8 September 1918

Destroyer HMS Nessus was lost after colliding with converted cruiser HMS Amphitrite in the North Sea on 8 September 1918. The 1,120-ton Admiralty M-class warship was one of a class of 85 near-identical ships, in her case built by Swan Hunter on the Tyne and launched on 24 August 1915. She was considerably smaller than Amphitrite, launched as an 11,000-ton first-class protected cruiser at the Vickers yard in Barrow in July 1898 but converted to a minelayer in 1917 Both ships saw service in World War 1, with Amphitrite serving in the Atlantic for a year before sitting in reserve until 1917 when she was reactivated as a minelayer. On the afternoon of 7 September 1918 Amphitrite finished minelaying in the Northern Barrage and set a course for home, zig-zagging to avoid attack by any submarines lurking nearby. In calm seas, the cruiser and her two escorts, Nessus and sister-ship Maenad, were making 16 knots when they ran into a bank of thick fog. The cruiser signalled that she would stop zig-zagging in the poor visibility, but the ships lost sight of each other, and the destroyers slowed to 11 knots, aiming to drop behind the bigger ship. At just after 1500 Amphitrite suddenly loomed out of the fog heading for Nessus, and though both warships took immediate avoiding action the cruiser ploughed into the flank of the smaller ship, holing her in two places, including her engine room. As she took on water, her CO took stock and decided she could be saved, so Maenad took her in tow and they headed north-west at around seven knots while Amphitrite felt confident enough to leave the two ships. All went well at first, but by early evening bad weather had moved in quickly and the two destroyers were forced to hove to overnight in a rising gale. The weather continued to deteriorate in the morning of 8 September, and by 0900 Nessus had lost steam, could no longer operate her pumps, and was quickly filling with water. Her remaining crew were taken off by destroyer HMS Paladin, and at shortly before 1030 she sank, though fortunately there were no casualties in the incident.

9 September 1583

The Squirrel was lost with all hands while returning to England from Newfoundland, taking her captain, famed Elizabethan explorer and adventurer Sir Humphrey Gilbert, with her. The tiny exploration vessel, built in the 1570s and said to be no more than ten tons, was Gilbert’s favourite ship, and was part of the flotilla he took on his expedition across the Atlantic in June 1853. The five-strong flotilla, with around 160 men, reached Newfoundland the following month and Gilbert claimed the territory for Queen Elizabeth – the first overseas colony thus claimed – but the ultimate aim of finding a passage on to the Pacific and China was abandoned. With supplies running low the four ships prepared to head back across the Atlantic with Gilbert sailing in Squirrel – the fifth, Bark Raleigh, had been lost to a mutinous crew shortly after the expedition set out from England. That soon became three as Swallow was sent directly back to England with disgruntled and sick sailors on board while the remaining three ships sailed south to do a little exploring. During that passage Gilbert, who was the half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, ordered a change of course that conflicted with that preferred by more experienced mariners, and in short order the main supply vessel, the Delight, ran aground with many of the charts and much equipment. The remaining two ships turned eastwards, but hit heavy weather off the Azores, experiencing huge waves. His men told Gilbert – a favourite of the Queen – to transfer to Golden Hinde, a much larger ship that was part of the flotilla, but Gilbert refused, despite warnings that Squirrel was carrying too many guns and was thus unstable. He was last spotted from Golden Hinde calmly reading a book. Soon after, in fading light, Gilbert was heard to cry out “we are as near to Heaven by sea as by land,” pointing upwards. At around midnight Squirrel’s light disappeared, and the crew of Golden Hinde reported that the little ship had sunk with all hands. Sir Walter Raleigh took up his half-brother’s Royal Patent the following year and crossed the Atlantic to set up the first established colony at Roanoke, now part of North Carolina. While Gilbert never established a colony in the Americas, his actions in the summer of 1583 mean he is still acknowledged as the first English coloniser.

10 September 1939

Submarine HMS Oxley was sunk by friendly fire on 10 September 1939 off Obrestad in Norway – the first Royal Navy warship lost in World War 2, and the first of 76 Royal Navy submarines lost in World War 2. She was built for the Royal Australian Navy by Vickers Armstrong in Barrow in 1925-7 and sailed with sister HMS Otway to Australia in 1928, though repairs had to be carried out on cracks in the engine columns of both boats en route (Otway in Gibraltar, Oxley in Malta) meaning they reached Sydney in February 1929, more than a year after setting out. Oxley spent a year in reserve before economic pressures of the Great Depression led to her and Otway being reactivated and commissioned into the Royal Navy in April 1931. Back in Europe, Oxley was a member of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla based at Dundee on the outbreak of war, and her first task was a war patrol off Norway. Just before 2000 on 10 September submarine HMS Triton, also on patrol some 30 miles south-west of Stavanger in southern Norway, spotted what appeared to be the outline of a submarine. Triton issued three challenges by signal lights, then fired three green flare grenades, none of which the mystery boat answered, so Triton launched two torpedoes and sank the submarine. Moving over to investigate, Triton found three men swimming amidst the debris, one of whom was the sunken boats commanding officer – and they were clearly British. The third man suddenly sank from view, meaning 53 of Oxley’s crew were lost in the ‘friendly fire’ incident. Subsequent enquiries found that Oxley was some four miles out of her patrol zone and Triton had acted correctly, though the boat’s loss was at first simply attributed to an explosion, which became a collision after the war – it wasn’t until the 1950s that the true nature of the sinking was revealed. The reason Oxley had not responded correctly was explained by her CO – the first light signals had been answered but he believed the process had been botched and the light could not be seen, while Oxley’s own grenade-refile malfunctioned and could not be fixed before Triton launched her attack. Triton went on to serve in the Mediterranean, but was lost with all hands in December the following year, possibly to a mine in the Strait of Otranto off Italy.

11 September 1886

HMS Rattlesnake, the first Torpedo Gunboat, was launched on 11 September 1886. The 560-ton vessel, built by Laird Brothers at Birkenhead, was prompted by the fear of war as Russia expanded her boundaries, and was designed as a gunboat capable of countering smaller torpedo boats. But within a decade the torpedo boat destroyer became the preferred option, and Rattlesnake, and four further classes that followed her in rapid succession, had become all but obsolete. Rattlesnake, whose efficient engines could propel her at almost 20 knots, took part in the 1893 British Naval Manoeuvres in the Irish Sea and was one of the few torpedo gunboats that actually lived up to the vision of a destroyer of torpedo boats. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1902 she was converted to tender to HMS Narcissus, a training cruiser attached to the Gunner School in Portsmouth. Four years later she took up another role, as experimental submarine target ship, and was sold in 1910.

12 September 1917

Submarine HMS D7 sank German U-boat U-45 in the North-West Approaches on 1 September 1917. D7 was one of eight 600-ton D-class submarines built for the Royal Navy before World War 1, and was launched at Chatham on 14 January 1911. With a crew of 25 and safer diesel engines than earlier classes, the D-boats proved a huge step forward in submarine design, and introduced several innovations, including the first radios f itted as standard, the first class to have deck guns forward of the conning tower, and twin screws. They were also roomy enough in terms of accommodation and sufficiently sturdy to operate longer patrols beyond coastal waters. D7’s strike against U-45 came on 12 September to the north of Ireland when she saw the German boat on the surface and fired a single torpedo from her stern tube. The prolific German submarine – she had sunk 27 merchantmen totalling nearly 50,000 tons – went down with all but two of her crew of 45. The following February D7 was mistaken for an enemy boat by destroyer HMS Pelican, which commenced a depth charge attack, but D7 survived. She also collided with a U-boat three months later, damaging her periscope. The submarine survived the war and was sold for scrap to the Pounds yard just before Christmas 1921.

13 September 1782

A Franco-Spanish assault on Gibraltar was repulsed on 13 September 1782 with heavy losses for the attacking forces. The so-called Grand Assault was part of the Great Siege of Gibraltar, itself a feature of the American Revolutionary War, and saw the French and Spanish join forces; France was supporting their allies the Americans while the Spanish had Gibraltar as their goal – the strategically-crucial Rock had been in British hands since 1713. The siege began in the summer of 1779, but was confounded by the successful arrival of two convoys to resupply the garrison, in 1780 and 1781, and in late 1781 a grand attack was foiled when the British sortied out and destroyed the batteries which the Spanish had been preparing for more than a year, spiking guns, capturing stores and ammunition and killing more than 100 men, for the loss of just two of their own. The Spanish plan prompted the British to start tunnelling through the Rock, creating embrasures high up from which the defenders could fire down on Spanish attackers. The besieged garrison continued to fight as merchant ships ran the Spanish (and later Franco Spanish) blockade, and British warships continued to slip through a well. On 8 September 1782 a fierce bombardment was launched from the Rock, featuring red-hot shot (known a ‘hot potatoes’) which did much damage to Spanish land-based assault equipment and positions. The Franco-Spanish alliance instead decided to launch a Grand Assault by sea using a flotilla of ten ‘battery ships’, supposedly unsinkable and impervious to f ire, mounting a total of 142 guns (with 70 in reserve) and operated by 5,260 men. Every care had been taken to ensure the batteries would be effective – layers of wood were added to strengthen the flanks, infilled with wet sand, and water would be constantly pumped over them to prevent fire taking hold. A web of cables would snag some shot, and the guns were mounted on one side only, with ballast to counterbalance the weight. Conventional ships of the line would add their firepower, along with an array of bomb ships – a further 110 ships of various sizes (almost half of them ships of the line) manned by 30,000 sailors and marines. The final touch was a total of almost 90 artillery guns ashore, backed by more than 40,000 Spanish and French troops, ready to move in when the Rock capitulated. And all this was watched by more than 80,000 onlookers, who flocked to high ground to watch the British beaten into submission. They were to leave disappointed. When the floating batteries moved in on 13 September 1782, some were in the wrong position and smaller ships were too far away to have any effect, while the conventional ships hovered just out of the picture. A number of batteries ran aground, and were thus unable to manoeuvre. At first, the attackers seemed to have the initiative – British shot was bouncing off the Spanish hulls – but when the British started firing red hot shot, things started to go wrong for the attackers. Smoke began to rise from two of the larger batteries, but there was no chance of moving another ship in to assist, while the shore-based guns ran out of powder and ceased to fire. By nightfall on the 13th the situation for the Franco-Spanish force was desperate – two batteries were engulfed in flame and the rest had taken a fearful pounding. Rockets went up as a distress signal, and the order went out to scuttle the batteries. The British had already seen that the attackers were facing annihilation, and a flotilla of gunboats had been sent out to take the f loating batteries without minimal bloodshed. The ships made their way from one battery to the next, taking prisoners and rescuing men as they went. Two batteries, Pastora and Talla Piedra, exploded when the flames reached their magazines, killing many Spanish and at least one Briton. The flotilla was forced to withdraw as more batteries caught fire, and in the confusion some of these batteries continued to fire guns as word had not got through to abandon the attack. By 0400 on 14 September all ten batteries had either blown up or burned to the waterline, and the Spanish and French had suffered more than 700 casualties compared to 15 dead and around 70 wounded on the British side. It was a crushing blow to both Spanish and French hopes, and while there was a further (abortive) attempt to strangle the Rock, a large British relief convoy broke through the following month bringing supplies and further troops, prompting diplomats at peace talks to accept the reality of the situation – Gibraltar would remain in British hands. Over the course of late 1782 and early 1783 treaties were signed, including a peace treaty between the British and Americans that effectively signalled the end of the American Revolutionary War. The French were running out of funds and the Spanish lost interest without any hope of regaining Gibraltar, although the British did not enjoy a complete victory – the need to tie up men and ships in the European theatre meant they were unable to pursue the war in America with full vigour, and arguably that is a major factor in the loss of the American colonies, though Canada was retained.

14 September 1909

Destroyer HMS Viking launched at Palmers, Jarrow – the only six-funnel ship built for the Royal Navy. Although one of only a dozen Tribal-class destroyers, the details of each ship’s design was left to the builder, so the final vessels varied considerable from each other. In the case of Viking, Palmers of Jarrow built a 1,230-ton warship with six boilers, powered by fuel oil and steam turbines, and capable of 33 knots, with a range of almost 2,000 miles at 15 knots. She was armed with two 4in guns and two 18in torpedo tubes, and had a complement of around 70. Viking commissioned in June 1910 as part of the First Destroyer Flotilla, switching to the 6th Flotilla in early 1914, and it was this flotilla that formed part of the Dover Patrol at the outbreak of war, as these destroyers did not have the legs to operate in the open ocean. She had an inauspicious start to her war record – her forward gun exploded in October 1914 while she was bombarding shore positions during the Battle of the Yser, wounding two sailors and forcing her withdrawal. She struck a mine off Belgium in January 1916, killing ten of her ship’s company, and later that year an attempt to counter a German torpedo boat raid on the Dover Barrage went wrong when two groups of British destroyers, one led by Viking, failed to co-ordinate their attack, and German shellfire damaged one of Viking’s group (HMS Mohawk), jamming her steering and blocking Viking’s path, allowing the German raiders to escape. Viking was briefly re-equipped with a 6in gun in 1916, but the experiment merely proved that the gun was too big for a destroyer, and by the end of the year it was replaced with a new 4in quick-fire gun. She survived the war and was sold for scrap in December 1919.

15 September 1920

Protected cruiser HMS Europa was sold on 15 September 1920 for conversion to an emigrant carrier. The 11,000 ton Diadem-class ship was built by J&G Thompson on Clydebank and launched on 20 March 1897. Two years later she was equipped with wireless equipment and took part in that year’s Summer Manoeuvres, achieving a notable success by sending a wireless message some 95 miles to ironclad HMS Alexandra via a relay through cruiser HMS Juno – the longest such transmission at the time. Her early years were spent with the Channel Squadron, though in 1900 she also did two crew transfers – one for battleship HMS Ramillies, which took her to Malta, and then for the Australia Station. She spent the subsequent dozen years or so in and out of reserve, and was with the 3rd Fleet on the outbreak of war in 1914. She was assigned to the 9th Cruiser Squadron in the Atlantic, acting as flagship on station off Cape Finisterre, and later operated off Mudros as part of the Dardanelles Campaign. Europa was paid off at Malta in March 1920 and bought by G F Bletto for conversion on 15 September the same year, but her civilian career was brief – she sank in a gale off Corsica in January 1921, although the wreck was later raised and broken up in Genoa.