HMS President (1918)
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
 HMS President in the Thames
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Saxifrage |
| Builder | Lobnitz & Company, Renfrew , Scotland |
| Yard number | 827 |
| Launched | 29 January 1918 |
| Renamed |
|
| Nickname(s) | "Mystery Ship" |
| Fate | Sold, 1988; resold 2001 & 2006, sold in 2018 Abandoned 2022 |
| Status | Abandoned |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Anchusa-class sloop |
| Displacement | 1,290 long tons (1,311 t) |
| Length | |
| Beam | 35 ft (10.7 m) |
| Draught | 11 ft 6 in (3.5 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Range | 260 tons coal |
| Complement | 93 |
| Armament |
|
HMS President (formerly HMS Saxifrage) is a retired
Design and construction
HMS President was built as an
In the case of the warship-Qs the individual builders were asked to use their existing designs for merchantmen, based on the standard Flower type warship hull. This included a dummy merchant ship sternpost rudder, mounted above the waterline over a much more manoeuvrable balanced rudder which allowed the ship to make a fast turn to bring her guns or depth charges to bear on a U-boat, or even to ram it before it could escape.
The class were also given a wide variety of spectacular dazzle camouflage schemes to confuse the primitive range finders of World War I submarines. Altogether, 120 Flowers were built, of which eighteen were sunk in action during the war.
Saxifrage was built at the shipyard of
Active service
HMS Saxifrage escorted convoys in UK waters during 1918, and engaged nine U-boats, as recorded in her logbooks held in the National Archives at Kew. In 1922 she was permanently moored on the Thames, and renamed President. Other members of the class served as patrol vessels throughout the world during the peacetime years between the wars, but almost all were disposed of by the Second World War. This allowed the majority of the class names to be revived for the new, smaller Flower-class corvettes, including both Saxifrage and Chrysanthemum.[Note 2]
Reserve service
From 1922 she was employed as a Royal Naval Reserve drill ship, and as such was moored permanently on the Thames at Blackfriars. Her new name was inherited from the Old President of 1829, which had been based in West India Docks from 1862 to 1903 as the first London naval reserve drill ship. [Note 3] The 1918 President remained in Royal Navy service for a total of seventy years, from 1918 to 1988. She was the last Royal Navy warship to wear Victorian battleship livery of black hull, white superstructure and buff yellow funnel and masts. All naval personnel working at the Admiralty and elsewhere in London were nominally appointed to service in President, and they were paid and administered by her staff. MI6/SIS officers who had RN commissions were appointed to President, but paid and administered by the SIS.
During the Second World War President was converted to a gunnery training ship, fitted with a large overall "shed" superstructure. Her major role was the training of DEMS gunners for defensively equipped merchant ships. Her sister Flower class Q-ship, HMS Chrysanthemum, was moored ahead of her in 1938 to provide additional office and training space.
After the war both ships were reconstructed by the Royal Navy with large deckhouses fore and aft, giving an improved drill area and extra offices; they were also provided with tall wheelhouses and dummy funnels. These were dismountable, so they could pass under the London bridges to be periodically maintained in one of the Thames dockyards. In this form, they continued in use as Royal Naval Reserve training ships until 1988, each matching Old President's total of more than seventy years in naval service. Since 1988 the name HMS President has been used for a shore establishment of the Royal Naval Reserve in St Katharine Docks near Tower Bridge.
Civilian use
Charitable venue
In 1988 the ship was saved by the charity, Inter-Action Social Enterprise Trust, run by
Corporate venue
President was resold in 2001 to David Harper and Cary Thornton, then purchased in April 2006 by the
Preservation
President had been permanently berthed in the
See also
Notes
- ^ The other two are HMS Caroline in Belfast, and the 1915 monitor HMS M33 in Portsmouth dockyard
- ^ This Flower-class corvettes, based on a 1936 deep-sea whaling boat design, carried the brunt of the anti-submarine war in 1940-42 before the larger frigates became available. These World War II Flowers were immortalised by Nicholas Monsarrat in his 1951 novel The Cruel Sea
- ^ The name President (which might be thought an unusual choice in a constitutional monarchy such as the United Kingdom) celebrated the capture of both the French frigate Président in 1806, and the American 'super frigate' USS President in 1815
References
- ^ a b "HMS Saxifrage : Clyde-built Ships Database". clydeships.co.uk. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- ^ Dazzle Ship London Archived 15 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine at hmspresident.com; retrieved 5 January 2017
- ^ final effort to save WWI ship at yachting-boating-world.com; added August 2016
- ^ Jordan, Nicola (8 June 2023). "Crowdfunding appeal to save historic HMS President from the scrapheap". Kent Messenger.
Historic First World War ship HMS President 1918 famed for destroying enemy U-boats at risk of being scrapped
- ^ "House of Commons Debate 15/12/16: HMS President and Historic Warships". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
Publications
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
External links
- HMS President at the National Historic Ships register
- 2014 Dazzle painting Archived 15 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine