HMS Exmouth (1901)

HMS "Exmouth" was a "Duncan" class predreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy.

Technical Description

HMS "Exmouth" was laid down by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead on 10 August 1899 and launched on 31 August 1901. After delays due to labor problems, she was completed in May 1903. [Burt, pp. 198, 212]

"Exmouth" and her five sisters of the "Duncan" class were ordered in response to large French and Russian building programs, ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905", p. 37] including an emphasis on fast battleships in the Russian program; [Gibbons, p. 159] they were designed as smaller, more lightly armored, and faster versions of the preceding "Formidable" class. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905", p. 37] As it turned out, the Russian ships were not as heavily armed as initially feared, and the "Duncan"s proved to be quite superior in their balance of speed, firepower, and protection. [Gibbons, p. 159]

Armor layout was similar to that of "London", with reduced thickness in the barbettes and belt. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905", p. 37]

The "Duncan"s had machinery of 3,000 more indicated horsepower than the "Formidable"s and "London"s and were the first British battleships with 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines. They also had a modified hull form to improve speed. The ships had a reputation as good steamers, with a designed speed of convert|19|kn|km/h and an operational speed of convert|18|kn|km/h, ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905", p. 37] good steering at all speeds, and an easy roll. They were the fastest battleships in the Royal Navy when completed, and the fastest predreadnoughts ever built other than the "Swiftsure"-class HMS "Swiftsure" and HMS "Triumph". [Burt, p. 202]

They had the same armament as and a smaller displacement than the "Formidable"s and "London"s. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905", p. 37]

Like all predreadnoughts, "Exmouth" was outclassed by the dreadnought battleships that began to appear in 1906, but she nonetheless continued to perform front-line duties up through the early part of World War I.

Operational History

HMS "Exmouth" commissioned at Chatham Dockyard on 2 June 1903 for service in the Mediterranean Fleet. She returned to the United Kingdom in May 1904, and on 18 May 1904 recommissioned as Flagship, Vice Admiral, Home Fleet, serving as flagship of Sir Arthur Wilson. When the Home Fleet was redesignated as the Channel Fleet, she continued in her capacity as flagship as a Channel Fleet unit. She transferred her flag in April 1907, [Burt, p. 214] was reduced to a nucleus crew, ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", p. 9] and entered the commissioned reserve to begin a refit at Portsmouth Dockyard. [Burt, pp. 212, 214]

Her refit complete, she recommissioned on 25 May 1907 to serve as Flagship, Vice Admiral, Atlantic Fleet. On 20 November 1908 she transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet to serve as flagship there, and underwent a refit at Malta in 1908-1909. [Burt, p. 214]

Under a fleet reorganization of 1 May 1912, the Mediterranean Fleet became the 4th Battle Squadron, First Fleet, Home Fleet, and changed its base from Malta to Gibraltar. [Burt, p. 214] "Exmouth" became Flagship, Vice Admiral, Home Fleet, in July 1912. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", p. 9] In December 1912, battleship HMS "Dreadnought" replaced "Exmouth" in the 4th Battle Squadron, and "Exmouth" began a refit at Malta. [Burt, p. 214]

Her refit complete, "Exmouth" recommissioned on 1 July 1913 at Devonport Dockyard with a nucleus crew to serve in the commissioned reserve with the 6th Battle Squadron, Second Fleet. She was assigned duties as a gunnery training ship at Devonport. [Burt, p. 214]

When World War I began in August 1914, plans originally called for "Exmouth" and battleships "Agamemnon", "Albemarle", "Cornwallis", "Duncan", "Russell", and "Vengeance" to combine in the 6th Battle Squadron and serve in the Channel Fleet, where the squadron was to patrol the English Channel and cover the movement of the British Expeditionary Force to France. However, plans also existed for the 6th Battle Squadron to be assigned to the Grand Fleet, and, when the war began, the Commander-in-Chief, Grand Fleet, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, requested that "Exmouth" and her four surviving sister ships of the "Duncan" class ("Albemarle", "Cornwallis", "Duncan", and "Russell") be assigned to the 3rd Battle Squadron in the Grand Fleet for patrol duties to make up for the Grand Fleet's shortage of cruisers. Accordingly, the 6th Battle Squadron was abolished temporarily, and "Exmouth" joined the 3rd Battle Squadron at Scapa Flow on 8 August 1914. She worked with the Grand Fleet's cruisers on the Northern Patrol. [Burt, pp. 211-212, 214] When the Grand Fleet dreadnought battleship HMS "Audacious" struck a mine north of Ireland on 27 October 1914, "Exmouth" was sent to tow her to safety, but "Audacious" had to be abandoned before "Exmouth" arrived and capsized and exploded just as "Exmouth" appeared on the scene. [Goldrick, pp. 140-141]

"Exmouth" and her four "Duncan"-class sisters, as well as the battleships of the "King Edward VII" class, temporarily were transferred to the Channel Fleet on 2 November 1914 to reinforce that fleet in the face of German Navy activity in the Channel Fleet's area. On 13 November 1914, the "King Edward VII" class ships returned to the Grand Fleet, but "Exmouthe" and the other "Duncan"s stayed in the Channel Fleet, where they reconstituted the 6th Battle Squadron on 14 November 1914. This squadron was given a mission of bombarding German submarine bases on the coast of Belgium, and was based at Portland, although it transferred to Dover immediately on 14 November 1914. However, due a lack of antisubmarine defenses at Dover, the squadron returned to Portland on 19 November 1914. "Exmouth" and "Russell" bombarded Zeebrugge, which was used by German submarines on passage from their base at Bruges, on 23 November 1914, [Burt, p. 212, and Goldrick, p. 182, agree this bombardment occurred on 23 November, although"Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", p. 9, says the bombardment date was 21 November 1914.] firing over 400 rounds in what was described as a highly successful action [Burt, p. 212] in contemporary Dutch reports but actually achieved very little and discouraged the Royal Navy from continuing such bombardments. [Goldrick, p. 182]

The 6th Battle Squadron returned to Dover in December 1914, then transferred to Sheerness on 30 December 1914 to relieve the 5th Battle Squadron there in guarding against a German invasion of the United Kingdom. [Burt, pp. 170, 212]

area in August 1915. [Burt, p. 214]

"Exmouth" left the Dardanelles in November 1915 and transferred to the Aegean Sea to become Flagship, 3rd Detached Squadron, a force based at Salonika that had been organized to assist the French Navy in blockading the Aegean coast of Greece and Bulgaria and to reinforce the Suez Canal Patrol. On 28 November 1915, she took aboard personnel of the British Belgrade Naval Force as they were being evacuated from Serbia. From September to December 1916 she served in the Allied force supporting Allied demands against the government of Greece, participating in the seizure of the Greek fleet at Salamis and landing Royal Marines at Athens on 1 December 1916. [Burt, p. 214]

"Exmouth" transferred to the East Indies Station in March 1917, where she performed convoy escort duties in the Indian Ocean between Colombo and Bombay. In June 1917, she ended this service to return to the United Kingdom, calling at The Cape and Sierra Leone during the voyage. She arrived at Devonport in August 1917, and paid off to provide crews for antisubmarine vessels. [Burt, p. 214]

"Exmouth" remained in reserve at Devonport until April 1919, and was used as an accommodation ship beginning in January 1918. She was placed on the sale list in April 1919 and sold for scrapping to Forth Shipbreaking Company on 15 January 1920. Her hull was scrapped in the Netherlands. [Burt, p. 214]

Notes

References

* Burt, R. A. "British Battleships 1889-1904". Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1988. ISBN 0870210610.
* Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, eds. "Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905". New York: Mayflower Books, Inc., 1979. ISBN 0831703024.
* Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919". London: Ian Allen, 1972. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
* Gibbons, Tony. "The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day". London: Salamander Books Ltd., 1983.
* Goldrick, James. "The King's Ships Were at Sea: The War in the North Sea August 1914-February 1915". Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1984. ISBN 0-087021-334-2.
* Gray, Randal, Ed. "Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921." Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0870219073.
* Pears, Randolph. "British Battleships 1892-1957: The Great Days of the Fleets". G. Cave Associates, 1979. ISBN 978-0906223147.