HMS ''Petersfield'' (ex-Portmadoc) was a Hunt-class minesweeper of the ''Aberdare'' sub-class 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 ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War. Re-commissioned at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

on 23 February 1925 for service on the China Station as an admiral's yacht. She was wrecked on 11 November 1931 off Tung Yung Island, with the C-in-C China Station Admiral Sir Howard Kelly embarked. Two courts martial following her loss resulted in severe reprimands for her Captain, Commander Douglas C. Lang and Navigating Lieutenant, Geoffrey A. H. Pratt, though an imperious meddling throughout the unfolding disaster brought ignominy upon Admiral Kelly, as well.

Design and description

The ''Aberdare'' sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced at normal load. They had a length between perpendiculars of and measured

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

. The ''Aberdare''s had 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 . The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.Gardiner & Gray, p. 98 The ships had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Yarrow boilers. The engines produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . They carried a maximum of of coal which gave them a range of at .Cocker, p. 76 The ''Aberdare'' sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) gun forward of the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

and a QF twelve-pounder (76.2 mm)

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

aft. Some ships were fitted with six- or three-pounder guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.

First commander

Her first commander was

Stuart Bonham Carter Vice Admiral Sir Stuart Sumner Bonham Carter, (9 July 1889 – 5 September 1972) was an officer in the Royal Navy who served in both the First and Second World Wars. Naval career Born the younger son of Lothian Bonham-Carter and Emily Maud S ...

, who went on to become an

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

.Dreadnought Project
/ref>

Loss

The minesweeper with the Commander-in-Chief of the China Station, Vice-Admiral Sir William Kelly aboard, ran ashore on the night of Wednesday 11 November 1931 on the north side of Tungyung Island while on a passage from Shanghai to Fuzhou; it was a total loss. The SS ''Derflinger'' and the Canadian Pacific liner RMS ''Empress of Asia'' went to the ''Petersfield''s assistance, and the

county-class cruiser The County class was a class of heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the years between the First and Second World Wars. They were the first post-war cruisers constructed for the Royal Navy and were designed within the limits of the Wash ...

s ''

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

'' and ''

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

'' proceeded rapidly to the scene. The north-east monsoon was understood to have been raging at the time. The ''Petersfield'' was a tender to the cruiser ''

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

'', of the Fifth Cruiser Squadron. Admiral Kelly and 73 officers and men on board were rescued by the ''Derflinger''.

Notes

References

* * *
dreadnought project

wrecksite

LOSS ON CHINA STATION EVENING POST, VOLUME CXII, ISSUE 118, 14 NOVEMBER 1931
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petersfield Hunt-class minesweepers (1916) Royal Navy ship names 1919 ships Petersfield Maritime incidents in 1931 Shipwrecks of China

Design and description

First commander

Loss

See also

Notes

References