HMS Sentinel (1904)
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HMS ''Sentinel'' was one of two
scout cruiser A scout cruiser was a type of warship of the early 20th century, which were smaller, faster, more lightly armed and armoured than protected cruisers or light cruisers, but larger than contemporary destroyers. Intended for fleet scouting duties a ...
s 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 ...
in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before returning home and being reduced to
reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...
in 1907. Recommissioned two years later as part of the Home Fleet, she spent the next five years moving on and off of active service in British waters. ''Sentinel'' was assigned to coastal defence duties when 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 ...
began in 1914, although she was transferred to the Mediterranean in 1915. By 1918 the ship had been assigned to the Aegean. After the end of the war in November, ''Sentinel'' was sent to the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
as the British attempted to intervene in the Russian Civil War. The ship returned home in early 1919 and was
paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in ...
. She became a
training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...
from mid-1920 to the end of 1922 and was sold for scrap in early 1923.


Design and description

The ''Sentinel''-class ships were one of four classes of scout cruisers ordered by 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 ...
in 1902–1903 and 1903–1904 Naval Programmes. These ships were intended to work with destroyer
flotilla A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...
s, leading their torpedo attacks and backing them up when attacked by other destroyers, although they quickly became less useful as destroyer speeds increased before the First World War. They had a
length between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...
of , 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 at
deep load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...
. The ships displaced at normal load and at deep load. Their crew consisted of 289 officers and ratings. The ships were powered by a pair of three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by a dozen Vickers Express
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-gen ...
s. The engines were designed to produce a total of which was intended to give a maximum speed of .Roberts 1979, pp. 84–85 When ''Sentinel'' ran her
sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s, she reached a speed of from for eight hours. The ''Sentinel''-class cruisers carried enough coal to give them a range of at . The main armament of the ''Sentinel'' class consisted of ten quick-firing (QF) 12-pounder 18-cwt guns."Cwt" is the abbreviation for
hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and US customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the US and British imperial systems. The two values are distingu ...
, 18 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
Three guns were mounted abreast on the forecastle and the quarterdeck, with the remaining four guns positioned port and starboard
amidships This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th ...
. They also carried eight 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and two above-water 18-inch (450 mm)
torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s, one on each
broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...
. The ships' protective deck armour ranged in thickness from and the conning tower had armour inches thick.


Career

''Sentinel'' 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 ...
by
Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...
at their shipyard in
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...
on 8 June 1903, launched on 19 April 1904 and completed in April 1905. She was originally to be named HMS ''Inchkeith'', but was renamed in 1903, prior to launching. Not long after completion, two additional 12-pounder guns were added and the 3-pounder guns were replaced with six
QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss The Ordnance QF Hotchkiss 6 pounder gun Mk I and Mk II or QF 6 pounder 8 cwt were a family of long-lived light naval guns introduced in 1885 to defend against new, small and fast vessels such as torpedo boats and later submarines. There were ma ...
guns. The ship began her career with the
3rd Cruiser Squadron The 3rd Cruiser Squadron was a formation of cruisers of the British Royal Navy from 1902 to 1909 and 1911 to 1916 and then again from 1922 to 1941. History First formation The squadron was first formed in June 1902 and disbanded in March 1909 ...
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 Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
in 1906, before being recalled to join the Channel Fleet, and then reduced to reserve in the Home Fleet from 1907. In February 1910 she was recommissioned as the leader of the
5th Destroyer Flotilla The British 5th Destroyer Flotilla, or Fifth Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation 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 ...
at
Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
and refitted there in June.Preston 1985, p. 17 About 1911–1912, her main guns were replaced by nine guns, arranged four on each broadside and the remaining gun on the quarterdeck.McBride 1994, p. 274 After another refit in 1912 at HM Dockyard, Devonport, ''Sentinel'' was assigned to the
3rd Light Cruiser Squadron The 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron was a naval formation of light cruisers of the Royal Navy from 1915 to 1922. History World War One Formed in 1915 it was part of the Grand Fleet, the squadron fought at the Battle of Jutland. The squadron was attac ...
in 1913 for the annual manoeuvres and was then transferred to lead the
9th Destroyer Flotilla The 9th Destroyer Flotilla, or Ninth Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the British Royal Navy from January 1913 to December 1925 and again in January to July 1940. History Established in January 1913 when it was assigned to the Pa ...
at
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...
. The ship joined the
6th Destroyer Flotilla The British 6th Destroyer Flotilla, or Sixth Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the Royal Navy from 1911 to 1939 and again from 1947 to 1951 History The flotilla was formed in 1911 at Portsmouth, with its first commander, Captain Mo ...
at Dover later that year. After the start of the First World War in August 1914, ''Sentinel'' was serving with the
8th Destroyer Flotilla The 8th Destroyer Flotilla, also styled as the Eighth Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the British Royal Navy from 1911 to 1939. History The flotilla was established in August 1911. In 1912 was assigned to the Admiral of Patrols ...
in the Firth of Forth. In 1915 she was temporarily assigned with 6th Light Cruiser Squadron in the
Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...
to defend against
Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...
raids, before she was transferred to the Mediterranean and then to the Aegean in 1918. Later that year, ''Sentinel'' was part of the squadron sent through the
Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...
to undertake duties in the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
, where Britain was becoming involved in the Russian Civil War. The ship paid off in April 1919 at Sheerness and served as a mechanic’s training ship at Chatham from July 1920 until the end of 1922 before being sold for scrap in January 1923.


Notes


Footnotes


Bibliography

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External links

*
Sentinel class in World War I


{{DEFAULTSORT:Sentinel (1904) Sentinel-class cruisers World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom 1904 ships