HMS Dartmouth (1910)

HMS ''Dartmouth'' was a light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. She was one of the ''Weymouth'' sub-class of the ''Town'' class. The ship survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1930.

Construction and design

''Dartmouth'' was laid down by Vickers at their Barrow shipyard on 19 February 1910, one of four Town-class protected cruisers ordered under the 1909–1910 Naval Estimates. The four 1909–10 ships, also known as the ''Weymouth'' class, were an improved version of five similar Town-class ships laid down under the 1908–1909 Estimates, known as the ''Bristol'' class, with a heavier main armament of eight 6 inch (152 mm) Mk XI guns, compared with the two 6 inch and ten 4 inch of the earlier ships.Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 52.Brown 2010, pp. 63–64. The ships had a secondary armament of four Vickers 3-pounder (47 mm) guns, with two submerged 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes mounted on the ships' beams.Lyon ''Warship'' Vol. 1 No. 2, p. 57.

''Dartmouth'' was long overall, with a beam of and a draught of . She displaced normal and deep load. Machinery was the same as in the ''Bristol'' class, with 12 Yarrow boilers feeding Parsons steam turbines, driving four shafts. The turbines were laid out in three separate engine rooms, with high pressure turbines, located in wing compartments, driving the outer shafts and low pressure turbines in a central compartment. The engines were rated at , giving a design speed of . The ship had four funnels.''The Engineer'' 17 February 1911, p. 174.

''Dartmouth'' was launched on 14 February 1911, reaching a speed of during sea trials.Hythe 1912, p. 26. She was completed in October 1911, at a cost of £320,406.Hythe 1912, p. 187.

Service history

On commissioning, ''Dartmouth'' joined the Atlantic Fleet, being attached to the Third Battle Squadron from 1912 to 1913. After a 1913 cruise to the Mediterranean Sea, she was briefly attached to the Second Light Cruiser Squadron at Devonport to participate in the 1913 Naval Manoeuvres before leaving to join the East Indies Squadron of the Eastern Fleet.

On the outbreak of the First World War, ''Dartmouth'' was docked at Bombay, but was soon returned to sea, escorting a troop convoy from Karachi to Mombasa in Kenya and then taking part in the search for the German cruiser . On 9 October that year she captured the German tug ''Adjutant'' in the Mozambique Channel. On 30 October, the cruiser spotted ''Königsberg'' moored up the Rufiji delta, and on 2 November, ''Dartmouth'' attempted to engage ''Königsberg'' or the supporting steamer ''Somali'' but the German ships were too far upstream to be successfully engaged.''The Naval Review'' Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 481–483. On 10 November, the British scuttled the collier ''Newbridge'' in the Rufiji River as a blockship to prevent ''Königsberg'' from escaping, and on 11 November, ''Dartmouth'' left to reinforce the Cape of Good Hope Station in the aftermath of the Battle of Coronel.''The Naval Review'' Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 485–486. In January 1915, ''Dartmouth'' was reassigned to the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet but was detached to operate in the South Atlantic in the search for the commerce raider . (Unknown to the Royal Navy, ''Karlsruhe'' had already been lost, sunk by an internal explosion on 4 November 1914 near Barbados.)Massie 2007, p. 286.

In February 1915, ''Dartmouth'' was sent to join the forces operating off the Dardanelles in support of the Gallipoli Campaign. On 15 March she suffered a boiler explosion that killed 15 of her crew. Despite this damage, ''Dartmouth'' continued operations, and on 18 March ''Dartmouth'' patrolled off the West coast of the Gallipoli peninsula while a final attempt was made by the battleships of the fleet to force the straits during daylight. The attack was a failure, with three battleships sunk by mines, and several more ships heavily damages by mines or by Turkish gunfire. ''Dartmouth'' escorted the battlecruiser , badly damaged by striking a mine, to Tenedos. On 25 April, the Allies landed troops at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula, with ''Dartmouth'' taking part in a diversionary simulated landing further north, at Bulair.

In May 1915, ''Dartmouth'' was reassigned to the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron at Brindisi, supporting Italian forces in the Adriatic Sea.Halpern 2004, pp. 15–17. ''Dartmouth''s speed had been reduced to by the boiler explosion in March, and further boiler problems had reduced her speed to by June 1915. As a result, on 30 June ''Dartmouth'' paid off at Malta for a refit, not recommissioning until 1 October.Naval Staff Monograph No. 21, pp. 178, 209. On 28 December 1915, an Austrian force of cruisers and destroyers raided the port of Durazzo in Albania, and ''Dartmouth'', together with the and several French destroyers, set off to intercept the returning Austrian force, later being joined by ''Dartmouth''s sister ship and the . In the resulting Battle off Durazzo, ''Dartmouth'' scored several hits on the Austrian cruiser .

On 14/15 May 1917, ''Dartmouth'' took part in the Battle of the Otranto Straits. A force of three Austro-Hungarian cruisers (''Helgoland'', and carried out an attack on the drifters of the Otranto Barrage, while two destroyers and carried out a diversionary attack against merchant shipping off Albania.Halpern 1987, p. 358. The two destroyers attacked an Italian convoy at about 03:30 Central European Time (CET), sinking the Italian destroyer and the freighter ''Carrocio'', with the main cruiser attack on the drifter line starting at about 04:20 CET, with 14 of the lightly armed drifters sunk and four more damaged.Halpern 2004, pp. 54–56, 60–67. ''Dartmouth'', with the Italian Admiral Alfredo Acton, the overall commander of the Allied naval response aboard, left Brindisi at 05:36 CET in company with the Italian destroyers and , and was joined in the pursuit of the Austro-Hungarian cruisers by the Italian scout and the British cruiser .Halpern 2004, pp. 71–73. ''Dartmouth'' was hit several times by shellfire from Austro-Hungarian cruisers which she was pursuing, and had to heave to. Returning to port she was hit by a torpedo from the German submarine and began sinking. The order to abandon ship was given but a small team volunteered to remain on board manning the pumps while the ''Dartmouth'' was towed to port.

''Dartmouth'' was drydocked and repaired and went on to survive the war.

She was sold for scrapping on 13 December 1930 to Alloa Ship Breaking Company of Rosyth.Lyon ''Warship'' Vol. 1 No. 3, p. 51.

Notes

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External links

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Ships of the ''Weymouth'' group

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dartmouth
Town-class cruisers (1910) of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
1911 ships
World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom
Maritime incidents in 1917