 M33 in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, July 2021, restored intodazzle camouflage.HMSPrince of Wales is visible in the background. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name |
|
| Ordered | 15 March 1915 |
| Builder | Workman Clark,Belfast forHarland & Wolff |
| Yard number | 489 |
| Launched | 22 May 1915 |
| Completed | 26 June 1915 |
| Commissioned | 24 June 1915 |
| Status | Museum ship,Portsmouth |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | M29-classmonitor |
| Displacement | 580 tons deep load |
| Length | 177 ft 3 in (54.03 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Draught | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Installed power | 4,000 hp (2,980 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 9.6 knots (18 km/h) |
| Range | 1,440 nautical miles (2,670 km) at 8 knots (15 km/h) |
| Complement | 72 |
| Armament | |
HMSM33 is anM29-classmonitor of theRoyal Navy. Built in 1915, she saw active service in the Mediterranean during the First World War and in Russia during theAllied Intervention in 1919. She was used subsequently as a mine-laying training ship, fuelling hulk,boom defence workshop and floating office, being renamedHMSMinerva andHulkC23 during her long life. She passed to Hampshire County Council in the 1980s and was then handed over to the National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2014. A programme of conservation was undertaken to enable her to be opened to the public. HMSM33 is located withinPortsmouth Historic Dockyard and opened to visitors on 7 August 2015 following a service of dedication. She is one of only three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War and the only surviving Allied ship from theGallipoli Campaign, the other being theOttoman minelayer Nusret, preserved inÇanakkale.
M33 was built as part of the rapid ship construction campaign following the outbreak of theFirst World War byHarland & Wolff, Belfast. Ordered in March 1915, she was launched in May and commissioned in June; an impressive shipbuilding feat, especially considering that numerous other ships of her type were being built in the same period.[1]
Armed with a pair of 6-inch (152 mm) guns and having a shallow draught,M33 was designed for coastal bombardment. Commanded byLieutenant Commander Preston-Thomas, her first active operation was the support of the Britishlandings at Suvla during theBattle of Gallipoli in August 1915. She remained stationed at Gallipoli until the evacuation in January 1916. For the remainder of the war she served in theMediterranean and was involved in the seizure of theGreek fleet at Salamis Bay on 1 September 1916.
M33 next saw service, along with five other monitors (M23,M25,M27,M31 andHumber), which were sent toMurmansk in 1919 to relieve theNorth Russian Expeditionary Force. In June,M33 moved toArchangel and her shallow draught enabled her to travel up theDvina River to cover the withdrawal of British andWhite Russian forces.[1] At one time the river level was so low the ship's guns had to be removed and transported by cart, with the crew placing as much weight on her stern to keep the propellers in the water and to push M33 over the mudbanks.M25 andM27 were not so fortunate and had to be scuttled on 16 September 1919 after running aground.M33 safely returned toChatham in October.
In 1925M33 became a mine-laying training ship and was renamed HMSMinerva on 3 February 1925. She went through a number of roles for the remainder of her career including fuelling hulk and boom defence workshop. Her name was changed again in 1939, this time to HulkC23.[1] In 1946 she became a floating office at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard atGosport.
Put up for sale in 1984, in July 1987 she left Portsmouth on the barge Pacific Goliath alongsideHMS Trincomalee; that ship had been placed on a cradle to support her wooden hull, but M.33 with her flat bottom could be placed on the barge instead.[2] In Hartlepool early restoration work was undertaken including painting her back to wartime colours and restoration of her superstructure. She later passed toHampshire County Council and was towed back to Portsmouth to begin further restoration, she was moored in No.1 Basin near HMS Victory.
HMS M.33 is listed as part of theNational Historic Fleet, she is now located atPortsmouth Historic Dockyard, close toHMS Victory.[1] She was opened to the public for the first time as part of theNational Museum of the Royal Navy on 7 August 2015.[3]M33 is one of only three surviving British warships that served during the First World War, the others beingHMS Caroline andHMS President,[4] although a number of auxiliary vessels and small craft have also survived.[5]
50°48′06.70″N1°06′38.34″W / 50.8018611°N 1.1106500°W /50.8018611; -1.1106500