FAMOUS SHIPS

The H.M.S.DEFENCE 

There were two famous ships with this name. Minotaur-class armored cruiser and the other an Arrogant-class 3rd rate 74. Both of these warships will be described and a brief overview of their history will be told. 

The more modem Minotaur-class armored cruiser had the following dimensions: Length, 519 feet: Breadth, 74.5 feet; Depth, 26 feet; Tons, 16,100. She had a steel hull, was armed with four 9.2" main guns (2X2), ten 7.5" guns, sixteen 12 pounders and five 18" Torpedo Tubes. Her armor consisted of a 6" belt around her hull and 2" on her deck. She was powered by a triple expansion engine of 27,000 hp with 2 screws and was capable of 23 knots. She was built in Pembroke Dockyard, England in 1907. She was first assigned to the Home Fleet and then to the China Station between 1910 and 1912. 

At the beginning of WWI she was assigned as the flagship of Admiral E. Troubridge to the First Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean. Her first action involved following the German GOEBEN and BRESLAU, but she was ordered not to engage a superior force, so did not try to fight these two ships. They escaped to Constantinople in August 1914. There was a court martial of the Admiral and he was cleared of any wrong doing, although he never again was given a command at sea. 

After completing her duties at the Dardanelles, HMS DEFENCE went to the South Atlantic. She was then called home and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnots First Cruiser Squadron. She then participated in the only real sea action of WWI at the Battle of Jutland. On May 31, 1916, Admiral Arbuthnot took HMS DEFENCE and her sister ships HMS WARRIOR and HMS BLACK PRINCE to attack the light cruiser SMS WIESBADEN, which lay dead in the water between the British and German fleets. This was not a good move, as the three ships were brought under concentrated fire from Rear Admiral Paul  Behnche's Third Battle Squadron. The result was that HMS DEFENCE was sunk with the loss of all of her 893 crew at 1815 in the evening, HMS WARRIOR and HMS BLACK PRINCE withdrawing.

In mid May 2001, the remains of H.M.S. DEFENCE were found by the deep-diving technical divers of Deep Blue Expeditions, where she was sunk in the Battle of Jutland off Denmark in 1916. The article accompanying the announcement of the discovery indicates that the ship was of an obsolete design by the time of the battle and also states that there was a loss of live of 903 of her crew. As she was reported to have blown apart when she sank, the diving crew was surprised to find a largely intact wreck, her four guns still turned to port. Apparently this ship has not been salvaged or touched since she sank while other ships, which have been discovered previously, have had material removed from them such as the propellers and other items that could be salvaged.

It would be interesting if further research was done on this ship and further underwater exploration conducted, but due respect has to be made to the officers and seamen of her crew who perished when she sank - many of the British ships are considered memorials to their crew if found, so further news my be forthcoming with respect to this ship, her final resting place and possible subsequent actions. 

The previous HMS DEFENCE, the 74- gun ship-of-the-Line, fought in many of the major battles of the 25 years between 1780 and 1805. This article will continue with her history next month.

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