HMS Thames (1885)

Thames at anchor with what is probably an A-class submarine berthed next to her
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Thames
Namesake:	River Thames
Builder:	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down:	14 April 1884
Launched:	3 December 1885
Completed:	July 1888
Reclassified:	Submarine depot ship, 1903
Fate:	Sold, 13 November 1920
South Africa
Name:	SATS General Botha
Namesake:	Louis Botha
Christened:	1 April 1922
Acquired:	13 November 1920
Commissioned:	March 1922
Decommissioned:	1942
Renamed:	Thames, 1942
Reclassified:	Training ship, 1922 Accommodation ship, 1942
Homeport:	Simon's Town
Fate:	Scuttled, 13 May 1947
Status:	Diveable wreck
General characteristics
Class and type:	Mersey-class second-class cruiser
Displacement:	4,050 long tons (4,110 t)
Length:	300 ft (91.4 m) (p/p)
Beam:	46 ft (14.0 m)
Draught:	20 ft 2 in (6.1 m)
Installed power:	6,000 ihp (4,500 kW) 12 × cylindrical boilers
Propulsion:	2 × shafts 2 × horizontal, direct-acting, compound-expansion steam engines
Speed:	18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range:	8,750 nmi (16,200 km; 10,070 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	300–50
Armament:	2 × single BL 8 in (203 mm) guns 10 × single BL 6 in (152 mm) guns 3 × single QF 6-pounder (57 mm) Hotchkiss guns 3 × single QF 3-pounder (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns 2 × single 14 in (356 mm) torpedo tubes, 2 × 14 in torpedo launchers
Armour:	Deck: 2–3 in (51–76 mm) Conning tower: 9 in (229 mm)

HMS Thames was a Mersey-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1880s. The ship was placed in reserve upon her completion in 1888 and was converted into a submarine depot ship in 1903. She was sold out of the navy in 1920 and was purchased by a South African businessman to serve as a training ship for naval cadets under the name SATS General Botha. The ship arrived in South Africa in 1921 and began training her first class of cadets in Simon's Town the following year. General Botha continued to train cadets for the first several years of World War II, but the RN took over the ship in 1942 for use as an accommodation ship under her original name. She was scuttled by gunfire in 1947 and is now a diveable wreck.

The Mersey-class cruisers were improved versions of the Leander class with more armour and no sailing rig on a smaller displacement. Like their predecessors, they were intended to protect British shipping. The cruisers had a length between perpendiculars of 300 feet (91.4 m), a beam of 46 feet (14.0 m) and a draught of 20 feet 2 inches (6.1 m). They displaced 4,050 long tons (4,110 t). The ships were powered by a pair of two-cylinder horizontal, direct-acting, compound-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which were designed to produce a total of 6,000 indicated horsepower (4,500 kW) and a maximum speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) using steam provided by a dozen cylindrical boilers with forced draught. The Mersey class carried enough coal to give them a range of 8,750 nautical miles (16,200 km; 10,070 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). The ships' complement was 300 to 350 officers and ratings.