HMS Vengeance (1899)

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

HMS Vengeance in harbour, prior to the Royal Navy's 1903 adoption of the overall grey warship colour scheme.
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Vengeance
Ordered1897 Programme
BuilderVickers, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down23 August 1898
Launched25 July 1899
CompletedApril 1902
Commissioned8 April 1902
Decommissioned9 July 1920
FateSold for scrapping 1 December 1921
General characteristics
Class and type
pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement
Full load: 14,300 long tons (14,500 t
)
Length421 ft 6 in (128.5 m) (
loa
)
Beam74 ft (22.6 m)
Draught26 ft (7.9 m)
Installed power
  • 20 ×
    water tube boilers
  • 13,500 
    kW
    )
Propulsion
  • 2 ×
    screw propellers
  • 2 ×
    triple-expansion steam engines
Speed18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement682
Armament
Armour

HMS Vengeance was a

launched in July 1899, and commissioned
into the fleet in April 1902.

On entering service, Vengeance was assigned to the

China Station, but the Anglo-Japanese Alliance rendered her presence there unnecessary, and she returned to European waters in 1905. Late that year, she underwent a refit that lasted into 1906. She then served in the Channel Fleet until 1908, when she moved to the Home Fleet, thereafter serving in secondary roles, including as a tender and a gunnery training ship. In 1913, she was transferred to the 6th Battle Squadron of the Second Fleet
.

Following

Gallipoli Campaign in April and May. Worn out from these operations, she returned to Britain for a refit. She was recommissioned in December 1915 for service in East Africa, during which she supported the capture of Dar es Salaam in German East Africa. She returned to Britain again in 1917 and was decommissioned, thereafter serving in subsidiary roles until 1921, when she was sold for scrap. Vengeance was broken up
the following year.

Design

Main article: Canopus-class battleship
Right elevation, deck plan and hull section as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1906

Vengeance and her five

fully loaded. Her crew numbered 682 officers and ratings.[1]

The Canopus-class ships were powered by a pair of 3-cylinder

Belleville boilers. They were the first British battleships with water-tube boilers, which generated more power at less expense in weight compared with the fire-tube boilers used in previous ships. The new boilers led to the adoption of fore-and-aft funnels, rather than the side-by-side funnel arrangement used in many previous British battleships. The Canopus-class ships proved to be good steamers, with a high speed for battleships of their time—18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) from 13,500 indicated horsepower (10,100 kW)—a full two knots faster than the Majestics.[2]

Vengeance had a

18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in the hull, two on each broadside near the forward and aft barbette.[1][3]

To save weight, Vengeance carried less armour than the Majestics—6 inches (152 mm) in the

Harvey armour in the Majestics to Krupp armour in Vengeance meant that the loss in protection was not as great as it might have been, Krupp armour having greater protective value at a given thickness than its Harvey equivalent. Similarly, the other armour used to protect the ship could also be thinner; the bulkheads on either end of the belt were 6 to 10 in (152 to 254 mm) thick. The main battery turrets were 8 in thick, atop 12 in (305 mm) barbettes, and the casemate battery was protected with 6 in of Krupp steel. Her conning tower had 12 in thick sides as well. She was fitted with two armoured decks, 1 and 2 in (25 and 51 mm) thick, respectively.[2]

Service history

Pre-World War I

Launch of HMS Vengeance (1899)

HMS Vengeance was laid down by

China Station to relieve her sister ship Goliath, and underwent a refit at Hong Kong in 1903–1904.[10]

In 1905, the United Kingdom and Japan ratified a treaty of alliance, reducing the need for a large

Plymouth on 2 August 1905.[11] Vengeance paid off into the Devonport Reserve on 23 August 1905, and underwent a refit that lasted into 1906[10] during which her machinery was repaired.[12]

On 15 May 1906, Vengeance commissioned for service in the

6th Battle Squadron based at Portland, then became a gunnery training ship at the Nore in January 1913.[12][13]The 6th Squadron, together with the 5th Battle Squadron, formed the core of the Second Fleet.[14]

World War I

Vengeance in 1908

On the outbreak of the

commerce raiders, leaving only Vengeance, Prince George, Caesar, and Goliath and the protected cruiser Proserpine. She covered the landing of the Plymouth Marine Battalion at Ostend, Belgium, on 25 August 1914. For this operation, she and the other five ships of the squadron, along with six destroyers, escorted the troopships; at the same time, elements of the Grand Fleet attacked the German patrol line off Heligoland to occupy the High Seas Fleet.[13][16]

In November 1914, she was transferred to

armoured cruiser Amiral Charner that had in turn relieved the armoured cruisers Black Prince and Warrior as guard ships for the Suez Canal.[17] She later moved on to the Cape Verde-Canary Islands Station to relieve Albion as guard ship at Saint Vincent.[18][12]

Dardanelles campaign

See also:
Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign
Map showing the Ottoman defences at the Dardanelles in 1915

On 22 January 1915, Vengeance was selected to take part in the

Dardanelles campaign. She stopped at Gibraltar that month to embark Admiral John de Robeck and become second flagship of the Dardanelles squadron, and arrived at the Dardanelles in February 1915.[12][19][20] Admiral Sackville Carden, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, devised a plan to force the straits and attack the Ottoman capital by neutralising the Ottoman coastal defences at long range, clearing the minefields in the Dardanelles, and then entering the Sea of Marmara.[21]

Vengeance participated in the opening bombardment of the

Émile Guépratte, the commander of the French contingent, later wrote that "the daring attack of the Vengeance in flinging herself against the forts when their fire was in no way reduced was one of the finest episodes of the day." She suffered some damage to her masts and rigging from gunfire from the forts, but she was not hit directly. Several other battleships came to her aid, and at 17:20, Carden ordered a retreat.[19][22]

On 25 February, Vengeance took part in another attack on the Dardanelles fortresses. Along with Cornwallis and the French battleships Suffren and Charlemagne, she led the assault, which was supported by one French and three British battleships. Once the four supporting battleships had taken up their positions and begun firing at long range to suppress the Ottoman batteries, Vengeance and Cornwallis made the first pass at close range, intending to destroy the guns with direct hits. De Robeck took Vengeance to within 4,000 yards (3,700 m) of the fortifications at Kumkale and fired for ten minutes, before turning about to allow Cornwallis to engage the guns. The two French ships then followed, and by 15:00, the Ottoman guns had been effectively silenced, allowing for minesweepers to advance and attempt to clear the minefields; most of the fleet withdrew while the minesweepers worked, though Vengeance and the battleships Albion and Triumph remained behind to cover them. By clearing these fields, Allied warships could now enter the Dardanelles themselves, opening the route to attack additional fortifications around the town of

Lieutenant-Commander Eric Gascoigne Robinson, who led Vengeance's demolition party, went forward by himself to destroy an Ottoman anti-aircraft gun, then led his detachment to destroy a second anti-aircraft gun and the one remaining gun at the Orkanie battery. For his actions, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Ottoman resistance prevented any further action, and the men returned to Vengeance.[23]

By late February, Vengeance was in need of boiler maintenance, so de Robeck transferred his flag to Irresistible while Vengeance went to

dreadnought battleship Queen Elizabeth, which was to fire indirectly in the hopes of being able to neutralise the Ottoman guns at a range at which they could not respond. Vengeance and three other battleships covered Albion inside the straits. The ships quickly silenced the Ottoman guns at Dardanus, but mobile artillery batteries continually forced both Albion and Queen Elizabeth to shift position, largely preventing the latter from firing and the former from relaying corrections for the few shots Queen Elizabeth had been able to make. Nightfall and the lack of progress led to the operation being called off. Two days later, Queen Elizabeth was sent into the straits in an attempt to destroy the guns with direct fire, while Vengeance and three other battleships covered her from the mobile howitzers. Poor visibility hampered Queen Elizabeth's gunners, and at 15:30 Carden called off the attack, having achieved nothing.[24]

Vengeance also took part in the main attack on the Narrows forts on 18 March 1915, by which time Carden had fallen ill and had to resign, leaving de Robeck to take overall command of the fleet. He therefore shifted his flag to Queen Elizabeth, and Vengeance returned to the Second Division as a private ship. Vengeance did not engage the Ottomans until later in the afternoon, after Bouvet had been mined and sunk. Vengeance attacked the Ottoman "Hamidieh" battery, but most of her shells fell harmlessly in the center of the fortification, away from the guns. When it became clear that the Ottoman fortresses could not be silenced in time to allow the minesweepers to begin clearing the minefields further in the straits, de Robeck ordered the fleet to withdraw. In the process, two British battleships were also mined and sunk, and the battlecruiser Inflexible had also struck a mine, though she managed to return to Malta for repairs.[25]

By late-April, the First Squadron included Vengeance, seven other battleships, and four cruisers, and was commanded by

Krithia, Vengeance and several other battleships provided fire support, though the Ottomans blocked the attack in the First Battle of Krithia.[26]

Through early May, she remained off the beachhead, supporting the allied right flank along with Lord Nelson and the French battleship

Anzac Cove on 19 May 1915,[19] before retiring to Mudros to replenish her fuel and ammunition. She returned to Gallipoli on 25 May to relieve her sister Canopus. A submarine attacked her that day while she was steaming up from Mudros, but Vengeance quickly turned to starboard to avoid the torpedo and fired several shots at the submarine's periscope, forcing her to withdraw.[28] By July 1915, Vengeance had boiler defects that prevented her from continuing combat operations, and she returned to the United Kingdom and paid off that month. She was under refit at Devonport until December 1915.[19]

Later service

Vengeance recommissioned in December 1915 and left Devonport on 30 December 1915 for a deployment to

Dover, her tow rope parted in the English Channel on 29 December 1921. French tugs located her and towed her to Cherbourg, France. From there she was towed to Dover, where she finally arrived for scrapping on 9 January 1922.[19]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Lyon & Roberts, p. 35.
  2. ^ a b Lyon & Roberts, pp. 34–35.
  3. ^ Burt, p. 172.
  4. ^ Burt, pp. 141, 158.
  5. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36737. London. 9 April 1902. p. 10.
  6. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36760. London. 6 May 1902. p. 11.
  7. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36767. London. 14 May 1902. p. 12.
  8. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36897. London. 13 October 1902. p. 7.
  9. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36924. London. 13 November 1902. p. 11.
  10. ^ a b c d Burt, p. 156.
  11. ^ a b Burt, p. 97.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Preston, p. 8.
  13. ^ a b Burt, p. 157.
  14. ^ Corbett 1920, p. 12.
  15. ^ Corbett 1920, pp. 75–77.
  16. ^ Corbett 1920, pp. 85, 98–100.
  17. ^ Corbett 1920, p. 385.
  18. ^ Burt, pp. 157–158.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g Burt, p. 158.
  20. ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 140–141.
  21. ^ Corbett 1921, p. 143.
  22. ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 144–148.
  23. ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 157–165.
  24. ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 166, 189–194.
  25. ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 213, 218–222.
  26. ^ Corbett 1921, pp. 310, 335, 337, 345, 362.
  27. ^ Corbett 1921, p. 377.
  28. ^ Corbett 1923, pp. 28–29.
  29. ^ Newbolt, p. 85.

References

Further reading

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