu , like the sister boats, carried out numerous routine patrols. In the first few months the Zulu had a few accidents, including two collisions with the Crusader . After the Hermes, used as an aircraft transporter to France, was torpedoed on the march back from Dunkirk by the German submarine U 27 in the Strait of Dover on October 31, 1914 , the Zulu ran to their support, but could not prevent the sinking of the old cruiser. in which 22 men of the crew died.
In addition, the Zulu secured troop transports on their trips to France with their sister boats. From the autumn of 1915 she accompanied monitors off the Flemish coast to bombard German positions on land. There was a risk of being attacked by German torpedo boats or German aircraft. Interruptions in continuous use resulted in shipyard idle times and the repair of damage caused by attacks or minor accidents.
The end of the Zulu and the Nubian
On November 8, 1916, the Zulu set off a mine on patrol off Calais , the explosion of which tore off the stern of the Zulu . The mine was laid by the German mining submarine UC 1 . The severely damaged destroyer was brought to Calais by the French destroyer Capitaine Mehl , where emergency repairs were carried out in the dry dock. The wreck was then towed to Chatham at the end of the month . At the local naval shipyard there was a plan to build a new one out of two severely damaged tribal destroyers.
The Nubian , built at Thornycroft , was available as a second wreck . On the night of October 26-27, 1916, she was one of the six alerted destroyers of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla who tried to catch German torpedo boats that successfully attacked the British security line, including six guard boats, the destroyer Flirt and the freighter Queen had sunk. The destroyers rushing to the rescue split into two groups. The Nubian reached the battlefield alone first, but thought the German boats were separate units and was caught by fire. She tried to ram the last boat of the departing Germans, but was hit by a torpedo that tore off her bow and made her a drifting wreck. In addition to serious damage, it had fifteen dead and six seriously wounded. The wreck of the Nubian was towed away, but had to be aground off Dover on the coast in order not to sink.
The assembly of the two hulls, which came from different shipyards, was not without problems, not only because of the different hull widths, but also because of the entire equipment, but could be managed. The resulting ship was named Zubian by the commander of the Dover Patrol, Admiral Reginald Bacon . On June 7, 1917 the new boat was put into service.
The Zubian was 85.4 m long, 8.2 m wide and had a draft of 3 m. It displaced 1040 t. The propulsion system consisted of three Parsons turbine sets and six oil-fired steam boilers of the Thornycroft type. She developed 14,000 hp and reached 33 knots. The Zubian was armed with two 4-inch (102-mm) MK-V naval guns on the forecastle and stern and two 18- inch torpedo tubes on the center line. The crew consisted of 68 men.
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|---|---|
 The Zubian |
|
| Overview | |
| Shipyard | |
| Commissioning | June 7, 1917 |
| Whereabouts | December 1919 for demolition |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
1027 t, max. 1140 t |
| length |
85.4 m |
| width |
8.2 m |
| Draft |
3.0 m |
| crew |
71 men |
| drive |
6 Thornycroft boilers , |
| speed |
33 kn , 3 screws |
| Armament | |
The Zubian
The Zubian came back to the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, where she stayed until the end of the war. During this time the destroyers of the flotilla were in action every night in the Dover Strait in groups of four, with flotilla leaders as cover groups. The main objective was to destroy the German torpedo boats that were trying to shell allied positions.
On 22./23. In April 1918, the Zubian took part in the first raid against the German-occupied Ostend in Belgium , which took place at the same time as the similar attack on Zeebrugge . The aim of the attacks was to make the ports unusable for further use by German surface ships and submarines. The Zubian secured with the Mentor and the Lightfoot the bombardment group of seven monitors with Marshal Soult (6,780 t, 1 × 2 15 in Mk.I ), Lord Clive , Prince Eugene and General Craufurd (6,000 t, 1 × 2 12 in Mk. VIII ) as well as M24 , M26 , M21 (540 t, 1-7.5 in Mk.III ). In the English Channel, the Harwich Force covered the attack. The group should put the German coastal defense out of action, while two old cruisers should run into the port entrance to sink as block ships there. Both ran aground well in front of the port without obstructing the port access.
The end of the Zubian
The five last still active tribal destroyers ( Afridi, Cossack, Saracen, Viking and Zubian ) moved to the "7th Destroyer Flotilla" in the Humber in February 1919 . They formed together with eleven old torpedo destroyers and three destroyers of the River class, the "East Coast Forces" until they retired from active service a month later. The boats were offered for sale in Immingham . In December 1919, the Zubian was sold to the Fryer company in Sunderland for demolition.
literature
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Conway Maritime Press, London 1985, ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
- Mark D. Karau: Wielding the Dagger. The MarineKorps Flanders and the German War Effort, 1914–1918. Praeger Publishers, Westport 2003, ISBN 0-313-32475-1 .
- Peter Kemp: HM Destroyers. H. Jenkins, London 1956.
- Dwight R. Messimer: Find and Destroy. Antisubmarine Warfare in World War I. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2001, ISBN 1-55750-447-4 .
- Anthony Preston: Destroyer. Hamlyn, London 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
Web links
- HMS Zulu 1909-1919 (HMS Zubian)
- HMS Zulu (1909) on dreadnoughtproject
- HMS Nubian 1909-1919 (HMS Zubian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 4 "/ 40 (102 mm) QF Marks IV, XII and XXII
- ↑ B-Class: Syren (1900), Kangaroo (1900), Myrmidon (1900).
- ↑ Class C: Crane (1896), Fawn (1897), Flirt (1897); Mermaid (1898), Racehorse (1900), Greyhound (1900); Gipsy (1897), Falcon (1899), Leven (1898)
- ^ Kemp: HM Destroyers. P. 107.
- ↑ Karau: Wielding the Dagger. P. 84.
- ↑ Gardiner: Conway's. P. 72.
- ↑ 4 "/ 45 (10.2 cm) QF Mark V and Mark XV
- ↑ Gardiner: Conway's. P. 71.
- ^ Carpenter, p. 270.
- ↑ Messimer: Find and Destroy; Antisubmarine Warfare. P. 173.
- ↑ Messimer, p. 175.
- ^ HMS Zubian
- ↑ Gardiner, p. 72.