HMS Fearless (1912)

HMS Fearless was an Active-class scout cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched on 12 June 1912.

On commissioning she was assigned to the Harwich Force with her sisters, and was the leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla. She led the flotilla in the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914 and at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May - 1 June 1916. Later in 1916 she was made the leader of the 12th submarine flotilla of the Grand Fleet, made up of the notoriously accident prone K-class steam submarines. On 31 January 1918 an incident that sardonically came to be known as the Battle of May Island occurred. A number of Royal Navy warships, including Fearless and her flotilla, were en route to Rosyth to take part in exercises, when due to a combination of mechanical failures and confusion over ship positions in the misty evening, a number of ships collided. Fearless accidentally rammed and sank the submarine HMS K17. She ground to halt, causing the other submarines in the flotilla to turn to avoid her, at which point a number of them were themselves struck by other following ships. In just over an hour, two submarines had been sunk, four others were damaged and Fearless had also sustained considerable damage. Over 100 sailors were killed in the incident.

Fearless was repaired and survived the war, but was considered obsolete and was sold for scrapping on 8 November 1921, eventually being broken up in Germany.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; 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 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
• Gray, Randal (ed), "Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5
• Active class in World War I