HMS ''M33'' is an of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. 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 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 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, 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

by Harland & Wolff, 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 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and was involved in the seizure of the Greek fleet at Salamis Bay on 1 September 1916.

Russian Intervention

''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 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, with the crew placing as much weight on her stern to keep the propellers in the water and to push M33 over the mudbanks. ''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. Put up for sale in 1984, in July 1987 she left Portsmouth on the barge Pacific Goliath alongside HMS Trincomalee; that ship had been placed on a cradle to support her wooden hull, but M.33 with her flat bottom could be placed on the barge instead. In Hartlepool early restoration work was undertaken including painting her back to wartime colours and restoration of her superstructure. She later passed to

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

County Council and was towed back to Portsmouth to begin further restoration, she was moored in No.1 Basin near HMS Victory. HMS M.33 is listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, she is now located at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, close to . She was opened to the public for the first time as part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy 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

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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