HMS ''Slinger'' was an experimental catapult ship operated by 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 ...

during 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 ...

. After Royal Navy service from 1917 to 1919, she operated as a commercial cargo ship under the names SS ''Niki'' and SS ''Lingfield'' from 1920 until she sank in 1941.

Royal Navy service

Constructed as a

hopper barge A hopper barge is a kind of non-mechanical ship or vessel that cannot move around by itself, unlike some other types of barges, that is designed to carry materials, like rocks, sand, soil and rubbish, for dumping into the ocean, a river or lak ...

, HMS ''Slinger'' was purchased from her builder, Lobnitz and Company, Limited of Renfrew,

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, prior to completion. Intending to use her as a test bed for the shipborne launching of aircraft, the Royal Navy fitted her with a 60-foot (18.25-meter) compressed air catapult. HMS ''Slinger'' operated Fairey F.127 and Short 310

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

s during 1918. HMS Slinger seaplane

''Slinger'' was sold on 16 October 1919.

Later career

After her sale, the ship was converted into a merchant cargo ship. She entered commercial service under 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 ...

flag with Boyazides L, Brother & Company in 1920 as SS ''Niki''. ''Niki'' was sold to Valsamakis & Company in 1934 and to Nomikos Petros in 1937, remaining under Greek ownership and registry throughout. On 28 July 1920, ''Niki'' arrived leaking at

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and was beached at Tranmere. Cheshire. She was refloated, repaired, and returned to service. ''Niki'' was sold to Valsamakis & Company in 1934 and to Nomikos Petros in 1937, remaining under Greek ownership and registry throughout. Later in 1937, ''Niki'' was sold to the Finchley Steamship Company and, under British registry, was renamed SS ''Lingfield''. ''Lingfield'' continued to operate as a commercial cargo ship until 17 October 1941, when she collided with another vessel in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

off the coast of

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England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and sank.

Notes

References

* Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919", (Ian Allan, London, 1972),

External links

royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk H.M.S. SLINGER: The First H.M.S. SLINGER
Aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy Ships built on the River Clyde 1917 ships World War I aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom Experimental ships Cargo ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1920 Maritime incidents in October 1941 Ships sunk in collisions Shipwrecks in the North Sea {{UK-mil-ship-stub