HMS Defender (1911)
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.jpg/300px-HMS_Defender_(1911).jpg) |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Acheron-class destroyer |
| Name: | HMS Defender |
| Builder: | William Denny & Brothers Dumbarton |
| Launched: | 30 August 1911 |
| Fate: | Sold on 4 November 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 990 tons |
| Length: | 75 m |
| Beam: | 7.8 m |
| Draught: | 2.7 m |
| Propulsion: | Three shaft Parsons Turbines three Yarrow boilers (oil fired) 13,500 shp |
| Speed: | 27 kt (66.7 km/h) |
| Range: | 5,500 nmi at 15 kt |
| Complement: | 70 |
| Armament: |
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| Motto: | Fendendo vince ("By defence I conquer") |
| Honours and awards: | Heligoland 1914, Dogger Bank 1915, Jutland 1916 |
| Badge: |
On a Field Red, a fencing buckler and rapier Silver and Gold  |
HMS Defender was an Acheron-class destroyer of the Royal Navy.
She was built at William Denny & Brothers in Dumbarton, Scotland for £83,000[1] and launched on 30 August 1911.
Contents |
[edit] Pennant Numbers
| Pennant Number | From | To |
| H28 | 06 December 1914 | 01 January 1918 |
| H29 | 01 January 1918 | Early 1919 |
| H57 | Early 1919 | Decommissioning |
[edit] Career
[edit] 1912-1916
Defender and her sisters formed the 1st Destroyer Flotilla and were attached to the Grand Fleet in 1914.
[edit] Heligoland bight
On 28 August 1914 the Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy met at the Battle of Heligoland Bight. When the German Destroyer V184 was hit by four British destroyers and sank with heavy loss of life, the British stopped to pick up survivors. The German cruiser SMS Stettin re-appeared and the fight resumed. Two boats belonging to Defender were left behind, and their crews and the rescued Germans were later picked up by the British Submarine E4. Unable to take all of them on board, E4's captain took a few German prisoners and left the rest the boats, water, biscuits, a compass, and the course to steer back to their base.
[edit] Jutland
On the night of 31 May/01 June 1916 Defender took an active part in the Battle of Jutland. During the night action she had one man killed by a shell which also reduced her speed to zero, but on restoring propulsion (about 19:15) she took the damaged Onslow in tow and made Aberdeen the next day. Her captain, Lieutenant Commander L R Palmer Royal Navy received the DSO. The event was described in detail by Rudyard Kipling, in his book Sea Warfare:
Towing Under Difficulties
Mark how virtue is rewarded! Another of our destroyers an hour or so previously had been knocked clean out of action, before she had done anything, by a big shell which gutted a boiler-room and started an oil fire. (That is the drawback to oil.) She crawled out between the battleships till she “reached an area of comparative calm” and repaired damage. She says: “The fire having been dealt with it was found a mat kept the stokehold dry. My only trouble now being lack of speed, I looked round for useful employment, and saw a destroyer in great difficulties, so closed her.” That destroyer was our paralytic friend of the intermittent torpedo-tubes, and a grateful ship she was when her crippled sister (but still good for a few knots) offered her a tow, “under very trying conditions with large enemy ships approaching.” So the two set off together, Cripple and Paralytic, with heavy shells falling round them, as sociable as a couple of lame hounds. Cripple worked up to 12 knots, and the weather grew vile, and the tow parted. Paralytic, by this time, had raised steam in a boiler or two, and made shift to get along slowly on her own, Cripple hirpling beside her, till Paralytic could not make any more headway in that rising sea, and Cripple had to tow her once more. Once more the tow parted. So they tied Paralytic up rudely and effectively with a cable round her after bollards and gun (presumably because of strained forward bulkheads) and hauled her stern-first, through heavy seas, at continually reduced speeds, doubtful of their position, unable to sound because of the seas, and much pestered by a wind which backed without warning, till, at last, they made land, and turned into the hospital appointed for brave wounded ships. Everybody speaks well of Cripple. Her name crops up in several reports, with such compliments as the men of the sea use when they see good work. She herself speaks well of her Lieutenant, who, as executive officer, “took charge of the fire and towing arrangements in a very creditable manner,” and also of Tom Battye and Thomas Kerr, Engine-Room Artificer and Stoker Petty Officer, who “were in the stokehold at the time of the shell striking, and performed cool and prompt decisive action, although both suffering from shock and slight injuries.”—Rudyard Kipling, Sea Warfare, Destroyers at Jutland, Stories of the Battle
Admiral Beatty's Report on the Battle included:
At 7.15 p.m. Defender, whose speed had been reduced to 10 knots, while on the disengaged side of the battle cruisers, was struck by a shell which damaged her foremost boiler, but closed Onslow and took her in tow. Shells were falling all round them during this operation, which, however, was successfully accomplished. During the heavy weather of the ensuing night the tow parted twice, but was resecured. The two struggled on together until 1p.m. 1st June, when Onslow was transferred to tugs. I consider the performances of these two destroyers to be gallant in the extreme, and I am recommending Lieutenant-Commander J. C. Tovey of Onslow, and Lieutenant Commander Palmer of Defender, for special recognition....
—Admiral Beatty, The Beatty Papers, vol. 1, B.McL. Ranft, ed, Navy Records Society, 1989, p 323
An unidentified officer of the Onslow wrote the following notes on Kipling’s Towing Under Difficulties, and it is worth repeating in full here:
A quarter of an hour after our engines stopped, at 7.15 p.m., the Defender came in sight, closed us, and asked if she could be of any assistance. She also was a lame duck, having been reduced to a speed of 0 knots by a 12-inch shell ricocheting into her foremost boiler room, so, as she was of no further fighting use for that day, our Captain accepted her offer, and she proceeded to take us in tow.
There then started the long journey home of two lame-duck destroyers, which Rudyard Kipling has written of under the title, “The Cripple and the Paralytic”. [pp. 160-162 of ‘Sea Warfare’ – the heading is actually “Towing under difficulties”] I am not able to compete with Rudyard Kipling as a descriptive author, and anyhow there is really not much to be said about it, except that it was a somewhat uncertain and distinctly uncomfortable voyage. The taking in tow was enlivened by a few large splashes arriving near us, I don’t know where from, and by the apparent probability of the general action returning to our neighbourhood at any moment. The Captain directed Defender to shape course west by north as soon as we were I tow, and just as dusk was falling we left the scene of our adventures at rather less than 6 knots’ speed, still hearing occasional bursts of firing to the southward. I must mention here that, in spite of the heavy damage to the ship, our casualties were only three men killed, which was really an astonishingly light number considering all the damage we had received. Two of these three men we buried next morning according to the custom of the sea.
About 9 p.m. we had a mild scare, the after look-outs reporting a large ship overhauling us, but, to our relief, it proved to be the Warspite, which signalled to us, “Take station astern; speed 16 knots”, and then rapidly disappeared on the port bow. We were not 16 knotters.
A fresh sou’westerly breeze was now gaining force every hour and the barometer was falling fast. Three times the tow parted, and eventually we found that the only tow that was proof against the continual jerks of the two ships plunging in the short steep sea, was a span composed almost entirely of chain cable. But after a time the Engineer Officer raised enough steam in the boilers, by using salt water, to enable the steering engine to be worked, and this was a great assistance in preventing the ship from yawing violently from side to side as she had been doing. Most of the hands at this time were employed in transferring oil fuel from one tank to another in any little pot or pan that could be collected – the only means of getting the fuel to the boilers, as the pipe system was out of order, and only the for’ard tank had any oil left in it. We were still able to receive W/T signals, although we could not send any, and we intercepted one signal from Champion giving directions for a division of the 13th Flotilla to search for Onslow, but neither ourselves nor Defender (which was able to signal) could tell Champion where we were, as we did not know ourselves, and, our sextants all being smashed up, we could not find out.
We continued towards Aberdeen during the 1st June, but that evening intercepted a signal reporting a division of enemy destroyers steering a course and speed which apparently would take them right past our position. However, we had all our guns intact and plenty of ammunition left, and made arrangements with Defender that we would occupy the Huns whilst she tried to make good her escape. But our anxiety over this was unnecessary, as some days later we heard that the scare was a false one, the division of destroyers being a British one wrongly reported as Germans.
In spite of the wind continuing to freshen, the tow held throughout the night of 1st June without further trouble, and on Friday, June 2nd, we got under the lee of Scotland, and at 1 p.m. that day were met by tugs off Aberdeen and taken safely into harbour. There we remained being repaired for the next two months.—Rudyard Kipling, Sea Warfare
_damage_at_Jutland.jpg/180px-HMS_Defender_(1911)_damage_at_Jutland.jpg)
Lieutenant Commander L R Palmer DSO wrote the following letter (original deposited with Imperial War Museum) to his brother after the battle:
I have had the most providential escape. I left the dock I was in at noon Tuesday (30th May) and went to get ammunition and asked about four hours later if I could go South to my base. I was told to raise steam and go out with the eight boats of 1st Flotilla. This made me rather bored as really [I did] not belong to them, however good show as turned out. We left about 10 p.m. with Lion and fast battleships…
Next day 31st May about four o'clock got signal “Enemy in sight". We being with the four fast battleships (Queen Elizabeth class) and they engaged with Battle Cruisers the whole of the High Sea Fleet, and got a hammering (not the battleships but the Battle Cruisers, losing three). We got nothing at all as out of range and with the battleships, which the Germans were frightened of. The Battle Cruisers turned round and so did we, the first D Flotilla the battleships going on, found ourselves with the Lion. A lull now took place, having drawn out of range purposely to allow repairs at this time, we had hardly had a shot near us. Lion made “Prepare for action" and told us to form submarine screen ahead. The speed now 25 knots our utmost, so we could not do it but steamed our utmost to get to positions ahead of her as submarine screen.
Lion then led towards the Huns again with us 200 yards on his beam. Then to our great joy out of the mist to the westward appeared the leading position of the Grand fleet. It then came (signal) that they were closing on us and dangers of collision us all forming into line. However we kept on with the Lion and the Grand Fleet turned up parallel. Then it was that the Defence led 1st Cruiser Squadron to their deaths instead of turning (Cruiser Squadron – Defence, Duke of Edinburgh, Warrior, Black Prince). The Duke of Edinburgh apparently turned. Shots were now falling round us like hail shrapnel and big stuff over for the Lion, every ship firing for all they were worth, of course not us, waiting until required for torpedo attack, merely expecting a shell or casualties. At 6.30 after about 20 minutes of action a 12 inch projectile hit us on foremost boiler room causing a fire and a lot of steam escape putting it out of action and reducing our speed to 15 knots. By the mercy of providence the shell did not explode and is on board now. Wrecked the place a bit and if it had exploded we should have been blown to pieces.
It then appeared to me that with my speed reduced I could not keep my station in the line so turned round and steamed between the English and German fleet, on fire and belching steam. Reaching the end of the line I turned again in an area of comparative calm and prepared for anything to do. We had now repaired up a bit, found out one man killed, got the fire under and shut off steam, got a mat to keep the water out and generally squared up, found all things okay.
Then saw a destroyer in a worse state than myself, went to her and offered assistance. She proved to be the Onslow and replied “could not steam” so offered to tow him as it was useless with my speed reduced to continue the action. Getting him in tow was when I had the only qualms I experienced. Four light cruisers coming straight at us with shells falling around - thought they were Huns and our number up, but found they were British ! Got Onslow in tow and after 48 hours heart breaking job and also dangerous managed it all right. I enclose signal received from them, saved them at any rate:
From Onslow to Defender: “We all Captain, officers and ship’s company thank you very much for your kind and most efficient assistance and wish you all possible luck and a long leave.”
I patched up a bit and went to Harwich and expect to be three weeks in dock soon to repair and hope for leave here.
[edit] 1916 - 1921
She was transferred to the 3rd Battle Squadron and sold to a Mr Rees for breaking up in November 1921.
_laid_up.jpg/200px-HMS_Defender_(1911)_laid_up.jpg)
[edit] References
- ^ D K Brown 'The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development 1906-1922. Caxton Editions 2004. ISBN 1-84067-531-4
[edit] External Links
- Naval History Websites by Bob Henneman - http://www.bobhenneman.info/bhhb.htm
- Clyde Built Warships - http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/warships/vessel.asp?id=3493
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