"Mystery ship 'Netley"

[sadsac]

OAK, more on NETLEY / HYDERABAD / Q.6 - now add ZYLPHA !! `Is a puzzlement' !!

DRISCOLL Ernest G N/E Paymaster Lt. RNR

83P385 Q.6 Admiral Milford Haven 15.02.19 G

Actions with enemy submarines 17.04.17 & 11.06.17 DSC

In recognition of his gallantry where "Q.6" was in action with enemy submarines on the 17th April,

and 11th June, 1917. On the 17th April, 1917, he was in charge of forward 12 pounder which made

the first hit. The gun came into action smartly with a cool and collected crew.

On the 11th June, 1917, when the ship was torpedoed, the majority of the crew were transferred

to a U.S. Destroyer, but this officer remained on board, at his own request, till the 15th June when

the ship sank suddenly.

K.O.K.O. Sadsac

[sadsac]

Oak - `how trees from little Acorns grow' ?? See following ;

WOODS Hebden N/E S/Lt(E) RNR 83P127 Zylpha

C-in-C Queenstown 19.09.17 G Actions with enemy Submarines 15.06.17 M in D

Showed great presence of mind and devotion to duty in the action between H.M.S. "Zylpha" and an enemy submarine on the 15th June, 1917.

Again - Good Hunting, Sadsac

[SiegeGunner]

SadSac,

Zylpha was MacLeod's ship before Hyderabad. Zylpha was Q6.

Mick

[sotonmate]

........and still the subject rolls on !

It couldn't have been Hyderabad as Q6 because it wasn't torpedoed.Despite quite a few tries, and because of it's 3'9"draught, it avoided this ignominy.

Sotonmate

[historydavid]

In an effort to resolve this apparent confusion, here are the details of the 2 vessels:

Hyderabad (also used the names Coral, Netley, Nicobar, SSS 966), purpose built in 1917, 624 tons,armament - x4 in, 2x12pdr, 1x2.5pdr, 4x3.5 in BT, 2x18 in TT, 4xDepth Charges, actual period served as decoy unknown, generally 1917-1919. Refitted as Depot Ship and served in North Russia in 1919. Sold 5/20 as Lemnos

Zylpha (also used the name Q 6), requisitioned Collier, built 1894, 2,917 grt, armament unknow, period served as decoy 19/9/15 to 15/6/17 sunk. Torpedoed by U 82 SW of Ireland on 11/6, in tow 12/6 by HMS Daffodil, sank 15/6 near Great Skellig Rocks, Bolus Head, co Kerry, Ireland.

The Hyderabad was developed from a Thorneycroft design because the Admiralty thought its shallow draught would be an advantage when torpedos were fired at it.

By 1917 the advantage of decoy ships was long gone, the submarine commanders had learned their lesson the hard way.

Best wishes

David

[historydavid]

Hello Clive and welcome aboard. The is from the Admiralty death record for your man:

BROOMFIELD, GEORGE, L/SEAMAN, 237502, VICTORY, 01-Apr-18, ILLNESS.

Best wishes

David

[oak]

Pals,

As the person who posed the original question, I want to thank you all for a very comprehensive discussion. I apologise - to Mick in particular - for my "disappearance" from the thread. What happened was: (1) a friend of mine bought a photograph on ebay of "The mystery ship 'Netley' ...." and asked if I could find out about it. (2) I made a post and replies began to flood in (pardon the pun).

I don't have any expertise in the area of Q-ships and didn't feel I could make any useful contribution to the ongoing discussion. It's the only time I've posed a Forum question in which I didn't have a direct personal interest. As a result I'm afraid I didn't keep in contact with the developing thread. I came back to it today to discover that I'd been "posted missing." I apologise - to Mick in particular - for my "disappearance." Please believe that no discourtesy was intended.

Kind regards,

Philip

[SiegeGunner]

No apology necessary, Philip — I was just concerned that you might not have seen our findings. Hope your friend is pleased with his very interesting postcard. Incidentally, your thread also gave rise to another one about MacLeod's earlier command, Zylpha.

Mick

[oak]

Thanks Mick,

Regards,

Philip

[Dido]

On 4/11/2007 at 00:58, historydavid said:

Hyderabad (also used the names Coral, Netley, Nicobar, SSS 966), purpose built in 1917, 624 tons,armament - x4 in, 2x12pdr, 1x2.5pdr, 4x3.5 in BT, 2x18 in TT, 4xDepth Charges, actual period served as decoy unknown, generally 1917-1919. Refitted as Depot Ship and served in North Russia in 1919. Sold 5/20 as Lemnos

 

Some additional information on ex-HYBERABAD: In October 1922 she hoisted the Greek flag as LEMNOS under ownership of K.Kallias & L.Teryazos. In 1929 the vessel was sold to A. & P. Venetzanos and cut down into a barge being renamed AIAS. Her dimensions were recorded at that time as 79.9 x 11.1 m, Grt was 883.

In 1940 she was sold to I. Parashos and in 1946 to I. Pantelis.

In 1950 she was deleted from the Piraeus Register with the reason that she had been scrapped in 1946 at Braila, Romania.

However in 1962 the deletion was revoked with the reason that the vessel was still in existence at the time she was deleted. Unfortunately, there were no further entries in her register.