''HMS M30'' was a

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 ...

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

of 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 ...

. The availability of ten 6 inch Mk XII guns from the ''Queen Elizabeth''-class

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 ...

s in 1915 prompted the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

to order five scaled down versions of the ''M15''-class monitors, which had been designed to use 9.2 inch guns. HMS ''M30'' and her sisters were ordered from

Harland & Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the Wh ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

in March 1915. Launched on 23 June 1915, she was completed in July 1915. Upon completion, HMS ''M30'' was sent to the Mediterranean. Whilst enforcing the Allied blockade in the

Gulf of Smyrna A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...

, HMS ''M30'' came under fire from the Austro-Hungarian howitzer battery 36 supporting the Turkish, and was sunk on 14 May 1916.

References

* Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919", (Ian Allan, London, 1972), * Gray, Randal (ed), "Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921", (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1985), {{DEFAULTSORT:M30 M29-class monitors Ships built in Belfast 1915 ships World War I monitors of the United Kingdom Royal Navy ship names Ships built by Harland and Wolff Maritime incidents in 1916 World War I shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea