HMS Cockchafer (1915)

History
Cockchafer underway accompanied by Cricket, Glowworm and Cicala
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Cockchafer
Namesake:	Cockchafer
Ordered:	1915
Builder:	Barclay Curle
Laid down:	1915
Launched:	17 December 1915
Honours and awards:	Sicily 1943, Mediterranean 1940–1945
Fate:	Broken up 1949 at Singapore
General characteristics
Class and type:	Insect-class gunboat
Displacement:	625 tons
Length:	72.40 m (237 ft 6 in) (overall)
Beam:	11.00 m (36 ft 1 in)
Draft:	1.20 m (3 ft 11 in)
Propulsion:	2 × Yarrow water tube boilers, 2 × North Eastern Marine Engineering Works expansion turbines, 2 shafts, 2,000 shp (1,500 kW)
Speed:	14.0 knots (16.1 mph; 25.9 km/h)
Complement:	55
Armament:	(1916) 2 × BL 6 inch Mk VII 2 × 12 pdr. guns 6 × .303 British Maxim guns (October 1938) 2 × BL 6 inch Mk VII 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) AA gun 1 × QF 2 pdr. naval gun 8 × .303 British Lewis guns

HMS Cockchafer was a Royal Navy Insect-class gunboat. She was built by Barclay Curle and launched on 17 December 1915 as the fifth Royal Navy ship to carry this name. The Insect class was originally designed for service on the River Danube but most of them spent much of their service on Chinese rivers.

During the First World War, Cockchafer was assigned to the defence of the south east coast of England, based at Brightlingsea. During the Russian Civil War, she served with some of her sister ships as part of the British intervention forces fighting in support of White Russian forces on the Dvina River from 1918–1919. On 17 January 1920, the Insect-class ships Cricket, Cockchafer, Moth, Mantis and Cicala set out from Chatham, England for China. Cockchafer was stationed on the Yangtze River where her duties were patrolling and protection of British nationals and interests in China.

One significant event which Cockchafer was involved in was the Wanhsien Incident in August and September 1926. Wanhsien, now known as Wanzhou District, is a port on the Yangtze River about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) upstream from Shanghai. The local warlord, Marshal Wu Pei Fu controlled the area and his local commander was General Yang Sen.

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Wikipedia