HMS Liverpool (1909)

Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristics

HMS Liverpool was a 4,800 ton Template:Sclass2 light cruiser of the Royal Navy commissioned in 1909. Named for the port city of Liverpool, the cruiser served continuously in home waters subordinated to the Home Fleet from 1909 through the initial stages of the First World War.

During the war, Liverpool fought in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, operated off the coast of West Africa, and served in the Adriatic and Aegean. On 27 October 1914, the cruiser assisted in the rescue of the crew of Audacious. Liverpool made efforts to tow the battleship to port, but Audacious eventually capsized and exploded. After the Armistice was signed, Liverpool operated in the Black Sea during the Russian Civil War until placed in reserve in June 1919.

History

Grand Fleet (1914-1915)

Built by Vickers Sons & Maxim at Barrow-in-Furness, she was the first Liverpool to be named for the port city in the 20th Century and the first to be constructed of steel. Launched on 30 October 1909 and commissioned in 1910, Liverpool was one of five cruisers ordered to the Bristol sub-class specification.<ref name="Conway"/> The Bristol sub class was the first medium (or 2nd class) cruiser design to be built for the Royal Navy since the late 19th Century.<ref name="Conway"/> Their main armament consisted of two Template:Convert and ten Template:Convert guns — a mixed configuration deemed "unsatisfactory" and discontinued in the subsequent Weymouth sub-class in favour of a uniform complement of eight Template:Convert guns.<ref>Gray, Randal (1985), p52</ref>

She was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet on commission and transferred to the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron in 1913. At the beginning of the First World War, Liverpool was serving with the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron.<ref name="Conway"/> She participated in the first engagement of the war, the Battle of Heligoland Bight, on 28 August 1914 grouped with five other Town cruisers under command of Commodore William Goodenough.<ref>Osborne, Eric W. (2006), The Battle of Heligoland Bight, p52</ref> After the German cruiser Template:SMS was heavily damaged and disabled, Goodenough ordered his ships to cease firing on her at 12:55 pm and a rescue operation was subsequently undertaken. Liverpool, accompanied by the destroyers Template:HMS and Template:HMS, manoeuvred close to the cruiser in an effort to recover the surviving crew. Small craft from Liverpool were deployed to retrieve crewmembers who had abandoned ship while Lurcher positioned alongside Mainz to transfer the remaining personnel on board.<ref>Osborne, Eric W. (2006), The Battle of Heligoland Bight, pp91-2</ref> Liverpool detached from the main force at 7:45 pm to transport 86 embarked prisoners to Rosyth, including a son of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.<ref>Osborne, Eric W. (2006), The Battle of Heligoland Bight, p103</ref>

Two-months later, on 27 October, Liverpool was in the company of the battleship Template:HMS when the latter struck a mine during a morning exercise by the Grand Fleet off the coast of Ireland. Unsure of the circumstances of the incident, the Admiralty ordered the fleet to withdraw as a precaution while Liverpool remained as an escort. Audacious attempted to proceed to Lough Swilly but the flooding proved to be grievous. Other vessels, including the liner Template:RMS, converged on the position after Audacious transmitted an SOS. Repeated attempts to tow the immobile Audacious were ineffectual and the crew was steadily evacuated.<ref>Younghusband, Norman (2006),The Development of Mine Warfare: A Most Murderous and Barbarous Conduct, p83</ref> The battleship capsized and exploded at 20:45 with the loss of a petty officer on board Liverpool, killed by a scattered piece of armour plate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Adriatic and Aegean (1915-1918)

In 1915, Liverpool was detached from the Grand Fleet and sent to patrol the coast of West Africa in support of a search for the armed merchant cruiser Template:Ship.<ref name="Conway"/> LiverpoolTemplate:'s mission was unsuccessful and the cruiser arrived at her namesake port in June for boiler repairs. After the repairs were completed, Liverpool deployed to the Mediterranean in November.<ref name="Conway"/> She was ported in Brindisi, which functioned as a naval base for Allied warships operating in the Adriatic against Austria-Hungary. The cruiser, in concert with the Italian Template:Ship, pursued the Austrian destroyer Wildfang in February 1916, necessitating the latter's retreat to Cattaro.<ref>Halpern, Paul G. (1995), A Naval History of World War I, p158</ref> During the Battle of the Otranto Straits, Liverpool was under command of Captain G.H. Vivian and at a reduced state of readiness. Her unpreparedness was compounded by the captain's decision to use the cruiser's reduced state as an opportunity to undergo routine maintenance of the cruiser's boilers.<ref name="Brin">Halpern, Paul G. (2004), The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in WWI, p71</ref> Signals received from Saseno classified as "Urgent" were intercepted at 0350 am and disregarded because LiverpoolTemplate:'s wireless room was unable to read Italian and had been the recipient of similar signals previously.<ref name="Brin"/> Ultimately, Liverpool remained in port and no order was issued by Admiral Alfredo Acton for Liverpool to sail despite the cruiser's eventual readiness and Captain Vivian's personal request.<ref>Halpern, Paul G. (2004), The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in WWI, p110</ref>

Liverpool was transferred to the Aegean Squadron in January 1918.<ref name="Conway"/> Armistices with the Central Powers were signed later that year. With the Black Sea's accessibility restored and the Allies committed to intervention during the Russian Civil War, Liverpool was ordered to the region and engaged in operations supporting the White Army from November.<ref name="Conway"/> On the 23rd, Liverpool and the French armoured cruiser Template:Ship, escorted by two Australian destroyers, transported military delegations to the port of Novorossisk to establish contact with Russian General Denikin.<ref>Kinvig, Clifford (2006), Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia, 1918-1920, p94</ref> She returned to Britain in mid-1919 and was relegated to reserve status in June, berthed at Devonport Dockyard.<ref name="Conway"/>

Placed on the disposal list in March 1920,<ref name="Conway"/> Liverpool was sold to Stanlee, then acquired by Slough Trading Company in November 1921 and broken up in Germany.<ref>Colledge, J.J. & Warlow, Ben (2003), Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, p193</ref> A silver bell and plate were preserved and presented to the Birkenhead-built battleship Template:HMS. The objects came into the possession of the sixth Template:HMS in the late 1930s as gifts following the light cruiser's commission.<ref>A City’s Gift to Warship. H.M.S. Liverpool in the Mersey, The Times, 9 January 1939, ancs.ac.uk. Accessed 25 April 2008.</ref>

Image gallery

• HMS Liverpool tows HMS Audacious.jpg

  HMS Liverpool and another naval vessel, together with RMS Olympic, try to take HMS Audacious in tow. The view is from the passenger areas of RMS Olympic

• HMS Liverpool attemps to take HMS Audacious in tow.jpg

  View from the passenger decks of RMS Olympic as HMS Liverpool (left) strains to tow the sinking HMS Audacious (bow seen on right), dated October 26 (sic) 1914.

• HMS Audacious crew take to lifeboats.jpg

  After aborting the attempts to tow, the crew of HMS Audacious take to lifeboats to be taken aboard RMS Olympic. The Olympic passengers and amateur photographers, Edith and Mabel Smith of Derby, dated the event in their album as 26 October (sic) 1914.

• HMS Liverpool (Bristol-class cruiser).jpg

  HMS Liverpool (Bristol-class cruiser)

References

• {{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite book

|_exclude=case, year, _debug
| last1 = Colledge
| first1 = J. J. 
| author-link1= J. J. Colledge
| last2 = Warlow
| first2 = Ben
| date = 2006
| orig-date = 1969
| title = Ships of the Royal Navy: {{#if:|The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy|The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy}}
| edition = Rev.
| location = London
| publisher = Chatham Publishing
| isbn = 978-1-86176-281-8

}}

• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
• Gray, Randal (1985), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921, Conway Maritime Press. Template:ISBN

External links

• Warships1.com - Bristol-class cruiser (webarchive)
• Worldwar1.co.uk - Bristol-class cruiser