HMS Kent (1901)

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

Kent leaving Portsmouth, 1903
History
United Kingdom
NameKent
NamesakeKent
Builder
Portsmouth Royal Dockyard
Laid down12 February 1900
Launched6 March 1901
ChristenedLady Hotham
Completed1 October 1903
FateSold for scrap, 20 June 1920
General characteristics
Class and type
armoured cruiser
Displacement9,800 long tons (10,000 t) (normal)
Length463 ft 6 in (141.3 m) (o/a)
Beam66 ft (20.1 m)
Draught25 ft (7.6 m)
Installed power
Propulsion2 × shafts; 2 ×
triple-expansion steam engines
Speed23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Complement678
Armament
Armour

HMS Kent was one of 10

China Station
in 1906. She remained there until she returned home in 1913 for a lengthy refit.

At the beginning of

Siberian Intervention against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. She did little militarily there, although she contributed some crewmen to man gunboats supporting the Whites opposing the Bolsheviks. Kent was sold for scrap
in China 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). Kent, 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

Kent Passing South Sand Lightship

Kent, named to commemorate the

launched on 6 March 1901 (one day late due to weather), when she was christened by Lady Hotham, wife of Admiral Sir Charles Frederick Hotham, GCB, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.[9] She was completed on 1 October 1903[1] and was initially placed in reserve.[10] On 15 March 1905 she ran aground in the Firth of Forth.[11] The ship was assigned to the China Station between 1906 and 1913 and returned to Portsmouth Dockyard for a refit in September 1913.[10]

She was still refitting in August 1914 when the war began and was ordered south to join Cradock's squadron searching for the East Asia Squadron after completing her

Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee's battlecruisers arrived on the 26th and he took Stoddart's ships under his command and then proceeded to the Falkland Islands two days later.[13]

Battle of the Falklands

Main article:
Battle of the Falklands

Upon arrival at

predreadnought battleship Canopus when they came within range around 09:20. Kent, though, had been ordered out of the harbour at 08:10 to protect Macedonia and keep the Germans under observation. This gave time for the squadron to raise steam, although the cruisers had not yet begun 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.[14]

Starboard forward casemate showing some of the damage incurred by Kent during the Battle of the Falkland Islands

In accordance with Sturdee's plans, Kent, her sister ship, Cornwall, and the light cruiser Glasgow immediately set off in pursuit while the battlecruisers and the slow armoured cruiser Carnarvon dealt with the German armoured cruisers. At 14:45 Glasgow, the fastest of the British cruisers, was close enough to Leipzig to open fire and the two ships exchanged salvos, scoring the occasional hit. An hour later, the Germans scattered in different directions; Cornwall and Glasgow pursued Leipzig while Kent went after Nürnberg. Short on coal, her crew threw in everything burnable, and she reached 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) in her pursuit; she closed to within 11,000 yards (10,000 m) when the German cruiser opened fire at 17:00. Kent replied nine minutes later with her forward guns; neither ship hit anything at that time. At 17:35 two of Nürnberg's worn-out boilers burst, which reduced her speed to 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). As Kent continued to close, the German ship turned about for a fight when the range was down to 4,000 yards (3,700 m).[15]

Most of the German 105-millimetre (4.1 in) shells failed to damage the British ship, but one did burst inside a gun position, killing or wounding most of its crew, and another burst inside the wireless compartment and knocked out her radio transmitter. The British shells battered Nürnberg severely; she was dead in the water by 18:25 with only two guns able to fire. Ten minutes later not a gun could shoot and the cruiser was aflame. She did not

Royal Marine in the ammunition party in removing the cordite charge ready to be hoisted, closing the door to the magazine and promptly using a fire hose prevented a catastrophe. The ship suffered six crewmen were killed and eight seriously wounded during the battle; ten of these were in the casemate where the cordite ignited.[17] Kent was critically short of coal and had to steam slowly enough that she did not arrive at Port Stanley until the following afternoon.[18]

Battle of Más a Tierra

Main article: Battle of Más a Tierra

Sturdee's ships continued to search for Dresden even after he returned to England. The German cruiser successfully evaded the searching British for months by hiding in the maze of bays and channels surrounding Tierra del Fuego. She began moving up the Chilean coast in February 1915 until she was unexpectedly spotted by Kent at a range of 11,000 yards on 8 March when a fog burned off. The British cruiser tried to close the distance, but Dresden managed to break contact after a five-hour chase. Kent, however, intercepted a message during the pursuit from Dresden to one of her colliers to meet her at Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernández Islands. Dresden arrived there the next day, virtually out of coal.[19]

foremast

International law allowed the German ship a stay of 24 hours before she would have to leave or be

captain claimed that his engines were disabled which extended the deadline to eight days. In the meantime, Kent had summoned Glasgow and the two ships entered Cumberland Bay in the island on the morning of 14 March and found Dresden at anchor. The German ship trained her guns on the British ships and Glasgow opened fire, Captain John Luce justifying his action by deeming it an unfriendly act by an interned ship that had frequently violated Chilean neutrality. Dresden hoisted a white flag four minutes later as she was already on fire and holed at her waterline. A boat brought Lieutenant Wilhelm Canaris to Glasgow to complain that his ship was under Chilean protection. Luce told him that the question of neutrality could be settled by diplomats and that he would destroy the German ship unless she surrendered. By the time that Canaris returned to Dresden, her crew had finished preparations for scuttling and abandoned ship after opening her Kingston valves. It took 20 minutes before the cruiser capsized to port and sank. The British shells had killed one midshipman and eight sailors and wounded three officers and twelve ratings.[20]

Subsequent activities

Ship's Company, HMS Kent, 1915

Kent patrolled the Chilean coast for the next several months, searching for German colliers. The ship was refitted at

HM Dockyard, Devonport,[22] but as Kent was preparing to leave the convoy a little after midnight, she apparently steered for Kenilworth Castle, causing that ship to turn to avoid being rammed and cutting off the stern of the destroyer Rival. That caused a depth charge to detonate underneath Kenilworth Castle, blowing a hole in that ship's hull although she successfully made it to port.[23]

Kent was refitting until 14 July when she departed for Siberia to relieve her sister

Elabuga and drove three of the Communists' ships ashore and set one afire. Their victory did little to effect the strategic situation as the Bolsheviks drove the Whites back to Perm. Kent's troops were able to transfer the guns to railroad cars before the city was captured on 30 June and they were sold to the Whites once the men reached Omsk. They arrived back at Vladivostok on 18 August to find out that Kent had ordered to Hong Kong in their absence.[25]

On 13 May, Kent accompanied the Russian steamship

paid off on 7 August.[22] The ship was listed for sale there in March 1920[10] and sold for scrap on 20 June.[11]

In 1964 a Falklands Islands commemorative stamp incorrectly pictured HMS Glasgow instead of Kent.[26]

Notes

  1. ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Roberts, p. 70
  2. ^ a b Friedman 2012, p. 336
  3. ^ Friedman 2011, p. 81
  4. ^ Friedman 2012, pp. 251–252, 260–261
  5. ^ Friedman 2012, pp. 280, 286
  6. ^ McBride, p. 21
  7. ^ Silverstone, p. 245
  8. ^ "The Launch of Four Warships". The Times. No. 36394. London. 5 March 1901. p. 8.
  9. ^ "Naval & Military Intelligence". The Times. No. 36396. London. 7 March 1901. p. 11.
  10. ^ a b c d Preston, p. 12
  11. ^ a b Silverstone, p. 247
  12. ^ Corbett, Vol. I, pp. 317, 329–330
  13. ^ Howland, pp. 18–19
  14. ^ Massie, pp. 251, 258–265
  15. ^ Massie, pp. 267, 277
  16. ^ Massie, pp. 277–278
  17. ^ Howland, p. 23
  18. ^ Massie, p. 278
  19. ^ Massie, pp. 283–284
  20. ^ Massie, pp. 284–285
  21. ^ Howland, p. 34
  22. ^ a b c d Transcript
  23. ^ "The Kenilworth Castle Incident". Military History Journal. 5 (4). The South African Military History Society. December 1981. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  24. ^ a b Head, p. 61
  25. ^ Head, pp. 62–65
  26. ^ "Queen Elizabeth II rarities". Stamp Magazine. 4 October 2006. Archived from the original on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 27 November 2010.

Bibliography

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