HMS Amethyst (1903)
_IWM_Q_038114.jpg) |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | HMS Amethyst |
| Builder: | Elswick Naval Works, Armstrong Whitworth & Co |
| Yard number: | 735 |
| Laid down: | January 1903 |
| Launched: | 5 November 1903 |
| Completed: | 17 March 1905 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap in 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Topaze-class protected cruiser |
| Displacement: | 3,000 tons |
| Length: | 360 ft (109.7 m) |
| Beam: | 40 ft (12.2 m) |
| Draught: | 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m) |
| Installed power: | 12,000 hp (8,900 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 22.5 knots (41.7 km/h) |
| Complement: | 296 |
| Armament: |
|
| Armour: | 1-inch gun shields, ½-inch to 2-inch deck armour |
HMS Amethyst was a third-class protected cruiser of the Topaze class of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1903, served during World War I at the Dardanelles and Gallipoli, in the Mediterranean and the South Atlantic. She was sold for scrap in 1920.
She was laid down in January 1903 at Armstrong, Elswick, was launched on 5 November 1903 and was completed in March 1905.
Until Amethyst was built, the largest warships fitted with steam turbines were destroyers. Their use in Amethyst reduced overall range at 10 knots by 1,500 nautical miles (2,780 km), but increased it by 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km) at 20 knots, compared with her sister ships.
Once World War I broke out in 1914, HMS Amethyst was assigned to the Harwich force of the Royal Navy. She participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight under the command of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt. Later that year she was transferred to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the Royal Navy.
Amethyst took part in the covering operation for the minesweeping effort in the Dardanelles and during the action on 1 March and 4 March 1915 she exchanged fire with Turkish forts. On the evening of 4 March she took on board injured personnel of the landing party and discharged them the next day into Soudan and SS Braemar Castle. During the hours of darkness between 6 and 11 March she took part in operations in the Dardanelles against mines, and was frequently in action against field artillery, forts and searchlights. On 14 March at 04:10 she was hit by field artillery and lost 22 men killed. A further 38 men were wounded, of whom 4 later died.Amethyst retired to Tenedos for repairs. The Captain, Commander G. J. Todd, and Lieutenant James C. J. Soutter, Senior Lieutenant, were commended in the Naval Dispatch dated 17 March 1914 from Vice Admiral Carden.
On 24 April 1915 Amethyst and her sister-ship Sapphire embarked soldiers and landed them by trawler at Y beach on the northwest shore of the Gallipoli Peninsula in the early morning of 25 April. She supported the British troops ashore with gunfire until 27 April by bombarding enemy positions. By mid-morning on 27 April, with the situation on the beach described as "desperate", surviving troops were beginning to come back on board - Amethyst took on board over 250 officers and men, many of them wounded.
...
Wikipedia