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Remembered Today:

10th Cruiser Squadron


Skipman

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I have just started looking into the 10th Cruiser Squadron. I have a number of questions that I don't readily see in other threads and would like to keep any information in one place. I am aware of this excellent web site. http://www.naval-history.net/index.htm

 

Is there such a things as a war diary for the 10th Cruiser Squadron.

 

Is there a map that shows all patrol areas.

 

Is there a list of when any particular ship was serving with a particular patrol.

 

Can you recommend the best book(s) to help me study this Squadron and in particular HMS Cedric.

 

Cheers Mike

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Mike

 

There are numerous documents at TNA for "10th Cruiser Squadron" (filtered to 1900-1924) some of which are available to download. (I haven't looked at all the entries, some may not be pertinent) https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_aq=10+cruiser+squadron&_dss=range&_ro=any&_st=adv&_p=1900

 

Good luck with the research

 

Regards

 

David

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CEDRIC was hired as an A.M.C. on 17 November 1914 and was operational after conversion on 11 December 1914.  Her service as an A.M.C. ended on 20 January 1916, after which she was converted to a troop transport (as which she survived the war).

 

I think the best recent published source is R. Osborne, H. Spong & T. Grover, Armed Merchant Cruisers (World Ship Society, 2007).

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Thank you both very much. Very useful. Thanks for the link David. (Will feed these into my monthly drip drip, don't tell the wife account) :ph34r:

 

Mike

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47 minutes ago, DavidOwen said:

Mike

 

There are numerous documents at TNA for "10th Cruiser Squadron" (filtered to 1900-1924) some of which are available to download. (I haven't looked at all the entries, some may not be pertinent) https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_aq=10+cruiser+squadron&_dss=range&_ro=any&_st=adv&_p=1900

 

Good luck with the research

 

Regards

 

David

 

Seems that only this one is available so far for download David but will have a look and thanks for pointing me in right direction. I was not certain such a diary would exist.

 

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_aq=10 cruiser squadron&_dss=range&_ro=any&_p=1900&_st=adv&_hb=tna&_col=200

 

Mike

 

Edit Don't think Cedric was with 10th Cruiser Squadron at this time.

Edited by Skipman
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Excellent Horaio2 that looks like the one I want.

 

Is it possible to tranfer from kindle to laptop, and if it is, would it be possible to copy and paste from that?

 

Mike

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Seems can buy 99p on kindle and email to self but can't copy and paste. That would do but if anyone knows of a version (that I can buy)  from which I can copy and paste would very much appreciate.  99 pence, what's not to like.

 

Mike

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Have found a solution that seems to work though a bit of a faff.

 

Take a screenshot of the required text then using this free OCR site you can convert to copyable text

 

For example

 

It was characteristic of an opportunist policy at this period that from quite an early date the loth Cruiser Squadron (otherwise known as Cruiser Force "B") was not allowed to concentrate its entire energies on the stopping of contraband. Indeed, it is significant that the guiding consideration was less concerned with thwarting neutrals' trade into Germany than with the more military intention of encountering any sudden and expected onrush by the enemy's men-of-war. For some time to come such an idea as a stringent commercial blockade did not mature, and the air was so full of electrical suspense that sudden shocks were always being felt. The result was that Admiral de Chair's squadron, either as a whole or as units, had no continuity of purpose permitted to it; these little cruisers were required by Admiral Jellicoe for special "stunts" as occasion demanded. For instance, those Danish islands called the Faroes which lie most of 200 miles north-west of the Shetlands, became suspected of being a base for German submarines, and on August 12 Endymion, with Gibraltar, was sent thither. But in a strange region of savage scenery, with its precipitous tall cliffs, its sharp-pointed peaks, its strong tides and complete absence of trees, there was nothing to justify suspicion, and the cruisers returned. It was more than a week before they re-joined their Admiral, and in the meanwhile he had been needed to assist the Grand Fleet, who were making a sweep over the North Sea towards the Skaggerak. This occupied a whole weekend, and from time to time the "Edgars" were again called upon for a

 

Mike

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  • 4 months later...

Admiral Commanding 10th Cruiser Sqdn 1914-16 - Rear Admiral Sir Dudley deChair, KCB, KCMG, MVO, RN.

 

Photo taken post war when Admiral & Governor of  New South Wales 1924-1930.  I have also att'd a photo of deChair & his daughter taken in Australia during his tenure as Governor.

De Chair was born in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada in 1864 & entered the RN in 1878.

 

Bryan

De Chair portrait dres unif.jpg

de Chair & dau.JPG

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T.D. Lilley's (2012) PhD Thesis from University of Greenwich is well wort a read for information concerning the operations of the 10th Cruiser Squadron.

 

https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/9397/1/Terence_Dawson_Lilley_2012.pdf

 

- It includes a map of the patrol areas and the ships allocated to them!

Edited by KizmeRD
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Thanks, there is lots of info & photos of Dudley deChair on the internet.

 

Here are his miniature medals in my collection --

De Chair Dudley minis2.JPG

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The father of an old neighbour of mine was on HMS Vimy, an AMC, and his grandson showed me a picture of it which had "10th Cruiser Squadron" on the back. It and other pictures showed ships festooned with icicles.

 

The best way to get Kindle documents onto a laptop is to click the option to install additionally on another device when you buy them. I have done this a lot, and all my Kindle purchases are thus loaded onto my desktop computer. It may not be as easy to copy and paste from them, and the file names tend to be singularly unhelpful, but at least you would have them in the same place.

 

Ron

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13 minutes ago, Ron Clifton said:

The father of an old neighbour of mine was on HMS Vimy, an AMC, and his grandson showed me a picture of it which had "10th Cruiser Squadron" on the back. It and other pictures showed ships festooned with icicles.

Ron

The sailors in the 10th Cruiser sqdn would have had a very hard war, not  so much from intercepting suspected enemy ships, but moreso the elements!  Had to be one of the worse patrol areas in both wars.  The RCN convoy escorts during 2WW were all over that area for 5 years!

 

Thanks for posting the link to the Doctorate Thesis Kizme, much appreciated!

 

Bryan

Edited by RNCVR
..
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Not only a terrible patrol area during winter storms, but made worse by the fact that these ships, taken up from mercantile marine, were made somewhat top heavy by the addition of 6" guns and other naval armament, making them highly vulnerable if caught out by bad weather when returning from patrol when their bunkers were low. Several ships believed to have been lost this way.

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11 minutes ago, RNCVR said:

 

 

Thanks for posting the link to the Doctorate Thesis Kizme, much appreciated!

 

Bryan

 

Absolutely. Christmas dinner 1914, for starters  "Giblet soup" :w00t:

 


Mike

Edited by Skipman
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The AMC's taken up for wartime had virtually no armour protection, they would not have had a hope in hell against a enemy Cruiser or B\S.

 

Similar to RAdm Craddock's sqdn at Coronel in Nov '14.

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On 13/10/2019 at 12:51, Skipman said:

Seems can buy 99p on kindle and email to self but can't copy and paste. That would do but if anyone knows of a version (that I can buy)  from which I can copy and paste would very much appreciate.  99 pence, what's not to like.

 

Mike

I have managed to copy and paste from the Kindle Android app, although it was a bit fiddly & hard to select all the required text. The following is the introduction to James Goldrick's 'Before Jutland.' The 1 at the end refers to an endnote.

 

It had not occurred to me to try until now, so this the only book that I've tried so far.

 

THIS BOOK STARTED IN 1971 WHEN MY FATHER NOTICED A COLLECTION of elderly Admiralty books at HMAS Encounter in Port Adelaide. They proved to be the Naval Staff Monographs (Historical), the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) internal history of the First World War. The last volume, covering British home waters from May to July 1917, was issued in August 1939. How they got into the office of the Naval Officer in Charge South Australia was not clear. Presumably they were landed early in the Second World War, but from which ship is unknown. The books were on no one’s charge and in danger of unthinking disposal. Knowing my fascination for naval history, my father gave them to me. I soon realized that the Monographs were a comprehensive narrative of the war at sea. Although I was old enough to realize that much was left unsaid, with facts left to speak for themselves, I was also old enough to realize why this would be. They have never had a wide audience and, unlike some of the equivalent Staff Histories of the Second World War, have not been published.1

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  • 2 years later...
On 13/10/2019 at 11:15, Skipman said:

Can you recommend the best book(s) to help me study this Squadron and in particular HMS Cedric.

I recently purchased The Maritime Blockade of Germany in the Great War: The Northern Patrol, 1914-1918 (Navy Records Society Publications) by John D. Grainger for my own research into 10th Cruiser Squadron. I bought the Kindle version, it contains 129 references to HMS CEDRIC. The Maritime Blockade of Germany in the Great War is a comprehensive collection of the records of the Northern Patrol. It consists of regular reports of the admirals in command, to which are added other relevant official records, and more informal documents.

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