HMS Aboukir (1900)
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 HMS Aboukir |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Cressy-class armoured cruiser |
| Name: | HMS Aboukir |
| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Govan |
| Launched: | 16 May 1900 |
| Fate: | Sunk by U-9 on 22 September 1914 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 12,000 tons |
| Length: | 472 ft (144 m) |
| Beam: | 69.5 ft (21.2 m) |
| Propulsion: | triple expansion engines twin screws |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h) |
| Armament: | 2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk X guns 12 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) Mk VII guns |
HMS Aboukir was a Cressy-class armoured cruiser of 12,000 tons. Her triple expansion engines and twin screws gave her a top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h). She carried 2 × 9.2in and 12 × 6in guns. She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, Scotland, in 1902.
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[edit] Service history
The Cressy-class vessels had rapidly become obsolete due to the great advances in naval architecture in the years leading up to the First World War. At the outbreak of the war, these ships were mostly staffed by reserve sailors. The Aboukir was one of four units that made up Rear Admiral Henry H Campbell's Seventh Cruiser Squadron. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Aboukir and her sister ships Bacchante, Euryalus, Hogue and Cressy were assigned to patrol the Broad Fourteens of the North Sea, in support of a force of destroyers and submarines based at Harwich which blocked the Eastern end of the English Channel from German warships attempting to attack the supply route between England and France.
[edit] Fate
At around 6 am on 22 September the three cruisers were steaming at 10 knots (19 km/h) in line ahead and they were spotted by the U-9, commanded by Lt. Otto Weddigen. Although they were not zigzagging, all of the ships had lookouts posted to search for periscopes and one gun on each side of each ship was manned.
Weddigen ordered his submarine to submerge and closed the range to the unsuspecting British ships. At close range, he fired a single torpedo at the Aboukir. The torpedo broke the back of the Aboukir and she sank within 20 minutes with the loss of 527 men.
The captains of the Cressy and Hogue thought the Aboukir had struck a floating mine and came forward to assist her. They stood by and began to pick up survivors. At this point, Weddigen fired two torpedoes into the Hogue, mortally wounding that ship. As the Hogue sank, the captain of the Cressy realised that the squadron was being attacked by a submarine, and tried to flee. However, Weddigen fired two more torpedoes into the Cressy, and sank her as well.
The entire battle had lasted less than two hours, and cost the British three warships, 62 officers and 1,397 ratings. This incident established the U-boat as a major weapon in the conduct of naval warfare.
[edit] In Fiction
The character Diana Marfleet in the novel "Fifth Business" by Robertson Davies had been engaged to one of the Aboukir's officers, killed when the ship was sunk. It was this loss which made her take up the job of a nurse tending wounded soldiers, and specifically give long and devoted treatment to the book's protagonist, severely wounded in a later part of the war, and eventually fall in love with him.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
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