 Montagu's sister shipHMS Albemarle | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSMontagu |
| Namesake | Ralph Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Boughton, 1st Earl of Montagu |
| Builder | Devonport Dockyard |
| Laid down | 23 November 1899 |
| Launched | 5 March 1901 |
| Commissioned | 28 July 1903 |
| Fate | Wrecked onLundy Island, 30 May 1906 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Duncan-classpre-dreadnoughtbattleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 432 ft (132 m) (loa) |
| Beam | 75 ft 6 in (23.01 m) |
| Draught | 25 ft 9 in (7.85 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 19knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Range | 6,070 nmi (11,240 km; 6,990 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 720 |
| Armament | |
| Armour | |
HMSMontagu was aDuncan-classpre-dreadnoughtbattleship of the BritishRoyal Navy. Built to counter a group of fast Russian battleships,Montagu and hersister ships were capable of steaming at 19knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), making them the fastest battleships in the world. TheDuncan-class battleships were armed with a main battery of four12-inch (305 mm) guns and they were broadly similar to theLondon-class battleships, though of a slightly reduceddisplacement and thinner armour layout. As such, they reflected a development of the lighter second-class ships of theCanopus-class battleship.Montagu was built between herkeel laying in November 1899 and her completion in July 1903. The ship had a brief career, serving for two years in theMediterranean Fleet before transferring to theChannel Fleet in early 1905. Duringwireless telegraphy experiments in May 1906, she ran aground offLundy Island. Repeated attempts to refloat the ship failed, and she proved to be a total loss. She was ultimatelybroken up in situ.
The six ships of theDuncan class were ordered in response to the RussianPeresvet-class battleships that had beenlaunched in 1898. The Russian ships were fast second-class battleships, soWilliam Henry White, the BritishDirector of Naval Construction, designed theDuncan class to match the purported top speed of the Russian vessels. To achieve the higher speed while keeping displacement from growing, White was forced to reduce the ships' armour protection significantly, effectively making the ships enlarged and improved versions of theCanopus-class battleships of 1896, rather than derivatives of the more powerfulMajestic,Formidable, andLondon series of first-class battleships. TheDuncans proved to be disappointments in service, owing to their reduced defensive characteristics, though they were still markedly superior to thePeresvets they had been built to counter.[1]
Montagu was 432 feet (132 m)long overall, with abeam of 75 ft 6 in (23.01 m) and adraft of 25 ft 9 in (7.85 m). TheDuncan-class battleshipsdisplaced 13,270 to 13,745long tons (13,483 to 13,966 t)normally and up to 14,900 to 15,200 long tons (15,100 to 15,400 t)fully loaded. Her crew numbered 720 officers andratings. TheDuncan-class ships were powered by a pair of 4-cylindertriple-expansion engines that drove twoscrews, with steam provided by twenty-fourBelleville boilers. The boilers were trunked into twofunnels locatedamidships. TheDuncan-class ships had a top speed of 19knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) from 18,000indicated horsepower (13,000 kW).[2] This madeMontagu and her sisters the fastest battleships in the world for several years. At a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), the ship could steam for 6,070nautical miles (11,240 km; 6,990 mi).[3]
Montagu had amain battery of four12-inch (305 mm) 40-calibre guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft. The ships also mounted asecondary battery of twelve6-inch (152 mm) 45-calibre guns mounted incasemates, in addition to ten12-pounder 3 in (76 mm) guns and six3-pounder 47 mm (1.9 in) guns for defence againsttorpedo boats. As was customary for battleships of the period, she was also equipped with four18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in thehull.[2]
Montagu had anarmoured belt that was 7 in (178 mm) thick; the transversebulkhead on the aft end of the belt was 7 to 11 in (178 to 279 mm) thick. The sides of her main battery turrets were 8 to 10 in (203 to 254 mm) thick, atop 11 in (279 mm)barbettes, and the casemate battery was protected with 6 in ofKrupp steel. Herconning tower had 12-inch-thick sides. She was fitted with two armoured decks, 1 and 2 in (25 and 51 mm) thick, respectively.[2]
Thekeel for HMSMontagu waslaid down on 23 November 1899, and her completed hull was launched on 5 March 1901. She begansea trials in February 1903 and wascommissioned into the fleet on 28 July atDevonport Dockyard for service in theMediterranean Fleet. In February 1905, she transferred to theChannel Fleet.[2][4]
In late May 1906,Montagu tested newwireless telegraphy equipment in theBristol Channel, sending and receiving test messages with wireless stations ashore. Late on 29 May, she was anchored offLundy Island, but could not pick up the messages from the test station, so the ship weighed anchor to steam to theIsles of Scilly. Heavy fog forced her to reverse course and steam back to Lundy Island after four hours, but her navigator miscalculated the course, placing her some two miles off her original track.[5]Montagu encountered apilot cutter cruising in the vicinity of Lundy Island, slowed to a stop, and came alongside the cutter to request a distance and bearing forHartland Point on the mainland. Though the cutter supplied these accurately, the voice from the battleship's bridge replied that they must be wrong and that the pilot cutter must have lost her bearings. AsMontagu restarted her engines and began to move ahead, the cutter shouted back that on her present courseMontagu would be on Shutter Rock within ten minutes, and a short time later the sound of the battleship running aground carried through the fog.[6]
At 02:00 on 30 May,Montagu ran aground on Shutter Rock, suffering a 91-foot (28 m) gash on her starboard side. Unable to free herself from the rocks, she slowly filled with water; twenty-four hours later, her starboardengine room and all of herboiler rooms were flooded, among others. Her crew counter-flooded the port engine room to prevent her from listing further to starboard. Divers inspected the hull to determine the extent of the damage, which proved to be more serious than initially expected. The bottom of the ship also received extensive damage, including several other holes and the port propeller shaft having been torn from the hull.[4] The starboardbilge keel was also ripped from the hull, as was therudder. The wreck rested on a fairly even bottom, so there was hope that the ship could be refloated.[7]
Since the Royal Navy had no dedicated salvage unit, it turned to Frederick Young, a former Royal Navy captain who now worked as the chief salvage officer of the Liverpool Salvage Association. Young was at that time the foremost expert on marine salvage in Britain, so he was hired to adviseAdmiral Sir Arthur Wilson, the commander of the Channel Fleet, who had no experience in salvage operations.[5] The navy initially hoped to lighten the ship by removing the medium and small-caliber guns and other equipment that could be easily taken off and then to pump out the water so that the holes in the hull could be patched. By the end of June, some twenty pumps had been assembled on the scene, with a total pumping capacity of 8,600 tonnes (8,500 long tons; 9,500 short tons) of water per hour. Difficulties with pumping, owing in part to the subdivision of the internal compartments and the need to reflood the ship duringhigh tide to keep her from suffering more damage before the hull could be patched, led the salvors to give up the operation.[7]
Wilson next sought to remove armour plate from the sides of the ship and to erect a series ofcaissons, at which point a powerful air pump would be used to blow the water out of the hull. The caissons repeatedly broke free even in mild seas, and the air pump failed to have the desired effect. Her sister shipDuncan herself ran aground whilst trying to help the salvage effort, though she was successfully freed. At the end of the summer of 1906, salvage efforts were suspended for the year, with plans to resume them in 1907. However, an inspection of the ship conducted from 1 to 10 October 1906 found that the action of the sea was driving her further ashore and bending and warping her hull so that her seams were beginning to open, her deck planking was coming apart, and her boat davits had collapsed. Having failed to refloatMontagu, the navy decided to abandon the project. Further material was removed from the wreck, including her main battery guns, which were later re-used in other vessels.[7][8][9]
The Western Marine Salvage Company ofPenzance completed salvage of the wreck for scrap metal over the next 15 years. Thecourt martial convened for the affair blamed the thick fog and faulty navigation for the wreck.[10] The trial was held aboardHMS Victory. The ship's captain,Thomas Adair, and the navigation officer, Lieutenant James Dathan, were severely reprimanded, with both men being dismissed from HMSMontagu; Dathan lost two years of seniority in rank as well.[11] The wreck site, which now amounts to little more than some armour plate on the sea floor, is a popular diving location.[12] Divers have also located parts of her gun turrets and shells that were not recovered during the salvage operation. In September 2019 the British Government granted the wreck site—including the steps which had been chiseled out of the cliff during the salvage effort—protected status.[13]
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1906 | |
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