HMS Marshal Ney (1915)

HMS Marshal Ney, August 1915
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Marshal Ney
Builder:	Palmers, Jarrow
Launched:	17 June 1915
Commissioned:	August 1915
Fate:	Scrapped 1957
General characteristics
Class and type:	Marshal Ney-class monitor
Displacement:	6,670 long tons (6,780 t) (standard) 6,900 long tons (7,000 t) (full load)
Length:	355 ft (108 m)
Beam:	90 ft (27 m)
Draught:	10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Installed power:	1,500 hp (1,100 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × MAN diesel engines 2 × shafts
Speed:	9 kn (10 mph; 17 km/h) (design) 6 kn (6.9 mph; 11 km/h) (service)
Complement:	187
Armament:	As Built: 2 × BL 15 inch Mk I naval guns 2 × 12 pounder QF Mk I guns 1916: 1 × BL 9.2 in (230 mm) 40 cal Mk VIII gun 4 × QF 6 in (150 mm) 40 cal Mk II guns 2 × 12 pounder QF Mk I guns 1918: 1 × BL 9.2 in (230 mm) 40 cal Mk VIII gun 6 × BL 6 in (150 mm) Mk XI guns 2 × QF 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns 2 × 12 pounder guns
Armour:	Belt: 4 in (10 cm) Barbette: 8 in (20 cm) Turret: 13 in (33 cm)

HMS Marshal Ney was a Royal Navy Marshal Ney-class monitor constructed in the opening years of the First World War. Laid down as M13, she was named for the French general of the Napoleonic Wars Marshal Michel Ney. After service in World War I she became a depot ship and then a stokers' training ship. Between 1922 and 1947 she was renamed three times, becoming successively Vivid, Drake and Alaunia II. She was broken up in 1957.

Designed for inshore operations along the sandbank strewn Belgian coastline, Marshal Ney was equipped with two massive 15-inch (380 mm) naval guns. Originally, these guns were to have been stripped from one of the battlecruisers Renown and Repulse after they were redesigned. However, the guns were not ready, and guns intended for the battleship Ramillies were used instead.

The diesel engines used by the Marshal Ney-class ships were a constant source of technical difficulty, hampering their use. Marshal Ney in particular was—in the words of Jane's Fighting Ships—"practically a failure", on account of her MAN diesel engines being so unreliable. A contemporary description of the engines by Admiral Reginald Bacon, commander of the Dover Patrol from April 1915, shows how fault-prone they were:

Assigned to the Dover Patrol, Marshal Ney served with her sister ship HMS Marshal Soult. In 1916, her 15-inch barbette was stripped off and given to Erebus, launched in the same year and joining the Dover Patrol along with HMS Terror.Marshal Ney was then rearmed with a single 9.2-inch (230 mm) gun and four 6-inch (150 mm) guns for service as a guardship for The Downs. She engaged German destroyers during a raid on Ramsgate in April 1917.