HMS Essex (1901)
 Essex at anchor
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Essex |
| Namesake | Essex |
| Builder | HM Dockyard, Pembroke, Wales |
| Laid down | 2 January 1900 |
| Launched | 29 August 1901 |
| Completed | 22 March 1904 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 8 November 1921 |
| 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 Essex was one of 10
4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. In 1912, Essex returned home and was assigned to the Training Squadron of the Home Fleet
. After a refit the following year, she rejoined the 4th Cruiser Squadron in early 1914.
After the beginning of
paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap
two years later.
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). Essex, however, was one of three of the Monmouths that failed to meet her designed speed.[1] She carried a maximum of 1,600 long tons (1,600 t) of coal and her complement consisted of 678 officers and ratings.[2]
The Monmouth-class ships' main armament consisted of fourteen
18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.[1]
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.[5]
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.[6]
Construction and service
Essex, named to commemorate the
fitting-out. Her torpedo tubes were manufactured at Devonport and thus not installed until she arrived there.[10] The ship was completed on 22 March 1904[1] and was initially assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet. Essex was placed in reserve in March 1906 and suffered a six-inch gun explosion in July while training. She was recommissioned in September 1909 and assigned to the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. She was transferred to the Home Fleet Training Squadron in 1912 and refitted the following year. Essex rejoined the 4th Cruiser Squadron in January 1914[11] with Commander Hugh Tweedie in command.[12]
After visiting
Minister of Marine and Fisheries on 16 June. The following month, Essex ferried the Governor General of Canada, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, to Newfoundland and Labrador before returning to Quebec City on 20 July.[13]
World War I
When Craddock received the preliminary war warning on 27 July, he ordered Essex to join her sister
sealanes from the Caribbean Sea to Canadian waters until the end of February 1915,[13] when she escorted a troop convoy from Halifax to Queenstown, Ireland.[17] Essex then sailed to Barrow-in-Furness where she began a refit that lasted until 29 April.[13] Now assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet,[18] she spent the next several weeks in Avonmouth or Scapa Flow[13] before being transferred to Cruiser Force I[19] and began patrolling the area between the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde and Gibraltar on 8 June. Rear-Admiral Archibald Moore, commander of the 9th Cruiser Squadron, hoisted his flag aboard the ship on 4 September and pulled it down on the 29th. Essex began a brief refit at Gibraltar on 1 October that lasted until the 26th and then resumed patrolling the Central Atlantic. She captured a German merchantman, SS Telde, on 3 May 1916 in the Canary Islands. The ship resumed patrolling until her arrival in Devonport on 17 August; Essex was paid off days later.[13]
Later in the year, she was recommissioned and served as a destroyer depot ship at Devonport.[20] By April 1918, Essex was an accommodation ship there.[21] As of 1 December, she was serving as a training ship,[22] but she reverted to her previous role as an accommodation ship by 1 May 1919.[23] Essex was paid off again by October 1919[24] and was later sold for scrap on 8 November 1921 and broken up in Germany.[7]
Notes
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
Footnotes
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Silverstone, p. 230
- ^ "Naval & Military Intelligence". The Times. No. 36029. London. 3 January 1900. p. 4.
- ^ "Naval & Military Intelligence". The Times. No. 36547. London. 30 August 1901. p. 8.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36878. London. 20 September 1902. p. 9.
- ^ Preston, p. 12
- ^ "The Navy List". National Library of Scotland. London: J. J. Keliher & Co. 18 December 1913. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g Transcript
- ^ O'Shaughnessy, pp. 280–285
- ^ O'Shaughnessy, p. 319
- ^ Corbett, I, pp. 45, 47, 136, 263
- ^ Corbett, II, p. 277
- ^ "Supplement to the Monthly Navy List Showing the Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officer's Commands, &c". National Library of Scotland. Admiralty. June 1915. p. 10. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ "Supplement to the Monthly Navy List Showing the Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officer's Commands, &c". National Library of Scotland. Admiralty. July 1915. p. 19. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ Friedman 2012, p. 343
- ^ "Supplement to the Monthly Navy List Showing the Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officer's Commands, &c". National Library of Scotland. Admiralty. April 1918. p. 19. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ "Supplement to the Monthly Navy List Showing the Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officer's Commands, &c". National Library of Scotland. Admiralty. 1 December 1918. p. 19. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ "Supplement to the Monthly Navy List Showing the Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officer's Commands, &c". National Library of Scotland. Admiralty. 1 May 1916. p. 19. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ "The Navy List". National Library of Scotland. Admiralty. October 1919. p. 711. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-89839-256-X.
- Corbett, Julian (1997) [1929]. Naval Operations. History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents. Vol. II (Second ed.). 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.
- O'Shaughnessy, Edith (1916). A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
- 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 Essex - January 1914 to August 1916, 4th Cruiser Squadron West Atlantic, North America & West Indies Station, 9th Cruiser Squadron Atlantic (Canary Islands)". Royal Navy Log Books of the World War 1 Era. Naval-History.net. Retrieved 1 March 2014.