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 ...
that took part in the
First World War
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 built in 1916–1917 by the Scottish shipbuilder John Brown at their Clydebank shipyard. ''Telemachus'' was modified to serve as a minelayer, laying minefields in the German Bight and
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 ...
to restrict the operation of German submarines. The ship survived the war and was sold for scrap in 1927.
Design
The R-class was a further development of the M-class destroyer, which had been the last class of destroyers ordered for the Royal Navy before the start of the First World War, and had therefore been built in large numbers during the early years of the war. The R-class differed by having geared rather than direct drive steam turbines, giving greater fuel efficiency, having a higher
forecastle
The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...
for better seakeeping and a larger and more robust
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 ...
structure.
The standard Admiralty M-class ships were
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
was normal and deep load. Three Yarrow
water-tube boiler
A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gene ...
s fed steam to Brown-Curtis geared
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s which drove two propeller shafts. The machinery was rated at giving a speed of .
The ships were armed with three 4-inch (102 mm) QF Mk IV guns, together with one 2-pounder pom-pom anti-aircraft autocannon. Two twin 21-inch (533mm torpedo tubes were fitted. The ships had a crew of 82. As converted to a minelayer, ''Telemachus''s aft gun and one of the pairs of torpedo-tubes were removed to allow 40 mines to be carried. The armament could be re-instated in about 12 hours to allow operation as a normal destroyer.
''Telemachus'' was one of 15 R-class destroyers ordered in March 1916 as part of the 8th Emergency War programme. 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 ...
Clydebank
Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...
shipyard. In January 1917 it was decided to convert ''Telemachus'' to a minelayer while she was still under construction. ''Telemachus'' was launched on 21 April 1917 and completed in June 1917.
Service
On commissioning, ''Telemachus'' joined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet, based at Rosyth. ''Telemachus'' combined the flotilla's normal duties in support of the Grand Fleet's battlecruisers with minelaying operations, frequently converting between normal destroyer and minelayer configuration. ''Telemachus'', together with sister ship and the destroyers and , escorted by the destroyers , , , and , carried out her first minelaying operation on the night of 14/15 July 1917, when mines were laid off
Ostend
Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...
. Two German torpedo boats, probably and , passed within of the force while they were laying the minefield but saw nothing. On the return journey, ''Tarpon'' struck a mine, badly damaging her stern, and had to be towed back to
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France. This minefield may have caused the loss of the German submarine , which failed to return from a mission to lay mines off Calais, departing
Zeebrugge
Zeebrugge (, from: ''Brugge aan zee'' meaning "Bruges at Sea", french: Zeebruges) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeeb ...
on 18 July and was due back on 20 July. On 1–10 October 1917, ''Telemachus'' took place in a large scale operation to intercept German submarines on their way home through the North Sea, with destroyers patrolling a line of mine-nets which were hoped to catch any passing submarine. At the time it was thought the operation accounted for three submarines ( ''U-50'', ''U-66'' and ''U-106'') but in fact these submarines were sunk elsewhere. On 13 October, the Swedish barque ''Esmerelda'', sailing for the Tyne with a load of pit-props, was sunk by the German submarine ''UB-58''. ''Telemachus'' spotted the burning ''Esmerelda'' and rescued her crew.
While she served with the 13th Flotilla, ''Telemachus''s minelaying duties mainly lay in the approaches to the Belgian ports rather than longer-ranged missions to the German Bight. In February 1918, ''Telemachus'' joined the newly established 20th Flotilla, tasked with laying mines in channels swept by the Germans in the existing British minefields in the German Bight. As well as the direct effects of ships sunk by the mines, these mines would require considerable effort by the Germans in clearing them.
On the morning of 27 March 1918, ''Telemachus'', together with , ''Legion'', , and , were laying a minefield in the German Bight when they encountered three German trawlers serving as patrol boats. The three trawlers did not realise that the destroyers were British until they had finished laying their minefield, when they signalled by radio the presence of the British ships. ''Telemachus'' went to seize one of the trawlers, which the Germans scuttled, while the remaining two German ships were captured by the British and then scuttled. On 15 May 1918, ''Telemachus'', together with ''Abdiel'', ''Tarpon'', , ''Ariel'', ''Ferrett'' and were on their way to lay a minefield when they ran into thick fog. ''Telemachus'' collided with ''Sandfly'' and ''Tarpon'' with ''Ariel''. While ''Telemachus'', ''Tarpon'' and ''Ariel'' sustained little damage, ''Sandfly'' was holed in the engine room, and had to be towed back to England by ''Ferret'', escorted by ''Telemachus''.
The 20th Flotilla, including ''Telemachus'', was carrying another minelaying operation on the night of 2–3 August 1918 when the destroyer struck a mine, blowing off her bow. ''Abdiel'' was preparing to take ''Vehement'' under tow when a second destroyer, ''Ariel'' was also mined. Ariel quickly sank, and it proved impossible to salvage ''Vehement'', which was scuttled by ''Telemachus'' and using gunfire and depth charges. The squadron continued minelaying until the end of the war, with ''Telemachus'' laying a total of 1898 mines during the war.
''Telemachus'' remained in use after the war as an experimental minelayer, but was sold for scrap to
Hughes Bolckow
Hughes Bolckow formerly ''Messrs, Hughes, Bolckow, and Co., Limited'' was a well-known shipbreaking company based in Blyth, Northumberland.
Background
Intending to create an industrial park for dismantling obsolete warships in 1911, the compa ...