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Remembered Today:

Armed Boarding Steamer question


Felix C

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Armored cruiser and armed boarding steamer working in tandem.

Looking at some ship logs it appears that on the Northern Patrol when an armored cruiser and an armed boarding vessel would depart from the same port on the same day. Then the ABS would sail off somewhere and rejoin the cruiser for the remainder of the patrol the next morning. It happens every patrol and wondering why the ABS takes off on her own and reappears the next day. It happens on 99.98% of all patrols. Does anyone know why? Time frame is early 1917 if that makes a difference. Ships departing from Olna Firth.Shetlands. Ships would separate shortly after passing Muckle Roe Lighthouse prior to midnight and then meet again in the morning of the following day. 

 

 

Edited by Felix C
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here is an example from an armored cruiser, Hampshire's log:

 

 2 February 1917

Anchored in Olna Firth [& at Sea]


Lat 60.36, Long -1.32

9.30am: Exercised at General Quarters.

5.00pm: Burnt searchlights for 20 minutes.

9.00pm: HMS Duke of Clarence proceeded.

10.20pm: Weighed anchor.

10.28pm: Proceeded as required for leaving harbour.

10.55pm: Passed thro’ Obstruction.

11.02pm: Muckle Roe Light abeam.

11.40pm: ZZ 20° each way.

3 February 1917

[At Sea]

Lat 63.1, Long -3.0 [Obs]

7.40am: Sighted HMS Duke of Clarence bearing W by S.

11.15am: ZZ 37° each way Duke of Clarence in company.

8.35pm: Duke of Clarence steering gear disabled. Duke of Clarence stopped. 8.35 to 10.16 Courses as required for standing by Duke of Clarence.

10.16pm: Proceeded.

11.20pm: ZZ 2 points.

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Or is it a case of the ABS being obscured due to visibility and then "sighted" the next day as local visibility conditions permitted re-sighting. I note sunrise on Feb. 3 1917 at Muckle Roe being 8:19a.m and a bit later if further west/north

 

Edited by Felix C
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Hampshire was mined and sunk (with Lord Kitchener aboard) in June 1916, so either the name of the armoured cruiser or the date of the log excerpt must be wrong.

 

It might be worth matching log timings with sunrise/set - that far north daylight and hence visibility would vary a great deal depending on time of the year.

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oops I meant Duke of Edinburgh I was looking through other logs and had Hampshire on the brain. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does the cruiser cover the boarding steamer while the latter performs its duties? 

The sailing independently could be to preserve secrecy that there's always two ships to a boarding steamer patrol. 

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Yes. Maybe. In the example above it appears the left together.Just sent off for the log of the ABS to see what it indicates. 

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On 16 March 1917 HMS Achilles and HMS Dundee were two of the ships patrolling midway between the Faroes and Norway.  Achilles was an armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy with big guns whilst the Dundee was a merchant ship built at the Caledon Yard, Dundee in 1911 but requisitioned as an Armed Boarding Vessel for the duration of the war.  Dundee’s crew consisted of Merchant Seamen and Naval Reservists and some of them came from the city.

Just before mid day Achilles sighted a ship heading east about 9 miles away.  She set a course to intercept and Dundee was ordered to close the distance as well.  Speed was increased to reduce the distance quicker and the unidentified ship was directed to reverse course and stop when about 1000 yards from the Dundee.  Achilles remained about 4 miles away and the Dundee lowered a sea boat with a Boarding Party.  Suspicions had been raised by the fact that the mystery ship had Rena painted on her side and flew the Norwegian flag but the vessel with that name was much smaller in size.

The volunteer Boarding Party set off but suspicions increased when the other ship kept altering her position relative to the Dundee whose guns were fully manned, loaded and pointing at the suspect vessel.  During these cat and mouse manoeuvres the Boarding Party disappeared out of sight behind the Rena’s hull and was never seen again.  Suddenly a torpedo wake passed 20 yards astern of the Dundee.

The Dundee’s Captain ordered his two guns to open fire and his timely preparations proved effective.  Hits were obtained immediately and explosions observed on the decks of the disguised German raider.  More hits were registered before the Germans could recover but, when they did, their gunfire was erratic and all shots missed.  Achilles too had come under torpedo attack but these both missed and she altered course to get nearer the fight.  Dundee altered course towards Achilles as the cruiser directed her big guns on to the raider which was engulfed with smoke and flame.

The final act came at about 4.30 when the burning German ship listed to port and sank beneath the waves, taking all her crew and the Boarding Party with her.  She was identified later as SMS Leopard manned by a German Naval crew.  In December 1916 she was the SS Yarrowdale and captured by the Moewe before being sent back to Germany for conversion to a commerce raider. Her armament was thought to be five 5.9” guns, four 3.75” guns and two torpedo tubes, more than a match for Dundee’s two 4” guns.

The action is commemorated on the central obelisk of all three of the Royal Naval Memorials at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth.  Five of Dundee’s Boarding Party are listed on Portsmouth Memorial and one at Plymouth.  By a strange twist of fate four of the men share the same surname of Anderson and they all came from Shetland. 

The Captain of HMS Dundee was awarded the DSO, two Gunlayers were awarded the DSM and two others were Mentioned in Despatches.  The Boarding Officer, from Adelaide, South Australia was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches.

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It seems to me that two ships patrolling together with a distance interval will be able to have more mileage under observation. Of course, the region where these ships operated is prone to periods of poor visibility. I do not know if the ships closed up or since they had w/t stayed in contact in that manner. 

 

I recently sent off for an ABS memoir which hopefully will have more data. 

Edited by Felix C
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