HMS Argyll (1904)

HMS ''Argyll'' was one of six armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet upon completion and was transferred to the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet in 1909. Two years later, she was detached to escort the royal yacht during King George V's trip to British India. ''Argyll'' was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of the reserve Second Fleet in 1913.

Upon mobilisation in mid-1914, her squadron was assigned to the Grand Fleet; ''Argyll'' did not see combat before she ran aground and was wrecked in October 1915. Her crew were rescued without loss and the wreck was later salvaged before it was demolished. Nonetheless, it remains diveable.

Design and description

''Argyll'' was designed to displace . The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a deep draught of . She was powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The engines were powered by sixteen Babcock & Wilcox and six cylindrical boilers. ''Argyll'' was the only ship of the class not to exceed during her sea trials.Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 71 She carried a maximum of of coal and her complement consisted of 610 officers and ratings.Friedman 2012, p. 336

Her main armament consisted of four breech-loading (BL) 7.5-inch Mk I guns mounted in four single-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure and one on each side.Friedman 2012, p. 256 The guns fired their shells to a range of about . Her secondary armament of six BL 6-inch Mk VII guns was arranged in casemates amidships. Four of these were mounted on the main deck and were only usable in calm weather. They had a maximum range of approximately with their shells. ''Argyll'' also carried 18 quick-firing (QF) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and two submerged 18-inch torpedo tubes. Her two 12-pounder 8 cwt guns could be dismounted for service ashore.

At some point in the war, the main deck six-inch guns of the ''Devonshire''-class ships were moved to the upper deck and given gun shields. Their casemates were plated over to improve seakeeping and the four 3-pounder guns displaced by the transfer were landed.

The ship's waterline armour belt had a maximum thickness of and was closed off by transverse bulkheads. The armour of the gun turrets was also five inches thick whilst that of their barbettes was six inches thick. The protective deck armour ranged in thickness from and the conning tower was protected by of armour.

Construction and service

''Argyll'', named to commemorate the Scottish county,Silverstone, p. 211 was laid down at Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering at their Greenock shipyard on 25 March 1902 and was launched on 3 March 1904. She was completed in December 1905 and was assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet in January 1906. On 25 April 1907, ''Argyll'', along with the cruisers , and , arrived at Hampton Roads from Bermuda for the opening of the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition. She was transferred to the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet in 1909. Two years later, she was detached from the squadron to escort the Royal Yacht during the King's trip to the Delhi Durbar in India in 1911–12. She ran aground in Plymouth Sound on 28 December 1912. The following year, she was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of the Second Fleet.Gardiner & Gray, p. 13

The squadron was assigned to the Grand Fleet in mid-1914 as the Navy mobilised for war. It spent much of its time with the Grand Fleet reinforcing the patrols near the Shetland and Faeroe Islands and the Norwegian coast where ''Argyll'' captured a German merchantman on 6 August. She ran aground on the Bell Rock near Dundee on 28 October 1915 at coordinates at night during a storm. During the war, lighthouses were ordered to switch their lights off for fear of assisting German U-boats in their operations, and the light was only turned on by special permission. En route ''Argyll'' sent a signal requesting the light to be turned on, but the lighthouse did not have a radio and could only be contacted by boat or visual signals. Attempts to notify the lighthouse failed, but the ship was not notified of the failure and proceeded in the expectation of using the light. Soon afterwards, she ran aground at 04:30, suffering extensive damage to much of the hull and starting a fire. Two destroyers, and , were sent and rescued her entire crew without serious injury.Daysh

The Navy salvaged all of the valuable items on board, including her guns, and she was demolished by the salvage team. In 1970, her two propellers were recovered by divers and sold for scrap. She remains a diveable wreck.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Argyll (1904)
Devonshire-class cruisers (1903)
Ships built on the River Clyde
1904 ships
World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom
World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea
Maritime incidents in 1915
Ships built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company