HMS Berwick (1902)
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HMS ''Berwick'' was one of 10
armoured cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a pre-dreadnought battles ...
s built for the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
in the first decade of the 20th century. She was assigned to the
2nd Cruiser Squadron The 2nd Cruiser Squadron was a formation of cruisers of the British Royal Navy from 1904 to 1919 and from 1921 to 1941 and again from 1946 to 1952. History First formation The 2nd Cruiser Squadron was first formed in December, 1904 then placed ...
of the
Channel Fleet The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history th ...
upon completion in 1903 and was transferred to the
Home Fleet The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet. Before the First ...
in 1906. She accidentally rammed and sank a British
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
in 1908. ''Berwick'' was refitted in 1908–09 before she was transferred to the
4th Cruiser Squadron The 4th Cruiser Squadron and (also known as Cruiser Force H) was a formation of cruisers of the British Royal Navy from 1907 to 1914 and then again from 1919 to 1946. The squadron was first established in 1907, replacing the North America and ...
on the
North America and West Indies Station The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956, with main bases at the Imperial fortresses of Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ...
later that year. She captured a German merchant ship shortly after World War I began. The ship patrolled for German
commerce raider Commerce raiding is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them. Privateering is a fo ...
s and escorted convoys for the war. ''Berwick'' was assigned to the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron in 1919 before she was
paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship i ...
and sold for
scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...
in 1920.


Design and description

The ''Monmouth''s were intended to protect British merchant shipping from fast
cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...
s like the French , or the . The ships were designed to displace . They had an
overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...
of , a
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...
of and a deep draught of . They were powered by two 4-cylinder
triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) Cylinder (engine), cylinder, then ha ...
s, each driving one shaft using steam provided by 31
Belleville boiler There have been a vast number of designs of steam boiler, particularly towards the end of the 19th century when the technology was evolving rapidly. A great many of these took the names of their originators or primary manufacturers, rather than a m ...
s. The engines produced a total of which was designed to give the ships a maximum speed of .Roberts, p. 70 The ship carried a maximum of of coal and her complement consisted of 678 officers and ratings.Friedman 2012, p. 336 The ''Monmouth''-class ships' main armament consisted of fourteen breech-loading (BL) BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun, Mk VII guns. Four of these guns were mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure, and the others were positioned in Casemate#Single casemates (1889 onwards), casemates amidships. Six of these were mounted on the main deck and were only usable in calm weather. Ten quick-firing gun, quick-firing (QF) QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun, 12-pounder () 12-cwt guns"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. ''Berwick'' also carried three QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss, 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and two submerged British 18 inch torpedo, 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes. Beginning in 1915, the main deck six-inch guns of the ''Monmouth''-class ships were moved to the upper deck and given gun shields. Their casemates were plated over to improve seakeeping. The twelve-pounder guns displaced by the transfer were repositioned elsewhere. At some point in the war, a pair of three-pounder anti-aircraft guns were installed on the upper deck, although ''Berwick'' had hers removed before the end of the war. The ship's waterline Belt armor, armour belt was thick amidships and forward. The armour of the gun turrets, their barbettes and the casemates was four inches thick. The protective deck (ship), deck armour ranged in thickness from and the conning tower was protected by of armour.


Construction and service

''Berwick'', named for the Berwickshire, Scottish county,Silverstone, p. 217 was Keel laying, laid down by William Beardmore and Company, Beardmore at their shipyard in Dalmuir on 19 April 1901 and Ship naming and launching, launched on 20 September 1902 when she was named by Houstoun-Boswall baronets, Lady Houstoun-Boswall. She was completed on 9 December 1903 and was initially assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet. She was transferred to the Home Fleet in March 1906. On 2 April 1908, she accidentally collided with the destroyer when the destroyer crossed ''Berwick''s Bow (ship), bows during a night exercise in the English Channel, south of the Isle of Wight. ''Tiger'' was sliced in two and sank with the loss of 36 lives. After a refit at HMNB Portsmouth, Portsmouth Royal Dockyard that ended in April 1909, she was assigned to the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. She was still there when World War I began in August 1914, and captured the Hamburg America Line merchant ship ''HMS Lucia#Capture, Spreewald'' on 10 September. She patrolled for German raiders and escorted convoys for the rest of the war. ''Berwick'' was assigned to the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron in 1919Preston, p. 12 before she was sold for scrap on 1 July 1920. She was broken up in Germany in 1922.


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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berwick (1902) Monmouth-class cruisers Ships built on the River Clyde 1902 ships Maritime incidents in 1908 World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom