HMS Bedford (1901)

China Station and ran aground in 1910. Her wreck was sold for scrap later that year after being partially salvaged

kW) which was designed to give the ships a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph).^[1] The ships carried a maximum of 1,600 long tons (1,600 t) of coal and her complement consisted of 678 officers and ratings.^[2]

18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.^[1]

amidships and two-inch (51 mm) forward. The armour of the gun turrets, their barbettes and the casemates was four inches thick. The protective deck armour ranged in thickness from 0.75–2 inches (19–51 mm) and the conning tower was protected by ten inches (254 mm) of armour.^[5]

launched on 31 August 1901, when she was christened by Charlotte Mary Emily Burns, wife of the Hon. James Cleland Burns, of the Cunard Line shipping family.^[7] In May 1902 she was navigated to Devonport for completion and trials.^[8] The ship was completed on 11 November 1903 and initially assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet. Bedford was briefly placed in reserve at the Nore in 1906^[9] before being recommissioned in February 1907 for service on the China Station.^[10]

spring tide. One of the other cruisers, Kent, checked her navigation when she spotted Ross Island at 05:00 the following morning and found that she was 11 nautical miles (20 km; 13 mi) north and 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) east of her estimated position. Heavy cloud cover had prevented all four ships from using celestial navigation to fix their position with any certainty; Kent was the only one that spotted a landmark clearly enough to determine her position.^[11]

starboard to reverse course at 04:47. About 10 seconds after starting the turn a rock was spotted off the starboard bow and he attempted to reverse his turn, but Bedford ran aground on Samarang Reef, some 24.7 nmi (45.7 km; 28.4 mi) north and 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi) west of her estimated position.^[11]

gunsights that day.^[12]

naval architect arrived two days later to assess the possibility of refloating Bedford. He concluded that it was possible if the good weather continued, but it would be very expensive and did not recommend doing so. Winsloe decided to continue salvaging equipment from the wreck, although the Japanese returned home on the 27th, but was forced to abandon it on 31 August when another typhoon was approaching the wreck site. By this time the British and Japanese had salvaged 14 six-inch guns, 13 torpedoes, and much gunnery and fire-control equipment in addition to the items removed earlier. Winsloe contracted with Mitsubishi to salvage the wreck on 20 August, but they were only able to work seven days on it by 14 October. The wreck was later sold at auction in Hong Kong after the initial auction failed to meet the £5,000 reserve.^[13]

Lieutenant Dixie, were subsequently court-martialled. Although Dixie had accounted for the head sea and wind in his dead reckoning, he failed to account for currents or tides, expecting them to cancel out. They were both found guilty of "suffering the ship to be stranded" and Dixie was found not guilty of the charge of negligence while Fitzherbert was found guilty. Both were sentenced to be "dismissed their ship" and severely reprimanded. Fitzherbert later retired as a vice-admiral while Dixie became an instructor in navigation.^[14]