Note

Date 14 November 2002

Event ID 627656

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/627656

Length: 505ft 6ins (154.1m)

Beam: 73ft (22.3m)

Displacement: 13,550 tons

Propulsion: two 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines, 2 screws, 23,500 hp, 23 kts

Guns: 6 x 9.2 ins (23.4cm); 4x7.5 ins (19cm) and smaller weapons

Torpedo tubes: 3 x 18ins (46cm)

Armour: (Krupp) up to 6ins (152mm)

Armour: belt 6ins (15cm); deck 0.75-1.5ins (19-38cm)

Complement: 700-850

This armoured cruiser of the Warrior class (close relatives of the Duke of Edinburgh class) was built by Vickers at Barrow. The first Royal Navy ship of the name, she was named after the colony that largely paid for her construction. Coal-fired, but with an emergency oil supply, she may be seen as the last 'conventional' cruiser. She was laid down on 6 January 1904, launched on 30 September 1905 and completed in 1907, being commissioned at Chatham as a unit of the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet on 5 April in that year. In 1910, she was refitted with a lengthened funnel. Jane notes that 'These ships are singularly successful sea boats, and are held by all who have served in them to be the best cruisers ever turned out'.

Throughout her service life, she had a traditional association with service to dignitaries. In April 1908 she was escort to the Royal yacht on the occasion of the visit of the King and Queen of Sweden. In 1911 she escorted King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in the P and O liner Medina to India for the Coronation Durbar that year, and in 1912 she was used to return the body of the American ambassador (Mr Whitelaw-Reid) after his death in England. She sustained significant heavy weather damage during the latter voyage.

At the test mobilisation of 1914 she sailed to Rosyth as a unit of the (Chatham-based) 2nd Cruise Squadron. She apparently missed both the battles of Heligoland Bight and Jutland, but blew up off Cromarty on 30 December 1915, sinking almost immediately. The bodies recovered were buried in Rosskeen Parish Churchyard (NH66NE 13.01).

The cause of the sinking was unrecognised for some time, submarine attack, mining and sabotage being all considered possible. Evidence from examination by divers led to the conclusion that the vessel was sunk by the accidental explosion of 'questionable' cordite. An internal explosion in or near the after 9.2in shellroom broke the ship's back over a length of 18ft (5.5m) and tore a hole 24ft (7.3m) across in the hull. Damage was more pronounced on the port side, upon which the ship settled at an angle of about 135 degrees, the starboard bilge keel becoming vertical. The ship was found to lie on a mud bottom at a depth of 8.5 fm (15.5m) aft and 9 fm (16.5m) forward. Reassessment has suggested that the explosion took place in the 3-pdr and small arms magazine rather than in the 9.2in shellroom. This loss may also be understood in conjunction with that of HMS Vanguard (ND39NE 8045) from similar causes through explosion in Scapa Flow on 9 July 1917.

Various attempts at salvage were never brought to fruition and the salvage history of the ship is confused. The wreck was first (1921) bought by the Stanlee Shipbuilding and Salvage Co of Dover, but no action is said to have been taken before ownership passed to the Upnor Shipbuilding Co. This latter company intended to reduce the wreck to 36ft (11mm) below low water; a quantity of coal was recovered before the company folded and work ceased in 1926. In 1930 and 1937 the Middlesborough Salvage Co and the South Stockton Shipbuilding Co, respectively, selectively salvaged non-ferrous metals. These operations left a least depth of 3ft (0.9m); the major operations of the 1970's which have reduced the wreck to 'low-lying debris' arte detailed [HO report, 1995] above.

The location of the loss lies 9.5 km E of Invergordon and in the centre of the Firth to the N of Udale Bay. It is noted as a wreck in a charted depth of 10.9m; the surrounding seabed is noted as mixed sand and mud.

[See Jane for deck layout, armour arrangement, funnel markings and detail differences within class].

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 14 November 2002.

A C Hampshire 1961; H M Le Fleming 1961; [Jane] 2001.

UKHO chart no. 1889 (1975, revised 1990).