HMS Goliath (1898)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	4 January 1897
Launched:	23 March 1898
Commissioned:	27 March 1900
Fate:	Torpedoed and sunk, 12 May 1915
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	12,950 tons
Length:	390 ft (118.9 m)
Beam:	74 ft (22.6 m)
Draught:	25 ft (7.6 m)
Propulsion:	2 shafts, water tube boilers, vertical triple expansion steam engines, 15,400 ihp
Speed:	18.25 knots
Range:
Complement:	680-750
Armament:	4 × 12 inch (305 mm) guns 12 × 6 inch (152 mm) guns

HMS Goliath was one of the six Canopus-class battleships built by the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. She was laid down at the Chatham Dockyard on January 4, 1897 and was launched in March 23, 1898. She was commissioned in March 1900.

Crew of the Goliath.

In 1900, the ship was sent to China until 1903. The vessel joined the Mediterranean Fleet in May 1905 and then was transferred to the Channel Fleet in December of the same year, and remained there until March 1907. Goliath was sent to Sheerness as a part of the Fourth Fleet. In 1913, she was mothballed and joined the Third Fleet also known as the Pembroke Reserve.

During World War I, on August 1914 she joined the battle squadron operating out of Devonport and was later sent to Loch Ewe to defend the Grand Fleet anchorage. In September 1914, Goliath was dispatched to the East Indies for escort duty against German warships in the area. In November 1914 she took part in the blockade operation against the SMS Konigsberg in the Rufiji River during which crew-member Commander Henry Peel Ritchie won the Victoria Cross.

T.L. Shelford, captain of Goliath.

Commanded by Captain Thomas Lawrie Shelford, Goliath was part of the Allied fleet during naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign, supporting the landing at X Beach during the landing at Cape Helles on 25 April 1915.

On the night of 12 May–13 May 1915 Goliath was stationed in Morto Bay off Cape Helles, along with HMS Cornwallis and a screen of five destroyers. Around 1 am on 13 May, the Turkish torpedo boat Muavenet, which was manned by a combined German and Turkish crew, eluded the destroyers HMS Beagle and HMS Bulldog and closed on the battleships. Muavenet fired three torpedoes which struck Goliath, causing a massive explosion — the ship capsized almost immediately taking 570 of the 700-strong crew to the bottom, including Captain Shelford. For sinking Goliath, the captain of Muavenet, Kaptainleutnant Rudolph Firle, was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class as well as Austro-Hungarian and Turkish decorations.

In the immediate aftermath of the sinking of Goliath the valuable modern battleship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was recalled from the Dardanelles. The subsequent loss of battleships Triumph at Anzac and Majestic at Cape Helles, both torpedoed by U-21, resulted in a further reduction in naval support.

See HMS Goliath for other ships of this name.