HMS Engadine (1911)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Engadine.
Career (United Kingdom)
Name: SS Engadine (1911-14)
HMS Engadine (1914-20)
SS Engadine (1930-33)
SS Corregidor (1933-41)
Builder: William Denny and Brothers
Laid down: 1910
Launched: 23 September 1911 as commercial cross-channel ferry
Commissioned: 13 August 1914
Decommissioned: November 1919
Renamed: Corregidor on return to merchant service
Struck: 1919
Homeport: London (1911-14)
Royal Navy (1914-20)
London (1920-33)
Manila (1933-41)
Fate: sold back to original owners. Sunk by mine in 1941, as commercial ship
General characteristics
Displacement: 1,676 tons
Length: 316 ft (96 m)
Beam: 41 ft (12 m)
Draught: 16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion: Steam turbine, 6,000 shp (4 MW), triple screw
Speed: 21 knots (39 km/h) maximum
Complement: 250
Armament: Four x 12 pdr (5.4 kg) guns
Two x 3 pdr (1.4 kg) and one 2 pdr (907 g) anti-aircraft gun added in 1915
Aircraft carried: four - six Short 184 seaplanes

HMS Engadine was a seaplane tender which served in the First World War. She was built as a Folkestone-Boulogne ferry by William Denny and Brothers, launched on 23 September 1911 and named after the Engadine valley in Switzerland. She was taken over by the Royal Navy in 1914 along with her sister ship HMS Riviera and modified, with the construction of cranes and a hangar aft of the funnels, so that she could carry four Short 184 seaplanes. There was no flight deck, the aircraft being lowered onto the sea for takeoff and recovered again from the sea after landing.

Her aircraft participated in the Cuxhaven Raid on Christmas Day 1914. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, one of her seaplanes, piloted by Lieutenant Frederick S. Rutland with Assistant Paymaster G.S. Trewin as observer carried out an aerial reconnaissance of the German fleet. This was the first time that a heavier-than-air aircraft had carried out a reconnaissance of an enemy fleet in action. Afterwards, Rutland was known in naval circles as "Rutland of Jutland"; and was arrested in 1941 as a Japanese spy[1].

Later in the battle she rescued the crew of the crippled HMS Warrior before taking her in tow. Later in the war she served in the Mediterranean.

She was sold back to her original owners, the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in December 1919.

By 1941, the ship had been renamed SS Corregidor and was working in the Philippines. On 17 December 1941, the ship — loaded with approximately 1,200 passengers fleeing Manila — was sunk by a mine off Corregidor most likely laid by Japanese submarine I-124. American PT boats PT-32, PT-34 and PT-35 rescued 282 survivors, 7 of whom later died from injuries.[2]

See also

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:HMS_Engadine_(1911) HMS Engadine (1911)] at Wikimedia Commons

References

  1. ^ Everest-Phillips, Max (2007). "The Pre-War Fear of Japanese Espionage: Its Impact and Legacy". Journal for Contemporary History 42 (2): 243-265; Everest-Phillips, Max (2006). Reassessing pre-war Japanese espionage: The Rutland naval spy case and the Japanese intelligence threat before Pearl Harbor.
  2. ^ Cressman, Robert (2000). "Chapter III: 1941". The official chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781557501493. OCLC 41977179. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1941.html. Retrieved 2007-12-18.