HMS Ambrose (1903)
Drawing of HMS Ambrose, dazzle-painted, anchored in a dock. Three submarines are alongside, and a fourth is seen broadside to port.
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | SS Ambrose |
| Owner: |
 Booth Steamship Co
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| Builder: | Sir Raylton Dixon & Co, Middlesbrough |
| Yard number: | 496 |
| Launched: | 31 March 1903 |
| Maiden voyage: | 20 September 1903 |
| Fate: |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Ambrose |
| Acquired: |
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| Commissioned: | 10 December 1914 |
| Renamed: | HMS Cochrane, 1 June 1938 |
| Reclassified: | As submarine depot ship, 1917 |
| Fate: | scrapped 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | armed merchant cruiser |
| Tonnage: | about 4,000 GRT |
| Displacement: | 6,600 tons |
| Length: | 387 ft 9 in (118.2 m) |
| Beam: | 47 ft 6 in (14.5 m) |
| Draught: | 20 ft 9 in (6.3 m) |
| Installed power: | |
| Propulsion: |
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| Armament: | 8 × 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine depot ship |
| Speed: | 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h) |
| Complement: | 238 |
| Armament: | 2 × 1 - QF 12-pounder anti-aircraft guns |
HMS Ambrose was a cargo and passenger liner bought by the Admiralty from the Booth Steamship Company early in World War I and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Later in the war she was converted into a submarine depot ship and spent most of the 1920s supporting submarines in the Far East. Upon her return home in 1928, Ambrose was placed in the Reserve Fleet. She was later modified to support destroyers and did so throughout World War II before she was sold for scrap in 1946.
Ambrose was 387 feet 5 inches (118.1 m) long overall, had a beam of 47 feet 6 inches (14.5 m), and a draught of 20 feet 9 inches (6.32 m). She was rated at approximately 4,000 GRT. The ship had one propeller shaft powered by a vertical triple-expansion steam engine rated at 6,350 indicated horsepower (4,740 kW) that used steam generated by an unknown number of coal-fired cylindrical boilers. In passenger service, she had a crew of about 102 officers and crewmen. SS Ambrose could carry 149 passengers in first class and 330 in steerage as originally built.
As an armed merchant cruiser, Ambrose's armament consisted of eight 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns and she displaced 6,600 tons. After her conversion to a submarine depot ship, Ambrose is noted as having a maximum speed of 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h), an armament of two quick-firing 12-pounder anti-aircraft guns, and had a crew of 238 officers and enlisted men. Much of her passenger accommodations would have been modified to serve the crews of her submarines as part of her conversion.
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Wikipedia