HMS Nottingham (1913)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Town-class light cruiser |
| Name: | HMS Nottingham |
| Ordered: | under 1911 Naval Estimates |
| Builder: | Pembroke Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 13 June 1912 |
| Launched: | 18 April 1913 |
| Commissioned: | April 1914 |
| Fate: | Sunk 19 August 1916 by U 52 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 5,440 tons |
| Length: | 457 ft (139 m) Overall |
| Beam: | 50 ft (15 m) |
| Draught: | 15.75 ft (4.80 m) |
| Propulsion: | Parsons turbines Four screws Twelve Yarrow boilers 25,000 hp |
| Speed: | 25.5 knots (47 km/h) |
| Range: | carried 1165 tons maximum coal 235 tons fuel oil 4,680 miles at 10 knots |
| Complement: | 433 |
| Armament: | 9 × 6 inch guns 1 × 3 inch AA gun 4 × 3 pdr guns 2 × machine guns 2 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
| Armour: | 3 inch side amidships 1½ inch side (forward) 1¾ inch side (aft) |
The fifth HMS Nottingham was launched in 1913 and commissioned in 1914. A light Town class cruiser of 5,440 tons, 430 feet (131 m) in length and a complement of 401 men, she had 2 inch thick armour plating and was armed with nine six-inch (152 mm) guns, one thirteen-pound anti-aircraft gun and two twenty-one inch torpedo tubes. Seeing action for the first time off Heligoland on the 28 August 1914 as one of eight British light cruisers supported by destroyers and submarines, she entered the Heligoland Bight to intercept German vessels employed on coastal protection duties, an action that developed into the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
The ship then saw action in the Yorkshire Raid on 16 December and shortly after that at the Battle of Dogger Bank on 23 January 1915. On the 31 May came the Battle of Jutland, where the Nottingham was attached to the Second Light Cruiser Squadron. Two and a half months later on 19 August 1916 she was engaged in a sweep of the North Sea in thick mist 120 miles (193 km) south-east of the Firth of Forth when, at 0600, she was hit by two torpedoes from U boat U 52, and another just 25 minutes later. At 0710 she eventually sank with the loss of only a few hands.
In December 1993, during a ceremony at Emden, Admiral Otto H Cilax of the Federal German Navy presented the Commanding Officer of the sixth and current HMS Nottingham with a Plaque, Cap Ribbon and the Ensign from the fifth Nottingham as a gesture of goodwill and reconciliation. Admiral Cilax's grandfather was the Captain of U52; he recovered these items off a boat from the ship while picking up survivors and they currently reside in the Captain's Cabin Flat.
[edit] References
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
- Ships of the Birmingham group
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