HMS Cornwall (1902)
 Cornwall at anchor
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Cornwall |
| Namesake | Cornwall |
| Builder | HM Dockyard, Pembroke |
| Laid down | 11 March 1901 |
| Launched | 29 October 1902 |
| Christened | by Emily Harriet, Countess of St Germans |
| Completed | 1 December 1904 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 7 July 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | armoured cruiser |
| Displacement | 9,800 long tons (10,000 t) (normal) |
| Length | 463 ft 6 in (141.3 m) (o/a) |
| Beam | 66 ft (20.1 m) |
| Draught | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed | 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) |
| Complement | 678 |
| Armament |
|
| Armour |
|
HMS Cornwall was one of 10
4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station
beginning in 1908.
In 1909 she toured the Mediterranean and the Baltic, where she entertained the Kaiser who visited on his yacht the Hohenzollern at Kiel on 24 June.[1]
Cornwall ran aground in 1911 while trying to free another cruiser, but was successfully refloated and repaired.
She captured a German merchant ship days after the beginning of
paid off later that year. The ship was sold for scrap
in 1920.
Design and description
The Monmouths were intended to protect British merchant shipping from fast
kW) which was designed to give the ships a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph).[2] She carried a maximum of 1,600 long tons (1,600 t) of coal and her complement consisted of 678 officers and ratings.[3]
The Monmouth-class ships' main armament consisted of fourteen
18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.[2]
Beginning in 1915, the main deck six-inch guns of the Monmouth-class ships were moved to the upper deck and given
anti-aircraft guns were installed on the upper deck.[6]
The ship's
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.[7]
Construction and service
Cornwall, named to commemorate the
launched on 29 October 1902, when she was christened by the Countess of St Germans (nominated for this by the local Lord-Lieutenant).[10] She was completed on 1 December 1904[2] and was initially assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet. In December 1906 the ship began a refit that lasted through 1907. She became a cadet training ship in January 1908 and was assigned to the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. On 6 August 1911 Cornwall ran aground on Pinnacle Rock, off Cape Sable Island in Nova Scotia while assisting the protected cruiser HMCS Niobe, which had also run aground. Both cruisers were refloated and Cornwall was repaired at His Majesty's Canadian Dockyard, Halifax.[11]
In December 1913, the ship was refitting in
Christopher Craddock
.
After the German raider Cap Trafalgar was sunk, RMS Carmania was badly damaged, having lost nine men, but was able to rendezvous with Cornwall. Carmania was barely afloat when it made contact with Cornwall on 15 October. Carmania was escorted to Permambuco in Brazil where the ship was repaired before being sent to Gibraltar for further repair.
The ship was later assigned to a new squadron intended to patrol the River Plate area and did not join Craddock's ships as they searched for the German East Asia Squadron off the Chilean coast.[15] After Craddock's squadron was destroyed in the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, Cornwall then proceeded to the Falkland Islands with the squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee.[16]
Battle of the Falklands
Upon arrival at
predreadnought battleship Canopus when they came within range around 09:20. This gave time for Cornwall to reassemble her engine and raise steam, although she had not even started to recoal. The squadron cleared the harbour by 10:30 and Sturdee ordered, "general chase". His two battlecruisers were the fastest ships present and inexorably began to close on the German cruisers. They opened fire at 12:55 and began to straddle the light cruiser Leipzig, the rear ship in the German formation. It was clear to Spee that his ships could not outrun the battlecruisers and that the only hope for any of his ships to survive was to scatter. So he turned his two armoured cruisers around to buy time by engaging the battlecruisers and ordered his three light cruisers to disperse at 13:20.[17]
In accordance with Sturdee's plans, Cornwall, her
capsized at 21:32 but only a total of 18 men were rescued in the darkness. Leipzig had hit Cornwall 18 times, but she did not lose a single man.[18] The British ship rescued one officer and three ratings from Leipzig. Cornwall spent much of the rest of the month searching for the German ships that had not yet been captured or destroyed before departing for home on 3 January 1915.[12]
Subsequent service
She arrived at Devonport on 11 February 1915 and spent the next month and a half refitting there and in
China Station, Vice-Admiral William Grant, on 21 August. Cornwall resumed patrolling in the East Indies shortly afterwards and continued until Grant hoisted his flag aboard the ship on 22 October as he and his staff was ferried to Hong Kong. Upon arrival five days later, Grant lowered his flag as he transferred ashore. The ship patrolled off the Chinese coast for most of November and returned to Singapore on 11 December. Cornwall departed the city on 20 December bound for South Africa.[12] On 16 January 1917, the ship was escorting a convoy of six troopships when she narrowly missed encountering the German commerce raider SMS Wolf off Saldanha Bay.[21]
A few days after arriving in
Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies, inspected the ship on 9 May while she was berthed in Bermuda. Cornwall returned to Devonport on 31 July and was paid off on 21 August.[12] The ship was sold for scrap on 7 June 1920.[11] In 1922, Mount Cornwall in the Canadian Rockies
was named in tribute to the ship.
Notes
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
Footnotes
- ^ Purser (1909). "Purser's diary, Royal Navy Armoured Cruiser HMS Cornwall, under Captain (later Admiral Sir) William Reginald Blinker Hall (1870-1943), future Director of Naval Intelligence". Retrieved 26 April 2019.
Manuscript diary of the purser of the Royal Navy Armoured Cruiser HMS Cornwall, describing Mediterranean and Baltic tours of duty (while Captain W. R. Hall was spying for Britain)
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b c Roberts, p. 70
- ^ a b Friedman 2012, p. 336
- ^ Friedman 2011, p. 81
- ^ Friedman 2012, pp. 251–252, 260–261
- ^ Friedman 2012, pp. 280, 286
- ^ McBride, p. 21
- ^ Silverstone, p. 224
- ^ "Naval & Military Intelligence". The Times. No. 36403. London. 15 March 1901. p. 4.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36912. London. 30 October 1902. p. 10.
- ^ a b Preston, p. 12
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Transcript
- His Majesty's Stationery Office. 18 December 1913. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ Corbett, I, pp. 41–43
- ^ Corbett, I, pp. 263, 314, 318
- ^ Massie, pp. 244, 249
- ^ Massie, pp. 258–265
- ^ Massie, pp. 267, 275–277
- ^ Corbett, II, p. 405; III, pp. 8, 64
- ^ "Supplement to the Monthly Navy List Showing the Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officer's Commands, &c". National Library of Scotland. Admiralty. January 1916. p. 21. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ Newbolt, IV, p. 210
- ^ Newbolt, V, p. 135
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-89839-256-X.
- Corbett, Julian (1997) [1929 second]. Naval Operations. History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents. Vol. II. London and Nashville, Tennessee: Imperial War Museum in association with the Battery Press. ISBN 1-870423-74-7.
- Corbett, Julian (1997) [1940]. Naval Operations. History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents. Vol. III (Second ed.). London and Nashville, Tennessee: Imperial War Museum in association with the Battery Press. ISBN 1-870423-50-X.
- ISBN 978-1-59114-068-9.
- Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- ISBN 0-679-45671-6.
- McBride, Keith (1988). "The First County Class Cruisers of the Royal Navy, Part I: The Monmouths". Warship. 46 (April). London: Conway Maritime Press: 19–26. ISSN 0142-6222.
- ISBN 0-89839-253-5.
- Newbolt, Henry (1996) [1931]. Naval Operations. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents. Vol. V. Nashville, Tennessee: Battery Press. ISBN 0-89839-255-1.
- ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
- Roberts, John (1979). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 1–113. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
- "Transcript: HMS Cornwall – December 1913 to August 1919, Central Atlantic, Mediterranean, South Atlantic, Battle of the Falklands, East Indies Station, China Station, North Atlantic Convoys, North America & West Indies Station". Royal Navy Log Books of the World War 1 Era. Naval-History.net. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
External links
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