Design and description
The ''Drake''-class ships were designed as faster and larger versions of the preceding with a slightly more powerful armament. They Displacement (ship), displaced , over more than the earlier ships. The ''Drake''s had an length overall, overall length of , a beam (nautical), beam of and a deep draft (ship), draught of . They were powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of using steam provided by 43 Belleville boilers. On her sea trials, ''Drake'' reached a speed of .Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 69 She carried a maximum of of coal and her complement consisted of 900 officers and naval rating, ratings.Friedman 2012, p. 336 The main armament of the ''Drake'' class consisted of two List of British ordnance terms#BL, breech-loading (BL) BL 9.2 inch gun Mk IX–X, 9.2-inch (234 mm) Mk X guns in single gun turret, turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Her secondary armament of sixteen BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun, BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk VII guns was arranged in casemates amidships. Eight of these were mounted on the lower deck and were only usable in calm weather. A dozen quick-firing gun, quick-firing (QF) QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun, 12-pounder (76 mm) 12-cwt guns were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. Two additional QF 12-pounder 8-cwt Mk I naval gun, 12-pounder 8-cwt guns could be dismounted for service ashore. The ships also carried three QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss, 3-pounder (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns and two submerged British 18 inch torpedo, 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes. By February 1916, all of the lower casemates for her six-inch guns had been plated over and six of them had been remounted on the upper deck so they could be used in heavy weather. Several twelve-pounders had to be removed to make room for the six-inch guns. The ship's waterline Belt armor, armour belt had a maximum thickness of 6 inches and was closed off by transverse bulkhead (partition), bulkheads. The armour of the gun turrets and their barbettes was 6 inches thick while that of the casemates was 5 inches thick. The protective deck (ship), deck armour ranged in thickness from and the conning tower was protected by of armour.Construction and service
HMS ''Drake'', named after the Elizabethan adventurer Sir Francis Drake, was Keel laying, laid down at Pembroke Dock on 24 April 1899, and Ship naming and launching, launched on 5 March 1901, when she was christened by Mrs. Lort Phillips, wife of local landowner F. Lort Phillips, of Lawrenny. Based at Portsmouth for her gun, torpedo and circle trials in late 1902, there was also trials with a new type of propeller. She was completed on 13 January 1903 and assigned to the Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet,Friedman 2012, p. 244 under the command of the future First Sea Lord, Captain Francis Bridgeman (Royal Navy officer), Francis Bridgeman. John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, John Jellicoe, also a future First Sea Lord and commander of the Grand Fleet, was her next captain in 1903–04. In 1907 the ship was commanded by Captain Arthur Hayes-Sadler and serving as the flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Charles Henry Adair. The following year, ''Drake'' became the flagship of 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet (attending the Hudson–Fulton Celebration during this time) and then was assigned as flagship of the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet (United Kingdom), Atlantic Fleet in 1909. She was re-commissioned as the flagship of the Australia Station from early 1911 until returning to home waters in 1913. She then went into the 6th Cruiser Squadron, notionally part of the Second Fleet (United Kingdom), Second Fleet, on 13 March 1913, but actually was in care and maintenance under the control of the Third Fleet (United Kingdom), Third Fleet. That fleet was merged into the Grand Fleet upon mobilization in mid-1914 and ''Drake'' became flagship of Rear Admiral William Lowther Grant, William Grant, commander of the squadron. The squadron was briefly deployed at the beginning of the war to blockade the northern exit from the North Sea. In October 1914, under the command of Aubrey Smith (Royal Navy officer), Aubrey Smith, the ship was used to carry Russian bullion worth eight million Pound sterling, pounds to Britain; on arrival, ''Drake'' lay thirty miles off Arkhangelsk, Archangel, and the gold was brought to her at night. The ship was refitted in October 1915Transcript and then transferred to the North America and West Indies Station for convoy escort duties. She participated in the unsuccessful search in the West Indies for the German commerce raider in December 1916. ''Drake'' was torpedoed by the German submarine , commanded by ''Kapitänleutnant'' Otto Rohrbeck, on 2 October 1917 after her Convoy HH24 had dispersed for its several destinations. The ship was about off Rathlin Island at the tip of Northern Ireland when she was hit. The torpedo struck the No. 2 Boiler Room and caused two of her engine rooms and the boiler room to flood, killing 18 crewmen. These gave her a list (watercraft), list and knocked out her steam-powered steering. Her captain (nautical), captain decided to steam for Church Bay on Rathlin Island and accidentally collided with the merchant ship before she dropped anchor. The collision did not damage ''Drake'' much, but ''Mendip Range'' was forced to Beaching (nautical), beach herself lest she sink. ''Drake''s crew was taken off before she capsized later that afternoon. Her wreck at in Church Bay is a favourite site for divers because the wreck is only at a depth between and generally has good visibility. Salvage of the wreck began in 1920 and continued for several years. On the night of 3 November 1962, the steam trawler (fishing), trawler ''Ella Hewett'' struck the wreck and subsequently sank almost atop ''Drake''. Ammunition and ordnance was salvaged during the 1970s and the wrecks were demolished with depth charges to reduce the chance of any other ships coming to grief on the wrecks. In 1978, the remaining fuel oil was salvaged to reduce pollution from leaking oil.Wessex Archaeology, pp. 3, 9–10Notes
Footnotes
Bibliography
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* Wilson, Ian (2011) ''HMS Drake: Rathlin Island Shipwreck''. Rathlin Island: Rathlin Island Books.External links