HMS Attentive (1904)

Attentive prior to the First World War
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Attentive
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Tyne and Wear
Laid down:	January 1904
Launched:	24 November 1904
Commissioned:	October 1905
Decommissioned:	December 1918
Fate:	Sold 12 April 1920 for scrapping
General characteristics
Class & type:	Adventure-class scout cruiser
Displacement:	2,640 tons
Length:	395 ft (120 m) overall (o/a)
Beam:	38 ft 3 in (11.66 m)
Draught:	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion:	Two 4-cylinder triple-expansion oil-fired steam engines driving twin screws 16,000 ihp
Speed:	25 knots (46 km/h)
Range:	Carried 150 tons coal (455 tons max)
Complement:	268
Armament:	As built 10 × 12-pounder quick firing guns 8 × 3-pounder quick firing guns 2 × 18 in torpedo tubes As modified 1911/12 9 × QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk IV guns 6 × 6-pounder guns 2 × 18 torpedo tubes
Armour:	conning tower: 3 inch deck: 2 inch - 1⁄4 inch

HMS Attentive was an Adventure-class scout cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Armstrong Whitworth at their yards at Elswick, Tyne and Wear and launched on 24 November 1904. She served before and during the First World War.

Career

Attentive joined the Nore division of the Home Fleet in March 1907 and a little over a year later, on 27 April 1908, was involved in a series of accidents during a live firing exercise at night with the Eastern Destroyer Flotilla. She collided with the destroyer Gala in the engine room and sliced the smaller ship in two. The forward part of the ship sank immediately, with the crew clinging on to the wreckage of her stern. This part sank as well during an attempt to tow it to shallow water. Gala went down with the loss of Engineer Lieutenant Fletcher. The hapless Attentive then collided with the destroyer Ribble, damaging her enough to force her to return to port in Sheerness.

After repairs she was recommissioned at Chatham in July 1909 and became leader of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, then joined the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla in 1910. She spent most of the First World War as part of the Dover Patrol. On 7 September 1915 she became an early victim of air power. While supporting a naval bombardment of German positions at Ostend, Attentive was bombed, suffering two killed and seven wounded. The air attack forced the squadron to briefly disperse, before returning to carry out the bombardment. She took part in the famous Zeebrugge Raid on 25 April 1918 before escorting convoys to Gibraltar. She spent a few months off Murmansk, North Russia, supporting British forces in the Russian Civil War. Attentive was paid off in December 1918, after hostilities ended, and was sold for scrapping on 12 April 1920.

Notes

Sources

• 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 Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
• Adventure class in World War I
• History of the Adventure class
• The Adventure class

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Attentive (1904).

• "Royal Navy Log Books of the World War 1 Era - HMS Attentive". Retrieved 2013-12-15.  Transcribed logbooks August 1917 to December 1918