River Class (1903)
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|---|---|
| River, then E class | |
_IWM_Q_021225.jpg) The HMS Erne , lost in 1915 , the 1st war loss of the class |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| units | 36 |
| Shipyard |
9 Palmers Shipbuilding |
| Order | from 1901 |
| Launch | December 1902 to 1905 |
| Namesake | British rivers |
| Whereabouts | 2 losses 1908, 1909 6 losses in World War 1919 to 1920 scrapped |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
535 to 570 tons |
| length |
67.1 to 71 m above sea level. (221 to 233 ft) |
| width |
7.16 m (23.5 ft) |
| Draft |
2.1 m (7 ft) |
| crew |
62–70 men |
| drive |
4 Thornycroft boilers |
| speed |
25.5 kn |
| Range |
> 1620 nm at 11 kn / 95 t coal |
| Armament |
1 × 12 pounder 76 mm L / 40 MKI gun |
| Max. Coal supply |
130-140 tons. |
| Test boat |
1 turbine boat Eden |
| Purchases |
1 speculation building 1903 Rother |
The River class of the Royal Navy was developed around the turn of the century class of 36 torpedo boat destroyers, built from 1902 to 1905. When the British destroyer classes were named after letters from August 1912, they were also referred to as the E-class . Externally, the boats differed because when the contract was awarded, the six shipyards involved in the construction were left with the details. The destroyers had two or four chimneys arranged in pairs, depending on the design submitted by the respective shipyard. The Palmer and Yarrow shipyard designed ships with four funnels.
In 1908 and 1909 the Royal Navy lost two boats in collisions. In the First World War six other destroyers of the E-Class have been lost.
Building history
The idea of the class arose from a request from John de Robeck , commander of the destroyer Mediterranean fleet at the end of 1900 , who called for destroyers with a greater range than the so-called "30-knotter" that had been procured up to then. Robeck demanded a range of 1650 nm at a cruising speed of 18 kn compared to the 1400 nm at 13 kn of the most recently acquired boats. Robeck's ideas and other suggestions were supported by his commander, Admiral "Jackie" Fisher , who also cited the German S 90 -class torpedo boats as good models for new torpedo boats.
In July 1901, the Royal Navy's chief designer, Sir William Henry White , approved the basic design of future destroyers, adopting many of the suggestions made by Robeck and his colleagues. The new boats should be more seaworthy, have a raised forecastle and a bridge that is set back further. You should get a heavier, more reliable machine. The required maximum speed was ultimately even reduced to 25.5 kn. However, this speed was to be achieved under almost realistic conditions with 95 tons of coal on board, which was not the case with the last "30-knotter" ordered. The new destroyers were therefore faster than their predecessors in all weather conditions except for complete calm and absolutely calm seas.
As with the British destroyers built so far, the Admiralty asked private shipyards to submit drafts based on the rough draft. Through this process, the boats of the different shipyards differed in details in the external and internal design. Six shipyards received orders for River-class structures, all of which had previously built destroyers for the Navy. Palmers and Yarrow supplied fifteen four-chimneys. The boats of the other shipyards were two-chimney with different designs.
Most of the boats were delivered by the Palmers shipyards in Jarrow on Tyne and Laird in Birkenhead , each with nine . Another six came from Hawthorn Leslie in Hebburn on the Tyne and also from Yarrow in Poplar . Hawthorn delivered another turbine-powered boat with the Eden , Yarrow returned to the circle of destroyer suppliers for the Navy after a dispute with the Admiralty. The first orders for ten boats went to these four shipyards in 1901, with Palmers and Yarrow to deliver three boats. In 1902/1903 eight more boats were ordered, including two from John I. Thornycroft in the London borough of Chiswick and a third boat, which the shipyard had started speculatively, bought from Palmers. In 1903/1904 the shipyards received orders for fifteen boats, with J. Samuel White in Cowes now also receiving two orders. The boats were delivered from January 1904 to September 1905. In 1909 two speculative structures from Laird with turbine drive were purchased to replace lost boats, which in 1913 were also assigned to the River / E-Class.
Depending on the shipyard, the boats displaced between 535 and 590 tn with normal equipment and a maximum of 660 tn. The length of the boats was around 69 m. The four water-tube boilers on Palmers' boats were of the Reed type , those of Laird were of the Normand type , Thornycroft's own type, and White of the White-Foster type and the rest of the Yarrow type .
The armament of the boats was originally identical to that of the previous 30 knotter with a 76 mm gun , five 57 mm Hotchkiss cannons and two 18 inch torpedo tubes, with the first ten boats having the front side 57 mm Cannons were set up in swallow nests , which did not prove themselves, so that from the second order these cannons were set up to the side of the main gun on the forecastle. From 1907, the 57 mm cannons were removed from all boats and replaced with three short-barreled 76 mm / L28 rapid-fire guns.
Mission history
The first boat to enter the service of the Navy in January 1904 was the Itchen von Laird, which was followed by fifteen boats by the end of the year. 18 more boats followed by September 1905. All boats began their service with the "East Coast Destroyer Flotilla" of the Home Fleet in Harwich . In April 1909 it became the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla. In May 1912, the boats were replaced by destroyers of the Beagle class and assigned to the reserve, where they formed the 5th destroyer flotilla of the 2nd Fleet and only kept a small cadre crew.
Two boats were lost during the operation with the Home Fleet:
During an exercise by the "East Coast Destroyer Flotilla" with sniper shooting and night maneuvers on April 27, 1908 off Harwich, the scout cruiser HMS Attentive rammed the Yarrow boat Gala and cut it in two Parts that sank rapidly. Fortunately, except for the engineer officer at the gala , all crew members were rescued. The cruiser then rammed the Ribble , which was able to call at Sheerness as a port of refuge on its own .
On April 6, 1909, the Blackwater sank after a collision with the freighter Hero off Dungeness . As early as August 13, 1904, a boat of this class was significantly involved in the sinking of another ship when the destroyer Decoy sank after a collision with the Arun built near Laird under her commander Reginald Tyrwhitt , who later became known as the commander of the Harwich Force Conduct was accused.
In 1909 the Navy acquired two turbine-powered speculative structures that had begun in 1905 to replace Cammell Laird and were considerably cheaper than the new structures they had replaced. The Stour and Test displaced 570 tn, were 220 feet long and had a 7000 hp turbine drive for 26 knots. The fuel supply was 134 tons of coal and 66 tons of oil. They were armed like the River class boats since 1906/1908.
_IWM_Q_021237.jpg)
At the end of 1904 the Palmers boats Exe and Dee were relocated to China Station , followed by the new sister boats Swale and Wear in 1905 .
In 1909/1910 the four Thornycroft boats Kennet , Jed , Chelmer and Colne with the Yarrow boats Ribble , Usk and Welland were assigned to the China Station. Of the eleven boats at the China Station, the four Palmers boats in service there since 1904/1905 left China in the first half of 1914 and returned to Europe.
On August 30, 1912, the Admiralty ordered the renaming of all destroyer classes by letter. The river class boats then formed the E class . From September 1913, the boats also had a capital "E" on the hull below the bridge and on one of the chimneys.
War effort
In 1914, River-class boats in home waters were in the reserve. During the test mobilization in July 1914, fourteen boats of the class formed the 9th destroyer flotilla, to which a further eight boats of the class were to join.
At the beginning of World War I, the 9th Destroyer Flotilla had two scout cruisers ( Forward , Patrol ) and thirteen River-class destroyers ( Derwent, Doon, Eden, Ettrick, Itchen, Kale, Ness, Nith, Ouse, Rother, Stour, Test, Waveney ), to which the Moy joined in December 1914 , and four torpedo boats ( TB 4, TB 13, TB 22, TB 24 ) of the cricket class . The flotilla's supply ship was the old cruiser St. George .
On December 16, 1914, a division of the flotilla with the Doon as the lead ship, the Waveney , Test and Moy, was on a control voyage off Hartlepool when the German battle cruisers Seydlitz , Blücher and Moltke attacked the coastal town early in the morning. Doon spotted the three large, approaching ships just before they opened fire. Since the destroyers' torpedoes alone were able to damage the attacking ships and the battlecruisers were not within torpedo range, three destroyers turned away. Only the division boat Doon ran within 5000 yards of the German ships and shot a torpedo. This missed the attackers and Doon also withdrew. The Germans shot at the division, but scored no hits. The Doon and Moi , however, suffered damage from splinters and near hits. Three men died and six were injured on the Doon. Your radio system failed and the rear gun and a torpedo tube could no longer be used.
In April 1915 the first four destroyers were transferred to other flotillas and in September 1915 the flotilla was disbanded and the remaining boats were transferred to the 7th destroyer flotilla.
7. Destroyer Flotilla
As of September 1915, the 7th destroyer flotilla on the Humber had twelve River class destroyers ( Derwent, Doon, Eden, Itchen, Kale, Moy, Ness, Nith, Ouse, Stour, Test, Waveney ) in addition to seven old destroyers of the B- and C class .
The flotilla last known as the "East Coast Forces" had 26 destroyers at the end of the war, including ten C-class boats and twelve River-class boats ( Boyne, Dee, Doon *, Exe, Garry, Moy, Ness, Nith?, Ouse, Stour, Test, Waveney *)
Destroyer flotillas in the canal
The 6th Destroyer Flotilla in Dover received in March 1915 with Exe, Teviot and Ure also three destroyers of the River class, the first two of which were delivered to the "Portland Local Defense Flotilla" in April, only Ure remained as a single ship until February In 1917 with this flotilla before she was handed over to Portsmouth for escort duties .
At the end of the war, the 1st Destroyer Flotilla stationed there had seven river destroyers to secure shipping with Cherwell, Ettrick, Liffey, Rother, Swale, Teviot and Ure .
China station
At the beginning of the war, the seven boats of the River class, which had been transferred to the China Station in 1910, were deployed abroad. At the beginning of August 1914, the ship of the line HMS Triumph blocked the German base Tsingtau with the five destroyers Colne , Jed , Usk , Welland and Kennet and the gunboats Clio and Cadmus . The Ribble stayed behind to protect the base in Hong Kong and the Chelmer was not operational because of a boiler repair. After entry into the war of the Japanese, the British units withdrew from Qingdao and moved after the disappearance of the units of the German East Asia Squadron to South America or in the Indian Ocean at the turn of 1914/1915 in the Mediterranean, where they all with the Battle Honor Dardanelles were awarded .
see also ==> * HMS Kennet
5. Destroyer Flotilla
In January 1915, a new 5th destroyer flotilla with seven destroyers of the "River" class under the command of HMS Sapphire was set up with the Mediterranean Fleet . The river boats Ribble, Usk, Chelmer, Colne, Jed and Kennet came from China Station and the Waveney from the 9th Destroyer Flotilla. The command cruiser was handed over to the light cruisers of the Mediterranean fleet in March. At the same time, the first seven Beagle-class destroyers returned to this flotilla. With the Wear from Gibraltar and the Welland from China two more river boats joined the flotilla.
In the Royal Navy's largest destroyer flotilla with 51 boats at the end of the war, the eight boats Chelmer, Colne, Jed, Kennet, Ribble, Usk, Wear and Welland formed the River class with the Sendan ex HMS Minstrel and Kanran ex HMS boats lent to the Japanese Nemesis of the Acorn class, the “Malta Contingent” of the flotilla.
War losses
The first war loss of the River class was the Erne , which had started her service with the Scapa Flow Local Flotilla shortly after the start of the war . On February 6, 1915, the boat was pressed in a heavy east storm on the Scottish North Sea coast near the lighthouse north of Aberdeen. The crew was able to save themselves, but the boat was not released again. In November, a thorough investigation revealed that the keel had broken and the Erne was sold for demolition on site.
The next loss was also an accident when the French troop transporter France (1912, 24,666 GRT) overran the Eden , which was deployed from Portsmouth for anti-submarine defense in the canal, off Fécamp on the night of June 18, 1916 . 43 men of Eden died, France was able to save 33 castaways.
The next loss concerned the Foyle , which had been deployed from Portsmouth since November 1916 , and which ran on 15 March 1917 off Plymouth at position 50 ° 11'N 03 ° 58'W on a mine laid by the German submarine UC 68 and lost the bug. Towed the boat capsized, 28 man of Foyle died
The next loss also occurred in the canal when on May 2, 1917 the Derwent of the same escort flotilla ran off Le Havre at position 49 ° 31'N 00 ° 02'W on a mine laid by the German submarine UC 26 . 58 men lost their lives on the destroyer, which immediately sank.
On July 6, 1917, the first in service commissioned destroyer of the River class at the "since September 1914, Scapa Flow used Local Flotilla" HMS Itchen probably from the German submarine UC 44 in the North Sea 70 nautical miles north-northeast of Peterhead on the position 58 ° 35N, 00 ° 45W torpedoed. Eight men of the crew died when the Itchen sank .
The next loss of a River-class destroyer occurred again in the canal when the German submarine UC 61 torpedoed the Ettrick built at Palmer 25 km south of Beachy Head on July 7, 1917 . The destroyer lost its forecastle and 49 men were killed. But it was brought in badly damaged, but was not repaired and the wreck was scrapped from May 1919.
As the last boat of the class, the Kale , built near Hawthorn, was lost on March 27, 1918 after a mine hit in the North Sea with 41 men on March 27, 1918. Presumably she got into a British minefield.
Successes against submarines
A main task of the boats was to defend against German submarines. But only the Garry and the Ouse are counted as submerged submarines.
The Garry was after activation for the 9th destroyer since September 1914, the "Scapa Flow Local Flotilla" to protect the main anchorage of the Grand Fleet . On November 23, 1914, the German submarine U 18 was discovered in the Pentland Firth while attempting to penetrate Scapa Flow . The armed fish steamer Dorothy Gray rammed the submarine, which was trying to escape underwater. It hit the ground, however, and was pushed back to the surface, where Garry rammed it again. U-18 then sank at position 58 ° 41'N, 02 ° 55'W. One man of the crew died, the other 22 were taken prisoner.
On 19 July 1918 the recessed Garry then UB 110 at 54 ° 39'N 00 ° 55'E off the north coast of Yorkshire . A depth charge by the destroyer had damaged the submarine and forced it to the surface, where the Garry rammed it and caused it to sink. 18 men of the submarine crew were killed, the rest were taken prisoner.
The Ouse was also involved in the sinking of two submarines. On August 28, 1918, she sank UC 70 near Runswick Bay on the Yorkshire coast . The submarine was from a Blackburn Kangaroo - reconnaissance of the season No. 246 of the Royal Air Force was discovered and damaged. UC 70 sank at position 54 ° 32'N, 00 ° 40'W with 31 men. On September 29, 1918, the Ouse with the old destroyer Star with depth charges sank the German submarine UB 115 off Sunderland, a little northeast of Beacon Point near Newton-by-the-Sea, which sank with 39 men.
The river class boats
- Nine boats built by Laird Brothers (from 1903 Cammell Laird ) in Birkenhead , two of which were turbine-propelled speculative structures bought in 1909, all of which had two medium-sized chimneys.
- Nine boats built by Palmers in Jarrow with four funnels in two pairs.
- Six boats built by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Poplar, London, also with four chimneys in two pairs standing together with different finishes.
- Six boats with two short chimneys built by Hawthorn Leslie in Hebburn near Newcastle upon Tyne.
- Four of I. John Thornycroft & Company at Chiswick built boats with two tall chimneys.
- Two boats also built by J. Samuel White at Cowes with two tall chimneys.
| Surname | Shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foyle | Laird Brothers | 08/15/1902 | 02/25/1903 | 03.1904 | Sunk on March 15, 1917 after being hit by mines off Plymouth, 28 dead |
| Itch | Laird | 08/18/1902 | 03/17/1903 | 1.1904 | Sunk 6 July 1917 after being hit by a torpedo off Peterhead , 8 dead |
| Arun | Laird | 08/27/1902 | 04/29/1903 | 02.1904 | June 1920 for demolition |
| Blackwater | Laird | 08/27/1902 | July 25, 1903 | 03.1904 | April 6, 1909 sunk after collision |
| Liffey | Cammell Laird | March 22, 1904 | 09/23/1904 | 05.1905 | June 1919 for demolition |
| Moy | Cammell Laird | March 22, 1904 | 11/10/1904 | 06.1905 | May 1919 for demolition |
| Ouse | Cammell Laird | March 22, 1904 | January 7, 1905 | 09.1905 | October 1919 for demolition |
| test | Cammell Laird | May 6, 1905 | 12.1909 | August 1919 for demolition | |
| Stour | Cammell Laird | 3.06.1905 | 12.1909 | August 1919 for demolition | |
| Erne | Palmer's building no. 767 | 3.07.1902 | 01/14/1903 | 02.1904 | Accumulated and sunk at Rattray Head on February 6, 1915 , no casualties |
| Ettrick | Palmer's building no. 768 | July 9, 1902 | 02/28/1903 | 3.11.1903 | torpedoed on July 7, 1917 near Beachy Head in the canal, 49 dead, brought in but not repaired |
| Exe | Palmer's building no. 769 | 07/14/1902 | 04/27/1903 | 11/25/1903 | February 1920 for demolition |
| Cherwell | Palmer's building no. 772 | 01/20/1903 | 07/23/1903 | 03/15/1904 | June 1919 for demolition |
| Dee | Palmer's building no. 773 | 5.03.1903 | 09/10/1903 | 03/29/1904 | July 1919 for demolition |
| Rother | Palmer's building no. 770 | 03/23/1903 | 5.01.1904 | 5.05.1905 | June 1919 for demolition |
| Ure | Palmer's building no. 777 | 1.03.1904 | 10/25/1904 | April 8, 1905 | May 1919 for demolition |
| Wear | Palmer's building no. 778 | March 7, 1904 | 01/21/1905 | 06/14/1905 | November 1919 for demolition |
| Swale | Palmer's building no. 782 | 07/23/1904 | 03/20/1905 | 09/19/1905 | November 1919 for demolition |
| Ribble | Yarrow | 4.07.1902 | 03/19/1902 | 06.1904 | June 1919 for demolition |
| Teviot | Yarrow | 07/10/1902 | November 7, 1903 | 04.1904 | June 1919 for demolition |
| Usk | Yarrow | 07/30/1902 | July 25, 1903 | 03.1904 | July 1920 for demolition |
| Welland | Yarrow | 1.10.1902 | 04/14/1004 | 07.1904 | June 1920 for demolition |
| Gala | Yarrow | 1.02.1904 | January 7, 1905 | .1905 | Sunk April 27, 1908 after collision with HMS Attentive , one dead |
| Garry | Yarrow | 04/25/1904 | 03/21/1905 | 09.1905 | October 1919 for demolition |
| Derwent |
Hawthorn Leslie Building No. 385 |
06/12/1902 | 02/14/1903 | 2.07.1904 | Sank on May 2, 1917 after being hit by a mine off Le Havre , 58 dead |
| Eden | Hawthorn construction no. 386 | 06/12/1902 | 03/14/1903 | 06/16/1904 | Sunk off Fécamp on June 18, 1916 after colliding with Transporter France , 43 dead |
| Waveney | Hawthorn construction no. 388 | 10/20/1902 | 04/16/1903 | 06/14/1904 | February 1920 for demolition |
| Boyne | Hawthorn construction no. 394 | 02/16/1904 | 09/12/1904 | May 16, 1905 | August 1919 for demolition |
| Doon | Hawthorn construction no. 395 | 02/16/1904 | November 8, 1904 | 06/21/1905 | June 1919 for demolition |
| Kale | Hawthorn construction no. 396 | 02/16/1904 | November 8, 1904 | August 7, 1905 | Sank on March 27, 1918 after a mine hit in the North Sea, 41 dead |
| Know | Thornycroft | December 5, 1902 | December 4, 1903 | 01.1905 | December 1919 for demolition |
| Jed | Thornycroft | 02/27/1903 | 02/16/1904 | 01.1905 | July 1920 for demolition |
| Chelmer | Thornycroft | 02/11/1904 | December 8, 1904 | 06.1905 | June 1920 for demolition |
| Colne | Thornycroft | 03/21/1904 | May 21, 1904 | 07.1905 | November 1919 for demolition |
| Ness | J. Samuel White | 5.05.1904 | 5.01.1905 | 08.1905 | May 1919 for demolition |
| Nith | White | 5.05.1904 | March 7, 1905 | 10.1905 | June 1919 for demolition |
Individual evidence
- ↑ David and Hugh Lyon; Siegfried Greiner: Warships from 1900 to today, technology and use . Buch und Zeit Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 1979, p. 61 .
- ^ Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War , p. 86.
- ^ Friedman, p. 88.
- ^ Preston: Destroyers , p. 14.
- ↑ Friedman, pp. 88f.
- ^ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906 to 1922 , pp. 17ff.
- ↑ so Dreadnought Project, according to other sources 17 destroyers
- ^ Raid on Hartlepool from naval-history.net
- ↑ 7th DF on dreadnoughtproject
- ↑ THE ALLIED CHINA SQUADRON, p. 313
- ↑ Loss of the HMS Foyle ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Loss of the HMS Derwent ( memento of the original from June 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Torpedoing of HMS Itchen ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Torpedoing of HMS Ettrick ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Data from SM U 18. Accessed August 31, 2020 (English).
- ↑ sinking of UB 110. Retrieved on August 31, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Jackson Airplane Monthly August 1979, p. 397.
- ↑ Sinking UC 70. Retrieved August 31, 2020 (English).
- Jump up UB 115. Accessed on August 31, 2020 (English).
literature
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981 , Ian Allen (1983), ISBN 0-7110-1075-7 .
- Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War , Seaforth Publishing (Barnsley 2009), ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
- David Lyon: The First Destroyers . Chatham Publishing, 1996, ISBN 1-86176-005-1 .
- TD Manning: The British Destroyer , Putnam 1961.
- Antony Preston: Destroyers , Hamlyn, ISBN 0-60032955-0 .
- Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921 , Conway Maritime Press (1985), p. 72f.
- Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I (Ed. John Moore), Studio (London 1990), ISBN 1-85170-378-0 .
Web links
- Palmers River class, 1901 , 1902 , 1903 , speculative building
- Laird River class, 1901 , 1902 , 1903 , purchased in 1909
- Hawthorn Leslie River Class, 1901 (2) , 1902 (1) , 1903 (3)
- Yarrow River class, 1901 (3) , 1902 (1) , 1903 (2)
- Thornycroft River class, 1902 (2) , 1903 (2)
- White River class, 1903 (2)
- River class, 1903
- Pictures of the River Class Destroyer 1902