HMS Curlew (D42)
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Curlew |
| Builder | Barrow in Furness |
| Laid down | 21 August 1916 |
| Launched | 5 July 1917 |
| Commissioned | 14 December 1917 |
| Fate | Sunk by air attack, 26 May 1940 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | C-class light cruiser |
| Displacement | 4,190 long tons (4,257 t) |
| Length | |
| Beam | 43 ft (13.1 m) |
| Draught | 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph) |
| Complement | 460 |
| Armament |
|
| Armour |
|
HMS Curlew was a
Design and description
The Ceres sub-class was redesigned to move one of the amidships guns to a
The armament of the Ceres sub-class was identical to that of the preceding Caledon sub-class and consisted of five
Construction and career
She was laid down by Vickers Limited on 21 August 1916, and launched on 5 July 1917, being commissioned into the navy on 14 December 1917.
During the 1920s, she served with the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron on the
She was hove to offshore, outside Bermuda's encircling reefline, when the
Meanwhile, Curlew, which had sustained damage to her upper deck ("No. 1 gun, bent shield and stay Forecastle Deck torn and supporting stanchions bent. Other slight damage to material, fittings etc. Motor Boat badly damaged. Both whalers and 3 Carley Floats lost") while she rode out the storm offshore, was instructed at 16:10 on the 22nd to attempt to make contact with HMS Valerian, which had signalled "Am hove-to 5 miles south of Gibb's Hill" at 08:30 (and which had already gone down at 13:00).[7] The dockyard received wireless SOS transmission from Eastway at 17:52. SS Luciline and SS Fort George made way to the position of Eastway. Although a wireless signal was sent to Curlew at 18:40 by the Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies, to continue searching for Valerian as the two merchant ships were going to aid Eastway, Curlew signalled the Commander-in-Chief a minute later that she was heading towards Eastway. Eastway signalled at 18:45, "W/T signals are weak. Am shorting with water here. Cannot last long old man. Am listing more every few minutes. Port lifeboats gone. Urgent assistance required. Radio giving out and stokehold flooding". The Commander-in-Chief signalled Curlew at 18:54 to cancel the previous instruction and go to the aid of Eastway. At 19:00, this message was cancelled and Curlew ordered to resume the search for Valerian. Capetown was ordered to put to sea to join the search for Valerian at 20:03.[8] The following day, 23rd October, Capetown signalled that two men had been sighted on a raft at 31.59 North, 64.45 West. These were the first survivors from Valerian to be rescued. Two officers and seventeen men would be plucked from the ocean by 11:33. Luciline rescued twelve survivors from the crew of the Eastway by 12:34 and took them to Bermuda.[9]
In common with most of her sisters Curlew was rearmed to become an
On the outbreak of war, she served with the Home Fleet. She participated in the Norwegian Campaign, and whilst operating off the Norwegian coast on 26 May 1940, she came under attack from German Junkers Ju 88 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 30 and was sunk in Lavangsfjord, Ofotfjord near Narvik.[10] Nine sailors were lost with the ship.[11]
Notes
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 20 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
Footnotes
- ^ Friedman 2010, p. 387
- ^ a b Preston, p. 61
- ^ Stranack 1977, p. 117.
- ISBN 9780921560036.
- ^ "SAVED THE FLAGSHIP". Edinburgh Evening News. Edinburgh. 7 October 1943. p. 4.
On the day that Admiral Cunningham took over his new job as First Sea Lord one of his young officers of early years was distinguishing himself off the coast of France. Commander Conrad Alers-Hankey was in command of the light forces which routed enemy destroyers off the Sept Isles early on Tuesday.
Alers-Hankey won the D.S.C. at Dunkirk when in command of the destroyer Vanquisher. Since then he has been twice mentioned in dispatches.
As a sub-lieutenant in the West Indies he once had the distinction of saving the flagship, the cruiser Calcutta. A hurricane parted all the wires securing the Calcutta to the centre mole, and the ship was being swept down on to the jetty. Alers-Hankey dived overboard with a rope secured to a stout hawser. He made fast the hawser, which finally stopped the ship's way. The captain of the Calcutta was Capt. A. B. Cunningham. - ^ Stranack 1977, p. 118.
- ^ Stranack 1977, p. 121.
- ^ Stranack 1977, p. 122.
- ^ Whitley, pp. 68, 70
- ^ Don Kindell (25 March 2011). Gordon Smith (ed.). "1st - 31st May 1940- in date, ship/unit & name order". Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, World War 2.
Bibliography
- Campbell, N.J.M. (1980). "Great Britain". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 2–85. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- Dunn, Steve R. (2022). The Harwich Striking Force: The Royal Navy's Front Line in the North Sea, 1914-1918. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-3990-1596-7.
- ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8.
- ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
- Newbolt, Henry (1996). Naval Operations. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents. Vol. V (reprint of the 1931 ed.). Nashville, Tennessee: Battery Press. ISBN 0-89839-255-1.
- ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
- Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1980). British Cruisers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-922-7.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Stranack, Lieutenant-Commander B. Ian D (1990) [1977]. Written at HM Naval Base Bermuda (HMS Malabar), old ISBN 9780921560036.
- ISBN 1-86019-874-0.
