Design and description
The Carlisle sub-class was identical with the preceding Ceres sub-class except that their bows were raised for better seakeeping. The ships were 451 feet 6 inches (137.6 m) long overall, with a beam of 43 feet 6 inches (13.3 m) and a mean draught of 15 feet 6 inches (4.7 m). Displacement was 4,290 long tons (4,360 t ) at normal and 5,250 long tons (5,330 t) at deep load. Columbo was powered by two Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, which produced a total of 40,000 indicated horsepower (30,000 kW). The turbines used steam generated by six Yarrow boilers which gave her a speed of about 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph). She carried 935 long tons (950 t) tons of fuel oil. The ship had a crew of about 432 officers and ratings. [1]
The armament of the Carlisle sub-class consisted of five BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XII guns that were mounted on the centreline. One superfiring pair of guns was forward of the bridge, one was aft of the two funnels and the last two were in the stern, with one gun superfiring over the rearmost gun. The two QF 3-inch (76 mm) 20-cwt anti-aircraft guns were positioned abreast of the fore funnel. The ships were equipped with eight 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes in four twin mounts, two on each broadside. [1]
Construction and war service
Colombo, named after the former capital city of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, was laid down by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company on 8 December 1917, and launched on 18 December 1918. She was commissioned too late to see action in the First World War, but went on to serve in the Second World War. In the interwar period she served in the Far East with the Eastern Fleet between June 1919 to 1926, before being reassigned to the North American and West Indies Station. The ship returned to the Eastern Fleet from July 1932 to 1935, before returning to the UK to be put into reserve. [2]
Colombo spent the early part of the war in service with the Home Fleet, during which time she captured the German merchant ship Henning Oldendorff south-east of Iceland. She then returned to the Eastern Fleet between August 1940 and June 1942 before again returning to the UK to undergo a refit and conversion into an anti-aircraft cruiser between June 1942 and March 1943. Colombo survived the war and was sold on 22 January 1948, arriving at the yards of Cashmore, Newport on 13 May 1948 to be broken up. [3]
HMS Cardiff was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was one of the five ships of the Ceres sub-class and spent most of her career as a flagship. Assigned to the Grand Fleet during the war, the ship participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in late 1917. Cardiff was briefly deployed to the Baltic in late 1918 supporting anti-Bolshevik forces during the British campaign in the Baltic during the Russian Civil War.
HMS Hyperion was an H-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the mid-1930s. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, the ship enforced the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides as part of the Mediterranean Fleet. During the first few months of World War II, Hyperion searched for German commerce raiders in the Atlantic Ocean and blockaded German merchant ships in neutral harbours until she returned to the British Isles in early 1940. The ship participated in the Norwegian Campaign before she was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet shortly afterwards. Hyperion participated in the Battle of Calabria and the Battle of Cape Spada in July 1940 while escorting the larger ships of the fleet. The ship covered several convoys to Malta before she struck a mine and was deliberately scuttled in December 1940.
HMS Kandahar (F28) was a K-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s, named after the Afghan city of Kandahar.
The York class was the second and final class of 8-inch (203 mm)–gunned heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy under the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. They were essentially a reduced version of the preceding County class, scaled down to enable more cruisers to be built from the limited defence budgets of the late 1920s.
The C class was a group of twenty-eight light cruisers of the Royal Navy, and were built in a sequence of seven groups known as the Caroline class, the Calliope class, the Cambrian class, the Centaur class, the Caledon class, the Ceres class and the Carlisle class. They were built for the rough conditions of the North Sea, and proved to be rugged and capable vessels, despite being somewhat small and cramped.
The Arethusa class was a class of four light cruisers built for the Royal Navy between 1933 and 1937 and that served in World War II. It had been intended to construct six ships, but the last pair, Polyphemus and Minotaur, were ordered in 1934 as the 9,100-ton Town-class Southampton and Newcastle.
HMS Vindictive was a warship built during the First World War for the Royal Navy (RN). Originally designed as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser and laid down under the name Cavendish, she was converted into an aircraft carrier while still being built. Renamed in 1918, she was completed a few weeks before the end of the war and saw no active service with the Grand Fleet. The following year she participated in the British campaign in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks during which her aircraft made numerous attacks against the naval base at Kronstadt. Vindictive returned home at the end of the year and was placed in reserve for several years before her flight decks were removed and she was reconverted back into a cruiser. The ship retained her aircraft hangar and conducted trials with an aircraft catapult before she was sent to the China Station in 1926. A year after her return in 1928, she was again placed in reserve.
The Emerald class or E class was a class of two light cruisers built for the Royal Navy. Following the Cavendish class, three ships of a new class were ordered in March 1918, towards the end of World War I, designed to emphasise high speed at the cost of other qualities, for use against rumoured new high-speed German cruisers – like the Brummer class – and particularly minelayers, in the North Sea. However, the third ship was cancelled in November 1918.
HMS Bedouin was a Tribal-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II.
The Highflyer-class cruisers were a group of three second-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the late 1890s.
HMS Curlew was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was part of the Ceres sub-class of the C class. The ship survived World War I to be sunk by German aircraft during the Norwegian Campaign in 1940.
HMS Caledon was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was the name ship of the Caledon sub-class of the C class. She survived both world wars to be scrapped in 1948.
HMS Caradoc was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was one of the four ships of the Caledon sub-class. Assigned to the Grand Fleet during the war, the ship participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in late 1917. Caradoc was briefly deployed to the Baltic in late 1918 supporting anti-Bolshevik forces during the British campaign in the Baltic and then was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in early 1919 and spent the next year and a half doing the same thing in the Black Sea during the Russian Civil War. The ship was withdrawn from the Black Sea in mid-1920 to observe the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22 and the Chanak Crisis of late 1922. Caradoc spent most of the rest of her time between the World Wars overseas or in reserve with deployments to the Far East and the North America and West Indies Station.
HMS Cambrian was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was the name ship of her sub-class of four ships. Assigned to the Grand Fleet upon completion in 1916, the ship played only a small role during the war. Cambrian was assigned to the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets during the 1920s and was sent to support British interests in Turkey during the Chanak Crisis of 1922–1923. The ship was placed in reserve in late 1929. She was sold for scrap in 1934.
HMS Cordelia was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was one of six ships of the Caroline sub-class and was completed at the beginning of 1915. The ship was assigned to the 1st and 4th Light Cruiser Squadrons (LCS) of the Grand Fleet for the entire war and played a minor role in the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. Cordelia spent most of her time on uneventful patrols of the North Sea. She spent most of 1919 as a training ship before she was recommissioned for service with the Atlantic Fleet in 1920. The ship was placed in reserve at the end of 1922 and was sold for scrap in mid-1923.
HMS Despatch was a Danae-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was part of the Delhi sub-class of the Danae class.
HMS Hawkins was the lead ship of her class of five heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War, although the ship was not completed until 1919. She was assigned to the China Station until 1928 and was briefly assigned to the Atlantic Fleet in 1929–1930, always serving as a flagship, before being placed in reserve. Hawkins was recommissioned in 1932 for service on the East Indies Station, but returned to reserve three years later. The ship was disarmed in 1937–1938 and converted into a cadet training ship in 1938.
HMS Frobisher was one of five Hawkins-class heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. She was not finished during the war and construction proceeded very slowly after the end of the war in 1918. Completed in 1924, the ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet in 1929, sometimes serving as a flagship. Placed in reserve in 1930, Frobisher was converted into a cadet training ship in 1932 before being returned to reserve in 1937. Two years later she was reactivated to again serve as a training ship.
The Pathfinder-class cruisers were a pair of scout cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The sister ships spent much of the first decade of their careers in reserve. When the First World War began in August 1914 they were given coastal defence missions, Pathfinder on the coast of Scotland and Patrol on the coast of Yorkshire. The latter ship was badly damaged when the Germans bombarded Hartlepool in December. She spent the rest of the war in British waters. The ship was paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap the following year. Pathfinder was sunk by a German submarine shortly after the war began, the first sinking of a British warship during the war by a German submarine.
HMS Crescent was a C-class destroyer which was built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Home Fleet, although she was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–36. Crescent was sold to the Royal Canadian Navy in late 1936 and renamed HMCS Fraser. She was stationed on the west coast of Canada until the beginning of World War II when she was transferred to the Atlantic coast for convoy escort duties. The ship was transferred to the United Kingdom (UK) in May 1940 and helped to evacuate refugees from France upon her arrival in early June. Fraser was sunk on 25 June 1940 in a collision with the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta while returning from one such mission.
United Kingdom