HMS Mallow (1915)

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History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
Name: HMS Mallow
Builder: Barclay Curle, Glasgow
Launched: 13 July 1915
Fate: Transferred to Royal Australian Navy, 1919
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgAustralia
Name: HMAS Mallow
Acquired: 1919
Decommissioned: 20 November 1925
Fate: Sunk as a target, 24 April 1935
General characteristics
Class and type: Acacia-class sloop
Displacement: 1,200 long tons (1,219 t)
Length:
  • 250 ft (76 m) p/p
  • 262 ft 6 in (80.01 m) o/a
Beam: 33 ft (10 m)
Draught: 12 ft (3.7 m)
Propulsion:
  • 1 × 4-cylinder triple expansion engine
  • 2 × cylindrical boilers
  • 1 screw
Range: 2,000 nmi (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) with max. 250 tons of coal
Complement: 77
Armament:

HMS Mallow was an Acacia-class sloop built for the Royal Navy, and later operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as HMAS Mallow.

<i>Acacia</i>-class sloop

The Acacia class was a class of twenty-four sloops that were ordered in January 1915 under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I as part of the larger Flower class which were also referred to as the "Cabbage class", or "Herbaceous Borders". They were ordered in two batches, twelve ships on 1 January and another twelve on 12 January, and all were launched within about four or five months, and delivered between May and September 1915. They were used almost entirely for minesweeping until 1917, when they were transferred to escort duty.

Sloop-of-war ship type

In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term sloop-of-war encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialized functions.

Royal Navy Maritime warfare branch of the United Kingdoms military

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.

Contents

Construction

Mallow was constructed by Barclay Curle at Glasgow in Scotland. She was launched on 13 July 1915.

Glasgow City and council area in Scotland

Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, and the third most populous city in the United Kingdom, as of the 2017 estimated city population of 621,020. Historically part of Lanarkshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland; the local authority is Glasgow City Council. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as "Glaswegians" or "Weegies". It is the fourth most visited city in the UK. Glasgow is also known for the Glasgow patter, a distinct dialect of the Scots language that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city.

Scotland Country in Europe, part of the United Kingdom

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Operational history

World War I

During World War I, the sloop was tasked primarily with minesweeping. On 31 December 1915, Mallow picked up the bulk of the survivors of the passenger ship Persia [1] (which had been torpedoed the day before off Crete) and conveyed them to Alexandria. In 1918, Mallow rescued the passengers of the French mailboat Djemnah, including future acting Governor-General of Madagascar Joseph Guyon, after the mailboat was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Mallow later received letters of commendation from the Admiralty and Guyon.

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

Minesweeping action of removing explosive mines

Minesweeping is the practice of the removal of explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that purpose. Minesweeping has been practiced since the advent of naval mining in 1855 in the Crimean War. The first minesweepers date to that war and consisted of British rowboats trailing grapnels to snag the mines.

SS <i>Persia</i> (1900) ship

SS Persia was a P&O passenger liner, built in 1900 by Caird & Company, Inverclyde, Greenock, Scotland. It was torpedoed and sunk without warning on 30 December 1915, by German U-boat U-38.

With the RAN

The sloop was transferred to the RAN in 1919.

Decommissioning and fate

Mallow paid off to reserve on 18 October 1919, was decommissioned on 20 November 1925, and sunk as a target on 24 April 1935.

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HMAS <i>Parramatta</i> (U44)

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<i>Arabis</i>-class sloop

The Arabis class was the third, and largest, of the five sub-classes of minesweeping sloops completed under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I. They were part of the larger "Flower Class" shipbuilding project, which were also referred to as the "Cabbage Class", or "Herbaceous Borders". The ships were also used outside their minesweeping duties as patrol vessels, tugs, and personnel and cargo transports.

HMS <i>Mallow</i> (K81) corvette

HMS Mallow was a Flower-class corvette commissioned into the Royal Navy that served as a convoy escort during World War II; with the Royal Navy in 1940–1944, and with the Royal Yugoslav Navy-in-exile in 1944–1945. In Yugoslav service she was renamed Nada. Her main armament was a single 4-inch (102 mm) Mk IX naval gun, although a significant number of secondary and anti-aircraft guns were added towards the end of the war. During the war she escorted a total of 80 convoys whilst in British service, sinking one German U-boat, and escorted another 18 convoys whilst in Yugoslav service. After the war she served in the fledgling Yugoslav Navy as Nada then Partizanka, before being returned to the Royal Navy in 1949. Later that year she was transferred to the Egyptian Navy in which she served as El Sudan until she was discarded in 1975.

P-class sloop

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HMAS <i>Doomba</i>

HMAS Doomba was a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) warship of World War II. Built for the Royal Navy around the end of World War I as the Hunt-class minesweeper HMS Wexford, the ship only saw two years of service before she was decommissioned in 1921 and sold to the Doomba Shipping Company. The vessel was renamed SS Doomba, converted into a passenger ship, and operated in the waters around Brisbane until 1939, when she was requisitioned by the RAN for wartime service. Serving first as an auxiliary minehunter, then an auxiliary anti-submarine vessel, HMAS Doomba was purchased outright by the RAN in 1940, and served until early 1946, when she was sold and converted into a linseed oil lighter. Doomba was scuttled off Dee Why, New South Wales in 1976.

HMS <i>Laburnum</i> (1915)

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Battle of Dogger Bank (1916)

The Battle of Dogger Bank on 10 February 1916 was a naval engagement between the Kaiserliche Marine of the German Empire and the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, during the First World War. Three German torpedo boat flotillas sortied into the North Sea and encountered the British 10th Mine-sweeping Flotilla near Dogger Bank. The German vessels eventually engaged the British vessels, after mistaking them for cruisers instead of minesweeping sloops. Knowing they were out-gunned, the British attempted to flee and in the chase, the sloop HMS Arabis was sunk, before the British squadron escaped. As the cruisers of the Harwich Force returned to port, the light cruiser HMS Arethusa struck a mine, ran aground and broke in two. Although the Germans were victorious, they inflated the victory by reporting that they had sunk two cruisers.

HMS Mallow has been the name of more than one ship of the British Royal Navy, and may refer to:

HMS <i>Foxglove</i> (1915)

HMS Foxglove was an Acacia-class minesweeping sloop of the Royal Navy. She saw service in World War I and World War II.

References

  1. "2 January 1916 – Ted – The Sinking of the Persia". familyletters.co.uk. Retrieved 12 January 2017.