 HMSHawke | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSHawke |
| Builder | Chatham Dockyard |
| Laid down | 17 June 1889 |
| Launched | 11 March 1891 |
| Fate | Sunk, 15 October 1914 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Edgar-classprotected cruiser |
| Displacement | 7,770 long tons (7,895 t) |
| Length | 387 ft (118.0 m) |
| Beam | 60 ft (18.3 m) |
| Draught | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Installed power | 12,000 ihp (8,900 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 20knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Range | 10,000 nmi (11,510 mi; 18,520 km) at 10 knots (18.5 km/h; 11.5 mph) |
| Complement | 544 |
| Armament |
|
HMSHawke, launched in 1891 fromChatham Dockyard, was the seventhRoyal Navy warship to be namedHawke. She was anEdgar-classprotected cruiser.
After commissioning in 1893,Hawke served in theMediterranean Fleet, the International Squadron during theCretan Revolt (1897–1898), and various other duties, including transporting relief crews to naval stations. In September 1911,Hawke collided with theocean linerRMS Olympic; the damage smashedHawke'sbow. DuringWorld War I,Hawke was part of the10th Cruiser Squadron, performingblockade duties. She was sunk by the GermanU-boatU-9 in theNorth Sea in October 1914, resulting in the loss of 524 crew members.
The wreck ofHawke was discovered in August 2024, 70 miles (110 km) off the coast of Scotland.
Hawke was laid down atChatham Dockyard on 17 June 1889, one of nineEdgar-class cruisers ordered for the Royal Navy under theNaval Defence Act 1889, andlaunched on 11 March 1891.[1]Sea trials in March 1892 were satisfactory, with her engines reaching the required power,[2] and the ship was completed on 16 May 1893.[1]
Hawke was 387 feet 6 inches (118.11 m)long overall and 360 feet (109.73 m)between perpendiculars, with abeam of 60 feet (18.29 m) and adraught of 23 feet 9 inches (7.24 m). Shedisplaced 7,350long tons (7,468 t).[1]
Armament consisted of two 9.2-inch (234 mm) guns, on the ship'scentreline, backed up by ten 6-inch (152 mm) guns, of which four were incasemates on the main deck and the remainder behind open shields. Twelve6-pounder and four3-pounder guns provided anti-torpedo-boat defences, while four 18-inch (457 mm)torpedo tubes were fitted.[1] TheEdgars wereprotected cruisers, with an arched, armoured deck 5–3 inches (127–76 mm) thick at aboutwaterline level. The casemate armour was 6 inches (152 mm) thick, with 3-inch (76 mm) thick shields for the 9.2-inch (234 mm) guns and 10 inches (254 mm) of armour on the ship'sconning tower.[1][3]
Hawke's machinery was built byFairfields, with four double-ended cylindricalboilers feeding steam at 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) to two 3-cylindertriple expansion engines,[2] which drove two shafts. This gave 12,000indicated horsepower (8,900 kW) under forced draught, giving a speed of 20knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).[1]
On commissioning,Hawke joined theMediterranean Fleet, remaining on that station for most of the rest of the decade.[4]
In early 1897,Hawke deployed toCrete to serve in theInternational Squadron, a multinational force made up of ships of theAustro-Hungarian Navy,French Navy,Imperial German Navy, Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina),Imperial Russian Navy, and Royal Navy that intervened in the 1897–1898 Greek uprising on Crete against rule by theOttoman Empire. The uprising prompted Greece to land aGreek Army expeditionary force of 1,500 men on Crete to support the Cretan insurgency, which in turn precipitated the outbreak of theGreco-Turkish War of 1897, also known as the Thirty Days War, in April 1897. The war ended in a quick and disastrous Greek defeat, and the ceasefire agreement required the Greek Army to withdraw from Crete. Accordingly, the Greek expeditionary force embarked aboardHawke on 23 May 1897 for transportation to Greece.[5][6] The uprising on Crete continued, however, and the International Squadron continued to operate off Crete until December 1898. In August 1901Hawke was paid off atChatham and placed in the Fleet Reserve.[7]
In February 1902 she received orders to prepare to convey relief crews to theCape of Good Hope Station,[8] and she was commissioned for this duty on 1 April.[9] She left Chatham the following week with new crews for the British vesselsForte,Dwarf andPartridge,[10] and arrived atSimon's Town on 10 May.[11] She left South Africa ten days later,[12] stopping atSaint Helena,Ascension, Sierra Leone,Las Palmas andMadeira before she arrived atPlymouth on 16 June 1902.[13] She took part in thefleet review held atSpithead on 16 August 1902 for thecoronation of KingEdward VII.[14] Following the review she left Chatham to convey relief crews for the vesselsHMS Vulcan,HMS Foam,HMS Bruizer,HMS Dragon, andHMS Boxer, all serving in the Mediterranean.[15] She arrived at fleet headquarters atMalta on 27 August.[16] She returned to Chatham the following month with the relieved crews ofVulcan,Boxer,Bruiser, andFoam.[17] She paid off into the A division of the Fleet Reserve at Chatham on 4 October 1902.[18]
In January 1903, she was again ordered to convey relief crews to ships on the Mediterranean station, this timeHMS Pyramus,HMS Speedy,HMS Dryad, andHMS Imogene, all recommissioned for new terms on the station,[19] and she left Sheerness for Malta on 23 January, arriving there in early February.[20] The ship paid off in March 1903.[21]
In November 1904,Hawke became Boy's Training Ship as part of the 4th Cruiser Squadron, serving in that role until August 1906, when she joined the torpedo school atSheerness. In 1907,Hawke joined the Home Fleet.[4][22]
On 20 September 1911,Hawke collided in theSolent with theWhite Starocean linerRMS Olympic, captained byEdward Smith, who diedseven months later as captain ofOlympic's sister ship,RMS Titanic.[23] In the course of the collision,Hawke lost herinverted bow, which was replaced by astraight bow. The subsequent trial pronouncedHawke to be free from any blame. During the trial, a theory was advanced that the large amount of water displaced byOlympic had generated a suction that had drawnHawke off course, causingOlympic's voyage to be delayed. The White Star Line also lost on appeal.[24]
In February 1913,Hawke joined the training squadron based atQueenstown, Ireland, where she served along with most of the rest of theEdgar class. In August 1914, on the outbreak of theFirst World War,Hawke and the otherEdgars from Queenstown, formed the 10th Cruiser Squadron, operating on blockade duties between theShetland Islands and Norway.[25][26][27]
In October 1914, the 10th Cruiser Squadron was deployed further south in the North Sea as part of efforts to stop German warships from attacking a troop convoy from Canada. On 15 October, the squadron was on patrol offAberdeen, deployed in line abreast at intervals of about 16 km (9.9 mi).Hawke stopped at 9:30 am to pick up mail fromsister shipEndymion. After recovering her boat with the mail,Hawke proceeded at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) without zig-zagging to regain her station, and was out of sight of the rest of the squadron when at 10:30 a single torpedo from the German submarineU-9 (which hadsunk three British cruisers on 22 September), struckHawke, which quickly capsized. The remainder of the squadron realised something was amiss only when, after a further, unsuccessful attack onTheseus, the squadron was ordered to retreat at high speed to the northwest, and no response to the order was received fromHawke. ThedestroyerSwift was dispatched fromScapa Flow to search forHawke and found a raft carrying twenty-two men, while a boat with a further forty-nine survivors was rescued by a Norwegian steamer.[28][29][30] 524 officers and men died,[22] including the ship's captain, with only 70 survivors (one man died of his wounds on 16 October).[28][31]
On 12 August 2024, deep sea explorer group Lost in Waters Deep announced the discovery of the wreck ofHawke below 360 feet (110 metres) of water about 70 miles (110 km) east ofFraserburgh, Scotland. The location of the wreck was conducted by diving support vessel MVClasina.[32] One of the divers on the Lost in Waters Deep crew noted that the ship was found "in remarkable condition",[23] with guns, teak wood decks, and "lots of Royal Navy crockery" still in place, noting that a dearth of organic nutrients in the surrounding waters meant that organisms had not been attracted to the area to eat away at the wreck.[32]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1911 | |
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1914 | |
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57°47′05″N00°11′50″E / 57.78472°N 0.19722°E /57.78472; 0.19722
