HMS ''M33'' is an of 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 Fr ...

built in 1915. She saw active service in the Mediterranean during the First World War and in Russia during the Allied Intervention in 1919. She was used subsequently as a mine-laying training ship, fuelling hulk,

boom defence A boom or a chain (also boom defence, harbour chain, river chain, chain boom, boom chain or variants) is an obstacle strung across a navigable stretch of water to control or block navigation. In modern times they usually have civil uses, such as ...

workshop and floating office, being renamed HMS ''Minerva'' and Hulk ''C23'' during her long life. She passed to Hampshire County Council in the 1980s and was then handed over to the National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2014. A programme of conservation was undertaken to enable her to be opened to the public. HMS ''M33'' is located within

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is an area of HM Naval Base Portsmouth which is open to the public; it contains several historic buildings and ships. It is managed by the National Museum of the Royal Navy as an umbrella organization representing ...

and opened to visitors on 7 August 2015 following a service of dedication. She is one of only three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War and the only surviving Allied ship from the Gallipoli Campaign, the other being the

Ottoman minelayer Nusret ''Nusret'' (Eng. 'the help of God') was a naval ship of the Ottoman Navy, which served as a minelayer during the Gallipoli Campaign, and later fulfilled various roles in the Turkish Navy; as minelayer (1927–1937), diver vessel (1937&ndash ...

, preserved in Çanakkale.

Construction

''M33'' was built as part of the rapid ship construction campaign following the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Harland and 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 W ...

, Belfast. Ordered in March 1915, she was launched in May and commissioned in June; an impressive shipbuilding feat, especially considering that numerous other ships of her type were being built in the same period.

First World War

Armed with a pair of guns and having a shallow draught, ''M33'' was designed for coastal bombardment. Commanded by

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

Preston-Thomas, her first active operation was the support of the British landings at Suvla during the Battle of Gallipoli in August 1915. She remained stationed at Gallipoli until the evacuation in January 1916. For the remainder of the war she served in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

and was involved in the seizure of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

fleet at Salamis Bay on 1 September 1916.

Russia

''M33'' next saw service, along with five other monitors (, , , and ), which were sent to Murmansk in 1919 to relieve the North Russian Expeditionary Force. In June, ''M33'' moved to

Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...

and her shallow draught enabled her to travel up the Dvina River to cover the withdrawal of British and White Russian forces. At one time the river level was so low the ship's guns had to be removed and transported by cart. ''M25'' and ''M27'' were not so fortunate and had to be scuttled on 16 September 1919 after running aground. ''M33'' safely returned to Chatham in October.

Harbour service and restoration

In 1925 ''M33'' became a mine-laying training ship and was renamed HMS ''Minerva'' on 3 February 1925. She went through a number of roles for the remainder of her career including fuelling hulk and boom defence workshop. Her name was changed again in 1939, this time to Hulk ''C23''. In 1946 she became a floating office at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite ...

. Put up for sale in 1984, she eventually passed to

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

County Council. Listed as part of the

National Historic Fleet The National Historic Fleet is a list of historic ships and vessels located in the United Kingdom, under the National Historic Ships register. National Historic Ships UK is an advisory body which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media ...

, she is now located at

, close to . She was opened to the public for the first time as part of the

National Museum of the Royal Navy The National Museum of the Royal Navy was created in early 2009 to act as a single non-departmental public body for the museums of the Royal Navy. With venues across the United Kingdom, the museums detail the history of the Royal Navy operating o ...

on 7 August 2015. ''M33'' is one of only three surviving British warships that served during the First World War, the others being and , although a number of auxiliary vessels and small craft have also survived.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Monitor M33 - Hampshire County CouncilMonitor M33 - HistoryNational Historic Ships Committee listing for ''M33''

HMS M33 - National Museum of the Royal Navy
{{DEFAULTSORT:M33 M29-class monitors Ships built in Belfast 1915 ships Museum ships in the United Kingdom Royal Navy ship names World War I monitors of the United Kingdom Ships and vessels of the National Historic Fleet