HMS Adventure (M23)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 18 July 1921 |
| Builder: | Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness & Devonport Royal Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 29 November 1922 |
| Launched: | 18 June 1924 |
| Commissioned: | 2 October 1926 |
| Fate: | To repair ship 1944, sold for scrapping 1947 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 6,740 tons standard, 8,370 tons full |
| Length: | 500 ft (p/p), 539 ft (o/a) |
| Beam: | 59 ft over bulges |
| Draught: | 14½ ft, 17¼ ft full load |
| Propulsion: | 6 Yarrow-type water tube boilers, parsons single reduction geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp; 4 Vickers 8-cyl diesel engines, 9,200 bhp / 2 alternators, 6,600 kW / 2 electric motors, 8,000 shp; 2 shafts |
| Speed: | 27¾ kts on steam turbines, 17 kts on diesels |
| Range: | 4,500 nm at 12 kts, 1,820 nm at 25 kts |
| Complement: | 395 (560 wartime) |
| Armament |
|
HMS Adventure, pennant number M23, was a minelaying cruiser of the Royal Navy built in the 1920s that saw service during World War II.
Contents |
[edit] Design
Adventure was built to replace the converted World War I veteran Princess Margaret, and her design was dictated by a requirement for a large mine capacity and a good cruising range. The mineload was to be carried completely internally, dictating a long, tall hull, and there were four sets of rails running the length of the hull to chutes at the stern. She was built with a transom, or flat, stern, to improve cruising efficiency, but the dead water caused by such a form meant that mines tended to be sucked back into the hull when they were launched; an obviously dangerous situation for a minelayer. As a result she was rebuilt with a traditional cruiser, or rounded, stern, increasing the length by 19 feet.
Propulsion was by the same cruiser as installed in the C class cruisers, but to increase cruising efficiency a novel diesel-electric plant was trialled, the propellors being driven by either set of machinery through gearboxes. The diesel-electric plant was removed by 1941, along with the small diesel exhaust that had been trunked up the second funnel. Adventure's high topweight resulting form the mineload carried high up in her hull meant that a cruiser armament could not be fitted, instead four QF 4.7 inch guns on high-angle mounts were carried in 'A', 'Q', 'X' and 'Y' positions, in hindsight a more useful arrangement. The anti-aircraft armament was completed by a single octuple multiple pom-pom in 'B' position (not fitted until the late 1930s) and a pair of quadruple 0.5 inch Vickers machine guns.
By 1941 she had been fitted with Radar Type 291 air warning at the masthead, Radar Type 285 on the high-angle HACS DCT on the foremast spotting top and Radar Type 272 centimetric target indication on the foremast, below the spotting top. By 1944 nine 20 mm Oerlikon guns had been added, two of which had replaced the useless Vickers machine guns. Adventure was converted to a repair ship for landing craft for the Normandy landings.
[edit] Mining on 13th November 1939
Adventure was badly damaged, most probably by a German magnetic mine in the Thames estuary at 05:26 on the morning of 13th November 1939. 23 men were killed in this incident. She was sailing in company with HMS Blanche and HMS Basilisk. Blanche was also mined at 08:20 and sank at 09:50. One man was killed in HMS Blanche.
[edit] References
- British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, H T Lenton, Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-277-7
- Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946, Ed. Robert Gardiner, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0-87021-913-8
- HMS Adventure - Ship's Log - November 1939, The National Archives, Kew, UK, ADM/53/107337
