herakles
15-12-2008, 07:24
The Pelorus class of ships were protected cruisers meaning they had good deck armour but lacked armour along their sides. Today they are considered to be the forerunner of the light cruisers.
Eleven of these ships were built but were out of date even before launching. Most were scrapped before 1914. Two were SOLD to Australia - HMS Pioneer and HMS Psyche.
This thread concerns HMAS Pioneer and HMAS Psyche.
Displacement: 2135 tons
Length: 95.7 metres (314 ft)
Beam: 11.2 metres (37 ft)
Draught: 5.18 metres (17.0 ft)
Speed: 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h) (design speed)
Complement: 230
Armament: 8 x QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) guns
8 x 3-pounder guns
2 x 14-inch torpedo tubes
Armour: 50 millimetres (2.0 in) deck
Pioneer was one of the first launched (1899) and transferred to the RAN in 1912. She became the first cruiser to belong to the RAN. Her initial duty was training naval reserves, a duty for which she was quite suited. When war broke out in August 1914 the little ship was acting as guard ship in Port Phillip, and was actually under refit at the time. She was, alas, suffering from the dreaded naval disease of ‘condenseritis’, (leaking condenser tubes).
At the outbreak of war, she was ordered to Fremantle Western Australia. On 16 August, some eight miles west of Rottnest Island, PIONEER captured the German steamer NEUMUNSTER (4,424 tons) and took her into Fremantle. On 26 August she captured a second ship, the 4,994 ton Norddeutcher-Lloyd vessel THURINGEN, also off Rottnest Island. NEUMUNSTER was taken over by the Commonwealth Government as a prize of war and renamed COOEE. THURINGEN was renamed MOORA and handed over to the Indian Government for service as a troopship.
She was to take part in the convoy escorting the 1st AIF to the Middle East but she suffered a major engine room problem and was ordered back to port. Just as well for her. Her duty was to have been to steam ahead. Had she done this, she would have detected the Emden with no doubt disastrous results.
On 24 December 1914 the Admiralty requested the aid of PIONEER as a blockading ship on the German East African coast, where the German cruiser KONIGSBERG had taken shelter up one of the mouths of the Rufigi River a few miles south of Zanzibar. The KONIGSBERG at this period was sheltering up the Rufigi River beyond the range of effective fire from the sea but it was thought that she might attempt to break out. The force assembled for this task comprised PIONEER, the light cruisers HMS WEYMOUTH and HMS HYACINTH, HMS PYRAMUS (another of PIONEER’s sister ships), the armed merchant cruiser KINFAUNS CASTLE, four armed whalers, an armed steamer and an armed tug. Formal blockade was proclaimed on 1 March 1915 and five days later Vice Admiral King-Hall arrived in the old battleship HMS GOLIATH to take charge.
it was decided to tow to the scene two monitors, HMS SEVERN and HMS MERSEY, and taking advantage of their shallow draught, take them upstream within range of the enemy. The attack began on 6 July 1915 and while HYACINTH and PIONEER bombarded the area of the main (Simba Uranga) mouth of the river, the monitors steamed up the northern (Kikunya) arm, anchored and began firing alternate salvoes. The monitors, however, failed to destroy the German cruiser and in her turn she hit MERSEY’s foremost gun, killing six men. At 3:30 pm and after firing 600 6-inch shells, both were withdrawn.
The operation was repeated on 12 July. This time KONIGSBERG straddled the SEVERN as she prepared to drop anchor, but SEVERN quickly got the range and hit the German several times, setting her on fire and forcing the enemy to complete demolition after removal of the guns. In the twelve months ending 9 January 1916 PIONEER steamed 29,434 miles, was under way on 287 days and consumed 7,496 tons of coal. She coaled on an average every ninth day (39 coalings) from a total of 17 colliers. She was sixty-eight days in harbour including thirty-six days under refit.
Her final duties were in and around Zanzibar, the only excitement being the capture of a German ship that was pretending to be a hospital ship.
Pioneer finally slipped into Port Jackson just before midnight on the 22nd October 1916, and dropped her pick in Watsons Bay. Her seagoing career was at an end.
Paid off in November 1916, she was used for quite some time as an accommodation ship, and incidentally, the site of the first dental surgery for the RAN. Sold in 1925, she was stripped down to a bare hulk and scuttled in 1931. She is largely forgotten, many present day officers and men have never heard of her, very few relics remain. On show in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, are her binnacle and one of her little 14 inch torpedoes. Little else remains of this very important ship.
It is often stated that Pioneer fired more shots in anger than any other Australian ship in WW1.
HMAS Psyche's life was less adventurous. She spent most of the time patrolling in the Bay of Bengal. However, there was one event worthy of mention. Disease, combined with poor food, inclement weather and dull duties led to dissatisfaction and indiscipline that culminated in several courts martial in February and March 1916. Psyche was recalled to Singapore and an inquiry was held to determine the cause of the indiscipline and recommend measures to correct it. Psyche returned to duty in the Bay of Bengal in April 1916 and in June 1916 she was redeployed to Hong Kong to patrol off the South Coast of China and Indo-China. Poor conditions continued to prevail aboard and in July 1916 almost a half of of the crew were suffering from illness.
She was recalled to Australia in September 1917, and paid off. She was recommissioned for patrol work off the eastern Australian coast in November and remained a commissioned vessel of the RAN until March 1918. Psyche was finally sold in 1922 and ended her days as a timber lighter.
(With help from the Naval Historical Society of Australia, the Australian War Memorial and the official site of the RAN.)
Eleven of these ships were built but were out of date even before launching. Most were scrapped before 1914. Two were SOLD to Australia - HMS Pioneer and HMS Psyche.
This thread concerns HMAS Pioneer and HMAS Psyche.
Displacement: 2135 tons
Length: 95.7 metres (314 ft)
Beam: 11.2 metres (37 ft)
Draught: 5.18 metres (17.0 ft)
Speed: 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h) (design speed)
Complement: 230
Armament: 8 x QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) guns
8 x 3-pounder guns
2 x 14-inch torpedo tubes
Armour: 50 millimetres (2.0 in) deck
Pioneer was one of the first launched (1899) and transferred to the RAN in 1912. She became the first cruiser to belong to the RAN. Her initial duty was training naval reserves, a duty for which she was quite suited. When war broke out in August 1914 the little ship was acting as guard ship in Port Phillip, and was actually under refit at the time. She was, alas, suffering from the dreaded naval disease of ‘condenseritis’, (leaking condenser tubes).
At the outbreak of war, she was ordered to Fremantle Western Australia. On 16 August, some eight miles west of Rottnest Island, PIONEER captured the German steamer NEUMUNSTER (4,424 tons) and took her into Fremantle. On 26 August she captured a second ship, the 4,994 ton Norddeutcher-Lloyd vessel THURINGEN, also off Rottnest Island. NEUMUNSTER was taken over by the Commonwealth Government as a prize of war and renamed COOEE. THURINGEN was renamed MOORA and handed over to the Indian Government for service as a troopship.
She was to take part in the convoy escorting the 1st AIF to the Middle East but she suffered a major engine room problem and was ordered back to port. Just as well for her. Her duty was to have been to steam ahead. Had she done this, she would have detected the Emden with no doubt disastrous results.
On 24 December 1914 the Admiralty requested the aid of PIONEER as a blockading ship on the German East African coast, where the German cruiser KONIGSBERG had taken shelter up one of the mouths of the Rufigi River a few miles south of Zanzibar. The KONIGSBERG at this period was sheltering up the Rufigi River beyond the range of effective fire from the sea but it was thought that she might attempt to break out. The force assembled for this task comprised PIONEER, the light cruisers HMS WEYMOUTH and HMS HYACINTH, HMS PYRAMUS (another of PIONEER’s sister ships), the armed merchant cruiser KINFAUNS CASTLE, four armed whalers, an armed steamer and an armed tug. Formal blockade was proclaimed on 1 March 1915 and five days later Vice Admiral King-Hall arrived in the old battleship HMS GOLIATH to take charge.
it was decided to tow to the scene two monitors, HMS SEVERN and HMS MERSEY, and taking advantage of their shallow draught, take them upstream within range of the enemy. The attack began on 6 July 1915 and while HYACINTH and PIONEER bombarded the area of the main (Simba Uranga) mouth of the river, the monitors steamed up the northern (Kikunya) arm, anchored and began firing alternate salvoes. The monitors, however, failed to destroy the German cruiser and in her turn she hit MERSEY’s foremost gun, killing six men. At 3:30 pm and after firing 600 6-inch shells, both were withdrawn.
The operation was repeated on 12 July. This time KONIGSBERG straddled the SEVERN as she prepared to drop anchor, but SEVERN quickly got the range and hit the German several times, setting her on fire and forcing the enemy to complete demolition after removal of the guns. In the twelve months ending 9 January 1916 PIONEER steamed 29,434 miles, was under way on 287 days and consumed 7,496 tons of coal. She coaled on an average every ninth day (39 coalings) from a total of 17 colliers. She was sixty-eight days in harbour including thirty-six days under refit.
Her final duties were in and around Zanzibar, the only excitement being the capture of a German ship that was pretending to be a hospital ship.
Pioneer finally slipped into Port Jackson just before midnight on the 22nd October 1916, and dropped her pick in Watsons Bay. Her seagoing career was at an end.
Paid off in November 1916, she was used for quite some time as an accommodation ship, and incidentally, the site of the first dental surgery for the RAN. Sold in 1925, she was stripped down to a bare hulk and scuttled in 1931. She is largely forgotten, many present day officers and men have never heard of her, very few relics remain. On show in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, are her binnacle and one of her little 14 inch torpedoes. Little else remains of this very important ship.
It is often stated that Pioneer fired more shots in anger than any other Australian ship in WW1.
HMAS Psyche's life was less adventurous. She spent most of the time patrolling in the Bay of Bengal. However, there was one event worthy of mention. Disease, combined with poor food, inclement weather and dull duties led to dissatisfaction and indiscipline that culminated in several courts martial in February and March 1916. Psyche was recalled to Singapore and an inquiry was held to determine the cause of the indiscipline and recommend measures to correct it. Psyche returned to duty in the Bay of Bengal in April 1916 and in June 1916 she was redeployed to Hong Kong to patrol off the South Coast of China and Indo-China. Poor conditions continued to prevail aboard and in July 1916 almost a half of of the crew were suffering from illness.
She was recalled to Australia in September 1917, and paid off. She was recommissioned for patrol work off the eastern Australian coast in November and remained a commissioned vessel of the RAN until March 1918. Psyche was finally sold in 1922 and ended her days as a timber lighter.
(With help from the Naval Historical Society of Australia, the Australian War Memorial and the official site of the RAN.)