HMS Chatham (1911)

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

History
United Kingdom
NameChatham
NamesakeChatham, Kent
BuilderChatham Dockyard
Laid down3 January 1911
Launched9 November 1911
CommissionedDecember 1912
FateSold for scrap, 13 July 1926
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeTown-class light cruiser
Displacement5,400 long tons (5,487 t)
Length
  • 430 ft (131.1 m) p/p
  • 457 ft (139.3 m) o/a
Beam49 ft (14.9 m)
Draught16 ft (4.9 m) (mean)
Installed power
Propulsion4 × shafts; 3 × steam turbines
Speed25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph)
Range4,460 nmi (8,260 km; 5,130 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement475
Armament
Armour

HMS Chatham was a

First World War and was sold for scrap
in 1926.

Design and description

The Chatham sub-class were slightly larger and improved versions of the preceding Weymouth sub-class.

sea trials from 26,247 shp (19,572 kW).[3] The boilers used both fuel oil and coal, with 1,200 long tons (1,219 t) of coal and 260 long tons (264 t) tons of oil carried, which gave a range of 4,460 nautical miles (8,260 km; 5,130 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[2]

The main armament of the Chathams was eight

torpedo tubes.[4]

Construction and career

The ship was

Mediterranean in July 1913.[5]

Chatham remained part of the

Straits of Messina on 3 August.[6] After the two German ships avoided the British forces and reached Turkey, Chatham was detached for operations in the Red Sea on 13 August 1914.[7]

On 20 September that year, the German light cruiser Königsberg sank the old British cruiser Pegasus in Zanzibar harbour. In response, Chatham was ordered to East Africa to join up with sister ships Weymouth and Dartmouth and take part in the hunt for Königsberg, with Chatham's Captain, Sidney R. Drury-Lowe commanding the operation. Chatham arrived at Zanzibar on 28 September, but her participation in the search was delayed when she ran aground off that port on 1 October. While Chatham was only lightly damaged, she was under repair at Mombasa from 3 October to 15 October[8]

Präsident

On 19 October Chatham's boats found the German steamer Präsident 3.5 miles (5.6 km) upriver from the coastal town of Lindi, German East Africa (now Tanzania). While the Germans claimed that Präsident was a hospital ship, the British found no medical equipment on board and had not been notified of the German ship's status and found documents aboard Präsident indicating that she had acted as a supply ship for Königsberg. The German ship was claimed as a Prize of war, but as Präsident's engines were broken down, Chatham permanently disabled Präsident's machinery before continuing the search for Königsberg.[9][10]

Somali after being burnt out by shellfire from Chatham.

On 30 October Chatham found Königsberg and the supply ship Somali up the Rufiji River, but owing to the shallowness of the river delta, could not closely approach the two German ships.[11] On 7 November Chatham hit Somali with a shell, causing a fire that destroyed the supply ship, while on 10 November the British scuttled the collier Newbridge in the main channel of the Delta, blocking Königsberg from escaping to sea.[12] Chatham left East African waters on 2 January 1915 for the Mediterranean.[13]

From May 1915 Chatham supported the

Rear-Admiral John de Robeck, in command of Naval Forces during the operation.[15] On 20 December Chatham acted as the flagship for Admiral Weymss during the evacuation from Sulva Bay and Anzac Cove.[16]

In 1916 she returned to home waters and joined the

colony of Bermuda (home base of the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station), before cruising to the West Indies and becoming the first Royal Naval vessel from Bermuda to pass through the Panama Canal in December, 1920 (the geographic limits of the station controlled from Bermuda had grown over the preceding century from the western North Atlantic to absorb the area of the Jamaica Station, and following the first World War would absorb the former areas of the South East Coast of America Station and, utilising the canal, the Pacific Station, demonstrating the amity and the convergence of national interests between the United Kingdom and the United States).[18] During late June 1921, she carried out a search for the missing steamer SS Canastota.[19]

She was sold for scrapping on 13 July 1926 to Thos. W. Ward, of Pembroke Dock.[20]

In 1922, the crew of Chatham donated a cup to the New Zealand Football Association. This became the Chatham Cup, New Zealand's local equivalent of the FA Cup, and its premier knockout football trophy.[21]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Gardiner & Gray, p. 53
  2. ^ a b Friedman, p. 384
  3. ^ Lyon, Part 2, pp. 59–60
  4. ^ Lyon, Part 2, pp. 55–57
  5. ^ a b c Gardiner & Gray, pp. 53–54
  6. ^ Naval Staff Memorandum No. 21 1923, pp. 1–2, 12–13.
  7. ^ Naval Staff Memorandum No. 21 1923, pp. 49–50.
  8. ^ Naval Staff Memorandum No. 10 1921, pp. 35–37, 42.
  9. ^ Naval Staff Memorandum No. 10 1921, pp. 43–45.
  10. ^ The Naval Review Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 479–480.
  11. ^ Naval Staff Memorandum No. 10 1921, pp. 44–45, 54–55.
  12. ^ Naval Staff Memorandum No. 10 1921, pp. 56–60.
  13. ^ Naval Staff Memorandum No. 10 1921, p. 71.
  14. ^ Corbett 1923, p. 72.
  15. ^ Corbett 1923, p. 94.
  16. ^ Corbett 1923, pp. 238, 241.
  17. ^ J. O'C Ross, The White Ensign in New Zealand (1967); Howard, The Navy in New Zealand (1981).
  18. ^ "Cruiser on The Coast". The Daily Colonist. Toronto. 4 December 1920. p. 22. This is the first occasion on which a ship from the Bermuda station has come through the Canal.
  19. ^ "Missing Canastota". Sydney Morning Herald. 1 July 1921. p. 9. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  20. ^ Lyon, Part 3, p. 51
  21. ISBN 978-0473012915
    .

Bibliography

External links

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