HMS Canopus (1898)

HMS "Canopus" was a "Canopus"-class predreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy. She was named after Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky after Sirius.

Technical Description

HMS "Canopus" was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 4 January 1897, launched on 12 October 1897, and completed on 5 December 1899. [Burt, p. 141]

"Canopus" and her five sister ships were designed for service in the Far East, where the new rising power Japan was beginning to build a powerful and dangerous navy, and to able to transit the Suez Canal. They were designed to be smaller (by about 2,000 tons), lighter, and faster than their predecessors, the "Majestic"-class battleships, although they were slightly longer at 430 feet (131 m). In order to save weight, "Canopus" carried less armor than the "Majestic"s, although the change from Harvey armor in the "Majestic"s to Krupp armor in "Canopus" meant that the loss in protection was not as great as it might have been, Krupp armor having greater protective value at a given weight than its Harvey equivalent. Still, the armor of the "Canopus" class was light enough to make them almost second-class battleships. Part of their armor scheme included the use of a special 1-inch (2.54 mm) armored deck over the belt to defend against plunging fire by howitzers that France reportedly planned to install on its ships, although this report proved to be false. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905", p. 35]

tubes. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905", p. 35, 36; Gibbons, p. 145]

The "Canopus" class ships were the first British battleships with water-tube boilers, which generated more power at less expense in weight compared with the cylindrical boilers used in previous ships. The new boilers led to the adoption of fore-and-aft funnels, rather than the side-by-side funnel arrangement used in may previous British battleships. The "Canopus"-class ships proved to be good steamers, consuming 10 tons of coal per hour at full speed, [Gibbons, p. 145] with a high speed for battleships of their time, a full two knots faster than the "Majestic"s. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905", p. 35; Gibbons, p. 145]

Operational History

HMS "Canopus" commissioned at Portsmouth on 5 December 1899 for service in the Mediterranean Fleet. She underwent a refit at Malta from December 1900 to June 1901, and ended her Mediterranean service in April 1903. She paid off into the Reserve at Portsmouth on 25 April 1903 [Burt, p. 154]

While in reserve, "Canopus" was given an extensive refit by Cammel Laird at Birkenhead that lasted from May 1903 to June 1904. Returning to the commissioned Reserve at Portsmouth, she was rammed by the battleship HMS "Barfleur" in Mount's Bay during maneuvers on 5 August 1904, suffering slight damage. [Burt, p. 154]

"Canopus" returned to full commission on 9 May 1905 to relieve battleship HMS "Centurion" on the China Station and had gotten as far as Colombo, Ceylon, on her outbound voyage when the United Kingdom and Japan ratified a treaty of alliance. The alliance meant that the United Kingdom could have a reduced presence on the China Station and no longer required battleships there, so "Canopus" was recalled from Colombo in June 1905 and thus was the only "Canopus"-class battleship that did not serve on the China Station. [Burt, p. 154]

Upon her return to the United Kingdom, "Canopus" began service in the Atlantic Fleet on 22 July 1905. In January 1906 she transferred to the Channel Fleet and was fitted with fire control later that year. She transferred again on 10 March 1907, this time to the Portsmouth Division of the Home Fleet at Portsmouth, [Burt, p. 154] where she was reduced to a nucleus crew in May 1907 ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7] and underwent a refit between November 1907 and April 1908. [Burt, p. 154]

Her refit completed, "Canopus" commissioned on 28 April 1908 for service in the Mediterranean Fleet. In December 1909, she was reduced to service in the 4th Division, Home Fleet, undergoing a refit at Chatham Dockyard from July 1911 to April 1912 during this service. [Burt, p. 154] In May 1912 she went into reserve at the Nore to serve as the parent ship for the 4th Division, Home Fleet, and in 1913 and 1914 was stationed at Pembroke Dock in Wales as part of the 3rd Fleet. ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7]

After World War I broke out in August 1914, "Canopus" commissioned on 7 August 1914 ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7] for service in the 8th Battle Squadron in the Channel Fleet. She was detached from that duty on 21 August 1914 to operate from the Cape Verde-Canary Islands Station to support the cruiser squadron there. On 1 September 1914, her sister ship HMS "Albion" relieved her, and "Canopus" transferred to the South America Station, and arrived at the Abrolhos Rocks on 22 September 1914 to become guard ship there and provide support to the cruiser squadron of Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock. "Canopus" departed the Abrolhos Rocks on 7 October 1914 to assist Cradock's ships in searching for the German squadron of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee, which was en route the South Atlantic from the Far East. "Canopus" arrived at Stanley in the Falkland Islands on 18 October 1914, where she took up guard ship and escort duties. [Burt, p. 154]

Under a mistaken belief that "Canopus" could make no more than 13 knots, ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7] Cradock left "Canopus" behind when he took his cruiser squadron into the South Pacific to find Graf Spee, and she was 300 nautical miles (556 km) south of Cradock when Graf Spee's squadron destroyed his force and killed Cradock in the Battle of Coronel on 1 November 1914. "Canopus" returned to Stanley, arriving there on 12 November 1914.

At Stanley, "Canopus's" crew set up defenses against an attack by Graf Spee. "Canopus" herself was beached in the mudflats ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7] in a position that allowed her to cover the entrance to the harbor and have a field of fire landward to the southeast; to reduce her visibility, her topmasts were struck and she was camouflaged. An observation post was established ashore on high ground and connected to the ship by telephone, allowing "Canopus" to use indirect fire against approaching ships. Some of her 12-pounder guns and a detachment of 70 Royal Marines were put ashore to defend Stanley and its environs. [Burt, p. 154]

All was quiet until welcome reinforcements arrived at Stanley on 7 December 1914 in the form of the battlecruiser squadron of Admiral Sir Frederic Doveton Sturdee. Early the next morning, 8 December 1914 "Canopus's" observation post ashore spotted smoke on the horizon and soon identified the approaching ships as von Spee's squadron. "Canopus" opened indirect fire, firing the first shots of the Battle of the Falklands at the extreme range of 12,000 yards (3,660 m); although von Spee was beyond the range of her guns and she only had practice rounds to fire, she did succeed in hitting armored cruiser SMS Gneisenau's after funnel with a 12-inch (305-mm) shell that ricocheted off the water. [Burt, p. 154; "Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7, says that "Canopus" scored no hits] Under fire from "Canopus" and spotting the tophampers of Sturdee's battlecruisers, von Spee called off his force's planned attack on the Falklands' radio and coaling stations and ran, allowing Sturdee's force to raise steam and pursue the German force. [Some sources credit "Canopus" with spooking von Spee into running and thereby keeping Sturdee's ships from being caught in harbor by von Spee, but others assert that von Spee ran because he knew that Sturdee's battlecruisers were in the harbor and outclassed his ships] Sturdee gave chase and destroyed von Spee's squadron by the end of the day, but "Canopus" remained behind at Stanley because of her low speed and missed the rest of the battle. [Burt, p. 154]

"Canopus" left the Falklands on 18 December 1914 to return to her South American Station duties at the Abrolhos Rocks. [Burt, p. 154]

In February 1915, "Canopus" transferred to the Mediterranean to take part in the Dardanelles campaign. On 2 March 1915, she took part in the second attack on the Ottoman Turkish entrance forts at the Dardanelles, taking hits that tore off her main topmast and damaged her after funnel and wardroom. During the third landings on 4 March 1915, she demonstrated off the Aegean coast. She covered the bombardment of the forts by the dreadnought HMS "Queen Elizabeth" on 8 March 1915, and covered minesweepers attempting to sweep in minefields off Kephes between 10 March 1915 and 12 March 1915. She also took part in the major attack on the Narrows forts on 18 March 1915. [Burt, p. 154]

After that attack, "Canopus" and light cruiser HMS "Talbot" escorted the damaged battlecruiser HMS "Inflexible" from Mudros to Malta, towing "Inflexible" by the stern when "Inflexible" became unable to steam ahead during the latter part of the voyage. "Canopus" then escorted troop conoys from Egypt.

Returning to the Dardanelles, "Canopus" took part in the blockade of Smyrna ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7] and covered a diversionary attack on Bulair during the main landings on 25 April 1915. When her sister ship "Albion" became stranded on a sandbank off Gaba Tepe under heavy fire on 22 May-23 May 1915, "Canopus" towed her free. [Burt reports the towing date as 23 May 1915 on p. 154 but as 24 May 1915 on p. 159] "Canopus" then underwent a refit at Malta from May to June 1915. [Burt, p. 154]

After the Dardanelles campaign ended with the evacuation of Allied forces from Gallipoli in January 1916, "Canopus" was assigned to the British Eastern Mediterranean Squadron, where she served under she returned to the United Kingdom in April 1916. [Burt, p. 154]

"Canopus" arrived at Plymouth on 22 April 1916, then paid off at Chatham to provide crews for antisubmarine vessels. She remained at Chatham until April 1919, undergoing a refit there later in 1916, [Burt, p. 154] having her eight main-deck 6-inch (152-mm) guns replaced by four on the battery deck and her 12-pounder and 3-pounder guns replaced by light antiaircraft weapons in 1917, ["Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921", p. 7] and becoming an accommodation ship in February 1918. [Burt, p. 154]

"Canopus" was placed on the disposal list at Chatham in April 1919. She was sold for scrapping on 18 February 1920, and arrived at Dover on 26 February 1920 to be scrapped. [Burt, p. 154]

Notes

References

*" Appletons' Annual Cyclopædia and Register of Important Events of the Year". New York: Appleton, 1900.
*Brassey, T. A. "The Naval Annual 1898". Portsmouth: J. Griffith, 1898.
*"First Story Told of Falkland Fight." "New York Times". 21 December 1914.
*Burt, R. A. "British Battleships 1889-1904". Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1988. ISBN 0870210610.
*Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, eds. "Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905". New York: Mayflower Books, Inc., 1979. ISBN 0831703024.
*Gibbons, Tony. "The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day". London: Salamander Books Ltd., 1983.
*Gray, Randal, Ed. "Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921." Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0870219073.
*Hickey, Michael. "The First World War. Volume Four: The Mediterranean Front". New York: Routledge, 2003.
*"Latest Battleships and Cruisers for the British Navy." "Scientific American". 15 April 1899.
*Pollen, A. J. H. "The British Navy in Battle". London: Chatto and Windus., 1919.
*Wren, M. F. and W. L. Wyllie. "Sea Fights of the Great War". New York: Cassell, 1918.

External links

* [http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/pages/battleships/hms_canopus.htm MaritimeQuest HMS Canopus pages]
* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/pre-dreadnought/hms-canopus.html World War 1 Naval Combat]