Naval History by Country :
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HMS Aboukir |
Name :
HMS Aboukir Laid Down : 9th November 1898 Launched : 16th May 1900 Completed : 3rd April 1902 Type : Cruiser Class : Cressy Builder : Fairfield Country : UK Sequence : This is the 5th ship with this name. Pennants : Fate : Sunk by U-9, 22 September 1914 |
Aboukir was laid down by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering at their shipyard in Govan, Scotland on 9 November 1898 and launched on 16 May 1900. ] In March 1901 she arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard for fitting out. She was completed early the following year, and commissioned on 3 April 1902 by Captain Charles John Graves-Sawle. The ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet upon commissioning, and left Portsmouth in early May, arriving at Malta later that month. ] She made two deployments to the Mediterranean, 1902–05 and 1907–12. She was reduced to reserve when she returned home in 1912 and was assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. The squadron was tasked with patrolling the Broad Fourteens of the North Sea in support of a force of destroyers and submarines based at Harwich which protected the eastern end of the English Channel from German warships attempting to attack the supply route between England and France. During the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August, the ship was part of Cruiser Force 'C', in reserve off the Dutch coast, and saw no action |
On the morning of 22 September, Aboukir and her sisters, Cressy and Hogue, were on patrol without any escorting destroyers as they had been forced to seek shelter from bad weather. The three sisters in line abreast, about 2,000 yards (1,800 m) apart, at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). They were not expecting submarine attack, but they had lookouts posted and had one gun manned on each side to attack any submarines sighted. The weather had moderated earlier that morning and Tyrwhitt was en route to reinforce the cruisers with eight destroyers. U-9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen, had been ordered to attack British transports at Ostend, but had been forced to dive and take shelter from the storm. On surfacing, she spotted the British ships and moved to attack. She fired one torpedo at 06:20 at Aboukir that struck her on the starboard side; Captain John Drummond thought he had struck a mine and ordered the other two ships to close to transfer his wounded men. Aboukir quickly began listing and capsized around 06:55 despite counterflooding compartments on the opposite side to right her. By the time that Drummond ordered "abandon ship" only one boat was available because the others had either been smashed or could not be lowered as no steam was available to power the winches for the boats. As Hogue approached her sinking sister, the ship's captain, Wilmot Nicholson, realized that it had been a submarine attack and signalled Cressy to look for a periscope although his ship continued to close on Aboukir as her crew threw overboard anything that would float to aid the survivors in the water. Having stopped and lowered all her boats, Hogue was struck by two torpedoes around 06:55. The sudden weight loss of the two torpedoes caused U-9 to broach the surface and Hogue's gunners opened fire without effect before the submarine could submerge again. The cruiser capsized about ten minutes after being torpedoed as all of her watertight doors had been open, and she sank at 07:15. Cressy attempted to ram the submarine, but did not hit anything and resumed her rescue efforts until she too was torpedoed at 07:20. She too took on a heavy list and then capsized, before sinking at 07:55. Several Dutch ships began rescuing survivors at 08:30 and were joined by British fishing trawlers before Tyrwhitt and his ships arrived at 10:45. The combined total from all three ships was 837 men rescued and 62 officers and 1,397 enlisted men lost. Of these, Aboukir lost a total of 527 men |
HMS Aboukir Photos for Sale |
HMS Aboukir, 1902. | HMS Aboukir, 1902. | HMS Aboukir, 1910. | HMS Aboukir | HMS Aboukir in Malta in 1911. |
HMS Aboukir. | HMS Aboukir. |
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Timeline Entries : | |||
16th May 1900 - Launched 15th April 1903 - Arrived Bighi Bay May 1903 - Mediterranean and Red Sea Fleet 5th August 1903 - On Fleet Maneouvres 5th August 1903 - Commenced Fleet Maneouvres 14th September 1903 - Anchored off Rosas August 1904 - Mediterranean and Red Sea Fleet August 1905 - Third Cruiser Squadron, Mediterranean Fleet June 1906 - In Commission, In Reserve, At Sheerness-Chatham December 1907 - 3rd Cruiser Squadron Mediterranean 8th December 1907 - Captain Claud A. W. Hamilton in Command December 1908 - 3rd Cruiser Squadron, Mediterranean Fleet December 1909 - 3rd Cruiser Squadron, Mediterranean Fleet 10th February 1911 - Arrived Algiers from Gibraltar 17th February 1911 - Sailed Algiers 9th July 1912 - Spithead Review 22nd September 1914 - Sunk by torpedo |
Database Currently Holds : 6284 ships and 6289 crew!
Last edited : 07:52, January 2, 2017
By : HMS
Everything we obtain for this site is shown on the site, we do not have any more photos, crew lists or further information on any of the ships. COPYRIGHT NOTICE. ALL IMAGES DISPLAYED ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT LAW, AND ARE OWNED BY CRANSTON FINE ARTS OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. NO REPRODUCTION OR COPYING ALLOWED ON OTHER WEBSITES, BOOKS OR ARTICLES WITHOUT PRIOR AGREEMENT. |
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