HMS Attentive (1904)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Attentive.

Attentive prior to the First World War
History
United Kingdom
NameAttentive
Builder
Elswick, Tyne and Wear
Yard number748
Laid downJanuary 1904
Launched22 November 1904
Completed2 February 1906
CommissionedOctober 1905
DecommissionedDecember 1918
FateSold for scrap, 12 April 1920
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeAdventure-class scout cruiser
Displacement2,670 long tons (2,713 t)
Length374 ft (114.0 m) (p/p)
Beam38 ft 3 in (11.7 m)
Draught12 ft 5 in (3.8 m)
Installed power
Propulsion2 Shafts, 2 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range2,370 nmi (4,390 km; 2,730 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement289
Armament
  • 10 ×
    QF 12-pdr (3 in (76 mm)) guns
  • 8 ×
    QF 3 pdr (47 mm) guns
  • 2 ×
    18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour

HMS Attentive was one of two

paid off at the end of 1918 and was sold for scrap
in 1920.

Design and description

The Adventure-class ships were one of four classes of scout cruisers ordered by the

deep load. Their crew consisted of 289 officers and ratings.[1]

The ship was powered by a pair of three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by a dozen Yarrow boilers. The engines were designed to produce a total of 16,000 indicated horsepower (12,000 kW) which was intended to give a maximum speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph).[2] When Attentive ran her sea trials, she reached a speed of 25.9 knots (48.0 km/h; 29.8 mph) from 16,212 ihp (12,089 kW) for eight hours.[3] The Adventure-class cruisers carried enough coal to give them a range of 2,370 nautical miles (4,390 km; 2,730 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[4]

The main armament of the Adventure class consisted of ten

18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside. The ships' protective deck armour ranged in thickness from 0.75 to 2 inches (19 to 51 mm) and the conning tower had armour 3 inches (76 mm) inches thick. T[2]

Construction and career

Attentive was

yard number 748 and launched on 22 November.[6] After completion in October 1905, the ship was placed in reserve; two additional 12-pounder guns were added and the 3-pounder guns were replaced with six QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns not long afterwards.[2] She was commissioned in March 1907 for service with the Nore Division of the Home Fleet. On 7 August 1907 (one source states it occurred on 6 August[7]) she collided with the destroyer HMS Quail,[8] badly damaging Quail's bow.[9] The following year, on 27 April 1908, Attentive was involved in a series of accidents during a live-firing exercise at night with the Eastern Destroyer Flotilla. She accidentally rammed and sank the destroyer Gala, killing one crewman. The hapless Attentive then collided with the destroyer Ribble
, holing her hull.

After repairs she was recommissioned at

HM Dockyard, Devonport, Attentive was assigned to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron in 1913 for the annual manoeuvres and was then transferred to lead the 9th Destroyer Flotilla at Portsmouth. The ship joined the 6th Destroyer Flotilla at Dover later that year.[7] During the Curragh incident of 1914 the ship was deployed to Ireland with HMS Pathfinder, and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill threatened to "pour enough shot and shell into Belfast to reduce it to ruins" if the Ulster Volunteers revolted against the British Armed Forces.[11]

She spent most of the First World War as part of the Dover Patrol.[12] On 7 September 1915 she became an early victim of air power. While supporting a naval bombardment of German positions at Ostend, Attentive was bombed, suffering eight casualties. The air attack forced the squadron to briefly disperse, before returning to carry out the bombardment.[13] Attentive screened the raiding force during the Zeebrugge Raid on 25 April 1918 and recovered part of the ship's crew of the concrete-filled cruiser Sirius after she had detonated her demolition charges.[14] Later that year the ship began escorting convoys to Gibraltar. She spent a few months off Murmansk, North Russia, supporting British forces intervening in the Russian Civil War.[7] Attentive was paid off in December 1918, after hostilities ended, and was sold for scrap in April 1920.[15]

Notes

  1. ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 18 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.

Citations

  1. ^ Friedman 2009, pp. 99–101, 294
  2. ^ a b c Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 84
  3. ^ McBride, p. 277
  4. ^ Friedman 2009, p. 294
  5. ^ Friedman 2011, p. 112
  6. ^ "HMS Attentive (1904)". www.tynebuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  7. ^ a b c Gardiner & Gray, p. 17
  8. ^ "NMM, vessel ID 374020" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol III. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  9. ^ Lyon, p. 100
  10. ^ McBride, p. 274
  11. ISBN 978-0-465-03145-0
    .
  12. ^ Morris, p. 112
  13. ^ Bacon, p. 86
  14. ^ McGreal, p. 108
  15. ^ Friedman 2009, p. 301

Bibliography

External links

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