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HMS ''Carnarvon'' was one of six
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
3rd Cruiser Squadron The 3rd Cruiser Squadron was a formation of cruisers of the British Royal Navy from 1902 to 1909 and 1911 to 1916 and then again from 1922 to 1941. History First formation The squadron was first formed in June 1902 and disbanded in March 1909 ...
of the
Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between ...
upon completion in 1905 and was transferred 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 Atlantic Fleet in 1907. She was assigned to the
reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US v ...
Third Fleet in 1909 and became
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
of the
5th Cruiser Squadron The 5th Cruiser Squadron and also known as Cruiser Force D was a formation of cruisers of the British Royal Navy from 1907 to 1915 and then again from 1939 to 1946. History First formation The squadron was first established in 1907, it was att ...
of the reserve Second Fleet in 1912. When World War I began in August 1914, she was assigned to the
Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
Station to search 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 while protecting British shipping. ''Carnarvon'' was transferred to the South Atlantic two months later and assigned to the squadron that destroyed the German
East Asia Squadron The German East Asia Squadron () was an Imperial German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the mid-1890s until 1914, when it was destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. It was based at Germany's Ji ...
at the
Battle of the Falklands The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a First World War naval action between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 in the South Atlantic. The British, after their defeat at the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, se ...
. She was assigned to 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 ...
in 1915 and continued to patrol against German raiders and escort convoys to the end of the war. In 1919, she became a
training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...
and was then 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 1921.


Design and description

''Carnarvon'' was designed to displace . The ship 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 . She was 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, which produced a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The engines were powered by seventeen Niclausse and six cylindrical
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...
s.Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 71 She carried a maximum of of coal and her complement consisted of 610 officers and ratings.Friedman 2012, p. 336 Her main armament consisted of four breech-loading (BL) 7.5-inch Mk I guns mounted in four single-
gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanis ...
s, one each fore and aft of the superstructure and one on each side.Friedman 2012, p. 256 The guns fired their shells to a range of about . Her secondary armament of six BL 6-inch Mk VII guns was arranged in
casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" ...
s amidships. Four of these were mounted on the main deck and were only usable in calm weather. They had a maximum range of approximately with their shells. ''Carnarvon'' also carried eighteen quick-firing (QF) 3-pounder
Hotchkiss gun The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different types of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch (42 mm) light mountain gun. There were also navy (47 mm) and 3-inch (76 mm) ...
s and two submerged 18-inch
torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s. Her two 12-pounder 8 cwt guns could be dismounted for service ashore. At some point in the war, the main deck six-inch guns of the ''Devonshire''-class ships were moved to the upper deck and given
gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery pie ...
s. Their casemates were plated over to improve
seakeeping Seakeeping ability or seaworthiness is a measure of how well-suited a watercraft is to conditions when underway. A ship or boat which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high sea stat ...
and the four 3-pounder guns displaced by the transfer were landed. The ship's
waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is parallel to the water's surface when the ship is afloat in a level trimmed position. Hence, wate ...
armour belt ranged from in thickness and was closed off by transverse bulkheads. The armour of the gun turrets was also five inches thick whilst that of their barbettes was six inches thick. The protective deck armour ranged in thickness from and the
conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for t ...
was protected by of armour.


Construction and service

''Carnarvon'', named to commemorate the Welsh county,Silverstone, p. 220 was
laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...
by
William Beardmore & Company William Beardmore and Company was a British engineering and shipbuilding Conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active from 1886 to the mid-1930s and at its peak employed about 40,000 peo ...
at their
Dalmuir Dalmuir (; ) is an area northwest of Glasgow, Scotland, on the western side of Clydebank, and part of West Dunbartonshire Council Area. The name is a lowland Scots language, Scots derivation of the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic meaning Big Field. ...
shipyard on 1 October 1902 and launched on 7 October 1903. She was completed on 29 May 1905 and was initially assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet. She was transferred to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet in June 1907 and was then assigned to the reserve Third Fleet at Devonport in April 1909. The ship was transferred to the Second Fleet at Devonport in March 1912 and subsequently became the flagship of the 5th Cruiser Squadron until the start of World War I.Gardiner & Gray, p. 13 She participated in the fleet manoeuvres in July–August 1913 as well as those in July 1914. On 31 July, a few days before war was declared on Germany, she encountered the German
light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
in the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
returning home and the two ships saluted each other.Transcript When news of the outbreak of hostilities was received on 5 August, ''Carnarvon'', now the flagship of
Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
Archibald Stoddart, was at sea, making for the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
from
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
. She was quickly sent to Cape Verde and captured the German merchant ship on 23 August 1914. She escorted her prize to
Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...
, Sierra Leone for disposal and resumed patrolling. She moved to the Brazilian coast in October and then proceeded to the
Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...
with the squadron commanded by
Vice-Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...
Doveton Sturdee Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee, 1st Baronet, (9 June 18597 May 1925) was a Royal Navy officer. After training as a torpedo officer, he commanded two different cruisers and then three different battleships before becom ...
.


Battle of the Falklands

Upon arrival at
Port Stanley Stanley (also known as Port Stanley) is the capital city of the Falkland Islands. It is located on the island of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope in one of the wettest parts of the islands. At the 2016 census, the city had a population o ...
on 7 December, Sturdee informed his captains that he planned to recoal the entire squadron the following day from the two available colliers and to begin the search for the East Asia Squadron, believed to be running for home around the tip of South America, the day after. Vice-Admiral
Maximilian von Spee Maximilian Johannes Maria Hubert Reichsgraf von Spee (22 June 1861 – 8 December 1914) was a German naval officer in the Imperial German Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine)'', who commanded the East Asia Squadron during World War I. Spee entered the n ...
, commander of the German squadron, had other plans and intended to destroy the radio station at Port Stanley on the morning of 8 December. The appearance of two German ships at 07:30 caught Sturdee's ships by surprise, but the Germans were driven off by shells fired by the
predreadnought battleship Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built from the mid- to late- 1880s to the early 1900s. Their designs were conceived before the appearance of in 1906 and their classification as "pre-dreadnought" is retrospectively appli ...
when they came within range around 09:20. ''Carnarvon'' completed recoaling at 08:00 and the squadron cleared the harbour by 10:30. Sturdee ordered "general chase" at that time, but ''Carnarvon'' could only manage and fell behind the other British ships. His two
battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of att ...
s were the fastest ships present and inexorably began to close on the German cruisers, opening fire at 12:55 that straddled the light cruiser , the rear ship in the German formation. It was clear to Spee that his ships could not outrun the battlecruisers and that the only hope for any of his ships to survive was to scatter. So he turned his two armoured cruisers around to buy time by engaging the battlecruisers and ordered his three light cruisers to disperse at 13:20. ''Carnarvon'', now behind, had no hope of catching the scattering German ships and continued to trail the battlecruisers. ''Carnarvon ''finally came within range of the German armoured cruisers and opened fire shortly before rolled over and capsized at 16:17. She then engaged until Sturdee ordered "cease fire" at 17:50. The German captain had started to scuttle his ship 10 minutes earlier when it was clear that the situation was hopeless and his ship sank at 18:00. ''Carnarvon'' rescued 20 survivors from ''Gneisenau'', but only wreckage was visible when she later steamed through the area where ''Scharnhorst'' had sunk.Massie, pp. 270–273 After the battle she participated in the hunt for the light cruiser that had escaped during the battle and investigated anchorages in Argentina, Chile and the island of
South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...
before proceeding north to Brazil in February. She struck a
coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...
off the
Abrolhos Archipelago The Abrolhos Archipelago () are a group of 5 small islands with coral reefs off the southern coast of Bahia state in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeast of Brazil, between 17º25’—18º09’ S and 38º33’—39º05’ W. Caravelas is the ...
on 22 February 1915 and had to be beached to avoid sinking. The ship received temporary repairs at
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
the following month. ''Carnarvon'' received permanent repairs in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, Canada, from May to July after which she escorted several
British H-class submarine The British H-class submarines were Holland 602 type submarines used by the Royal Navy. The submarines constructed for the British Royal Navy between 1915 and 1919 were designed and built in response to German boats which mined British wate ...
s from Halifax to the United Kingdom en route to Devonport. She then returned to Halifax where she was based for the rest of the year. Now assigned to the North America and West Indies Station, with its main base at the Royal Naval Dockyard in the
Imperial fortress Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Salisbury described Malta, Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Halifax as Imperial fortresses at the 1887 Colonial Conference, though by that point they had been so designated for decades. Later histor ...
colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...
of
Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...
, she resumed her duties protecting British shipping for the rest of the war. After the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
destroyer USS Stewart grounded at Bermuda on 16 August 1917, a cricket team from ''Carnarvon'' played a match against one from ''Stewart'' at the Bermuda dockyard. In 1919, she began serving as a cadet training ship, remaining in that role until she was listed for sale in March 1921. ''Carnarvon'' was sold for scrap on 8 November 1921 and subsequently broken up in Germany.


Notes


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links


HMS ''Carnarvon'' Memoir 1914–1915
– annotated transcript of a diary kept by George H. J. Hanks, a sick bay attendant. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carnarvon (1903) Devonshire-class cruisers (1903) Ships built on the River Clyde 1903 ships World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom