HMS ''Thames'' was a
protected cruiser
Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers re ...
built for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
(RN) in the 1880s. The ship was placed in
reserve
Reserve or reserves may refer to:
Places
* Reserve, Kansas, a US city
* Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish
* Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County
* Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...
upon her completion in 1888 and was converted into a
submarine depot ship in 1903. She was sold out of the navy in 1920 and was purchased by a
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n businessman to serve as a training ship for
naval cadet
Officer Cadet is a rank held by military cadets during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by members of University Royal Naval Units, University Officer Training Corps and University A ...
s under the name SATS ''General Botha''. The ship arrived in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
in 1921 and began training her first class of cadets in
Simon's Town
Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern sid ...
the following year. ''General Botha'' continued to train cadets for the first several years of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but the RN took over the ship in 1942 for use as an
accommodation ship
A barracks ship or barracks barge or berthing barge, or in civilian use accommodation vessel or accommodation ship, is a ship or a non-self-propelled barge containing a superstructure of a type suitable for use as a temporary barracks for sai ...
under her original name. She was
scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
by gunfire in 1947 and is now a diveable wreck.
Design and description
The ''Mersey''-class cruisers were improved versions of the
''Leander'' class with more armour and no sailing rig on a smaller
displacement
Displacement may refer to:
Physical sciences
Mathematics and Physics
*Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
. Like their predecessors, they were intended to protect British shipping. The cruisers had a
length between perpendiculars
Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...
of , a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a
draught of .
[Friedman, p. 333] They displaced . The ships were powered by a pair of two-cylinder
horizontal, direct-acting, compound-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which were designed to produce a total of and a maximum speed of using steam provided by a dozen
cylindrical boilers with
forced draught The difference between atmospheric pressure and the pressure existing in the furnace or flue gas passage of a boiler is termed as draft. Draft can also be referred to as the difference in pressure in the combustion chamber area which results in the ...
. The ''Mersey'' class carried enough coal to give them a range of at a speed of .
[ The ships' complement was 300][Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 75] to 350 officers and ratings.[
Their main armament consisted of two ]breech-loading
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition (cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle).
Modern firearms are generally breech ...
(BL) guns, one each fore and aft on pivot mounts. Their secondary armament was ten BL guns, five on each broadside
Broadside or broadsides may refer to:
Naval
* Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare
Printing and literature
* Broadside (comic ...
in sponson
Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing.
Watercraft
On watercraft, a spon ...
s. Protection against torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s was provided by three quick-firing (QF) 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns and three QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss
The QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss or in French use Canon Hotchkiss à tir rapide de 47 mm were a family of long-lived light naval guns introduced in 1886 to defend against new, small and fast vessels such as torpedo boats and later submarines. T ...
guns. The ship was also armed with a pair of submerged 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s and carried a pair of 14-inch torpedo carriages. The ''Mersey''-class ships were protected by a lower armoured deck that was on the flat and on the slope. It sloped down at the bow to reinforce the ram
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
. The armoured sides of the conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...
were thick.[
]
Construction and career
''Thames'' was the sixth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. She was laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...
on 14 April 1884 by Pembroke Dockyard
Pembroke Dockyard, originally called Pater Yard, is a former Royal Navy Dockyard in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
History
It was founded in 1814, although not formally authorized until the Prince Regent signed the necessary Order in Cou ...
in No. 4 slipway
A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...
. The ship was launched on 3 December 1885 by the Hon. Mrs. Algernon Littleton[ and completed in July 1889][Winfield & Lyon, p. 271] at a cost of £204,952. The ship went straight into reserve at Devonport after completion.[Phillips, p. 230] On 21 March 1902 she was temporarily commissioned by Captain H. L. Fleet, with crewmen from the battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
, to serve as a port guard ship
A guard ship is a warship assigned as a stationary guard in a port or harbour, as opposed to a coastal patrol boat, which serves its protective role at sea.
Royal Navy
In the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century, peacetime guard ships were usual ...
at Queenstown, while the latter ship was undergoing alterations. In 1903, the ship was converted to a submarine tender and served at Sheerness
Sheerness () is a town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 11,938, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby town ...
from 1907 to 1917 and then briefly at Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
and Campbeltown
Campbeltown (; gd, Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain or ) is a town and former royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies by Campbeltown Loch on the Kintyre peninsula. Campbeltown became an important centre for Scotch whisky, and a busy fishing ...
, Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, before being paid off
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in ...
in 1919 at Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century, ...
.[
]
South Africa
She was sold for £8,000 in November 1920 to the Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
-born South African entrepreneur T. B. Davis as a memory to his son who died during World War I. Later that month, the ship steamed to West India Dock, Tilbury, for a brief refit and ''Thames'' was renamed Training Ship (TS) ''General Botha'', after Louis Botha
Louis Botha (; 27 September 1862 – 27 August 1919) was a South African politician who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa – the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war hero during the Second Boer War, ...
, the first Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
of the Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...
. Before departing for Plymouth for extra crewmen on 6 January 1921, the ship was visited by Sir Reginald Blanckenberg, High Commissioner for South Africa, and his wife. She set sail from Plymouth on 18 January and ran into a heavy storm in the English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
that smashed in the inadequately boarded-up sponsons and forced the ship to turn about for Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
for repairs where ''General Botha'' arrived two days later. The ship departed on 8 February and arrived in Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
on 26 March where she was greeted by the Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...
, Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
Hendrik Mentz
Hendrik Mentz DTD (8 August 1877 – 3 June 1938) was a South African Party lawyer, politician, soldier and South African Minister of Defence from 1919 to 1924.
Second Boer war
During the Second Boer War, Mentz fought under General Ben Viljoen ...
and other notables.
Davis donated it to a trust on 9 May, with the stipulation that it be used exclusively for the nautical training of British and South African boys, so that they could subsequently serve in ships of the British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. The Admiralty agreed to cover the cost to convert ''General Botha'' into a training ship at Simon's Town Naval Dockyard and to tow her there from Cape Town in early September. It also agreed to grant the ship a mooring
A mooring is any permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water. An ''anc ...
in Simon's Town. The first class of 75 boys reported aboard on 15 March 1922 on a two-year programme and the ship was formally christened as South African Training Ship (SATS) ''General Botha'' on 1 April by the wife of the Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
, Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
. On 15 December, King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
Born duri ...
agreed to become the ship's patron and sponsored an annual gold medal for the best cadet aboard. On 2 May 1925, Edward
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
, Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
, inspected the boys and the ship. About a month later, she was docked to have her engines and funnel
A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.
Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...
removed and her interior remodelled to create new messdecks, galley
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
s and recreation spaces, returning to her moorings in August. In March 1935, Davis offered to sponsor a rowing competition between the cadets of ''General Botha'' and the British training ships, HMS ''Worcester'', and HMS ''Conway'' in Britain and paid for their expenses to and from South Africa. King George V received the cadets in Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
on 29 June shortly before the race during which they beat the cadets from ''Conway'', but lost to ''Worcester''. By the late 1930s, ''General Botha''s guns and boilers had been removed and the former engine and boiler rooms converted into a gym
A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...
nasium.
The trust's Board of Control offered the ship to the RN with 30 days notice on 7 September 1939, the day after South Africa declared war on Germany, but the offer was declined. Nevertheless, they decided to build accommodations for the cadets ashore if the RN did decide to take them up on their offer. The RN did so in July 1942 and the boys and staff went ashore on the 28th and the ship resumed her former name shortly afterwards. She served as an accommodation ship and was used as a prison ship
A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nation ...
for at least part of her time in RN service. By the time that the RN returned her to the Board of Control, the ship was deemed uneconomical to repair and she was scuttled by gunfire from one of the local coast defence battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
on 13 May 1947 in False Bay
False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcat ...
at coordinates .
There exists an alumni association
An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students (alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools (especially independent schools), ...
for those who served aboard ''General Botha'', which has the Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...
as her patron. The South African Naval Museum in Simon's Town has an exhibit dedicated to the ship.
See also
*Sailor Malan
Adolph Gysbert Malan, (3 October 1910 – 17 September 1963), better known as Sailor Malan, was a South African fighter pilot and flying ace in the Royal Air Force (RAF) who led No. 74 Squadron RAF during the Battle of Britain. He finished h ...
Notes
References
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External links
*
Photographs of HMS Thames
General Botha (Old Boys Association)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thames (1885)
Mersey-class cruisers
Ships built in Pembroke Dock
1885 ships
World War I naval ships of the United Kingdom
Ships of the South African Navy
Shipwrecks of the South African Atlantic coast
HMS Thames
Maritime history of South Africa
Maritime incidents in 1947
Scuttled vessels