HMS Niobe (1897)

HMS Niobe
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Niobe
Namesake:	Niobe
Builder:	Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness
Launched:	20 February 1897
In service:	1898
Fate:	Transferred to Royal Canadian Navy on 6 September 1910
Canada
Name:	HMCS Niobe
Commissioned:	6 September 1910
Out of service:	6 September 1915 to depot ship
Struck:	1920
Homeport:	Halifax, Nova Scotia
Fate:	Broken up in 1922
General characteristics
Class and type:	Diadem-class protected cruiser
Displacement:	11,000 tons
Length:	435 ft (133 m) 462 ft 6 in (140.97 m) o/a
Beam:	69 ft (21 m)
Draught:	25 ft 6 in (7.77 m)
Propulsion:	2 shaft triple expansion engines 16,500–18,000 hp (12,300–13,400 kW)
Speed:	20–20.5 knots (37.0–38.0 km/h; 23.0–23.6 mph)
Complement:	760
Armament:	16 × single QF 6-inch (152.4 mm) guns 14 × single QF 12-pounder (76 mm) guns 3 × single QF 3-pounder (47 mm) guns 2 × 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Casemates 6 in (150 mm) Decks 4.5–2 in (114–51 mm)

HMS Niobe was a ship of the Diadem class of protected cruiser in the Royal Navy. She served in the Boer War and was then given to Canada as the second ship of the then newly created Naval Service of Canada as HMCS Niobe. The Naval Service of Canada became the Royal Canadian Navy in August 1911. The ship was nearly lost when she went aground off Cape Sable overnight 30-31 July 1911. Repairs were not completed until the end of 1912 and was not in service again until the fall of 1914. She patrolled the approaches to the St Lawrence and then joined the Royal Navy's 4th Cruiser Squadron to patrol the off New York. She returned to Halifax on 17 July 1915 and never put to sea again but was paid off in September and serve as a depot ship in Halifax. Damaged in the 1917 Halifax Explosion, she was scrapped in the 1920s.

Career

Niobe was built by Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness and launched on 20 February 1897,^[1] entering service in 1898.

She was part of the Channel Squadron at the outbreak of the Boer War (1899–1900), and was sent to Gibraltar to escort troop transports ferrying reinforcements to the Cape. On 4 December 1899, Niobe and HMS Doris rescued troops from SS Ismore, which had run aground. Niobe saw further action in the Boer War, escorting troops to Cape Town, and the Queen's South Africa Medal was subsequently awarded to the crew. She returned to the English Channel, but later escorted vessels as far as Colombo in Ceylon.^[2]

In March 1901 Niobe was one of two cruisers to escort HMS Ophir, commissioned as royal yacht for the world tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George and Queen Mary), from Spithead to Gibraltar,^[3] and in September the same year she again escorted the royal yacht from St. Vincent to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Royal Canadian Navy

After a series of negotiations between Canada and the Admiralty over the composition of the newly formed Canadian Navy, the Canadians traded their desire for destroyers, of which none were available, for Niobe, which was to form the nucleus of the east coast fleet. The purchase was arranged in January 1910, and to make room for the cost of Niobe, £215,000, a flotilla leader was dropped from the list of requests.^[4]

Niobe and HMS Rainbow were provided to the Dominion of Canada to seed the new Canadian Navy.^[5] Payment for Niobe was deferred until after the vote on the naval service in the Canadian House of Commons. The Naval Services Act was opposed by the Conservative Party of Canada, then in the role of Official Opposition, pushing instead for Canada to make direct payments to support the Royal Navy.^[6] The governing Liberal Party of Canada held the majority of the seats in the Parliament however, and pushed ahead with the initiative to create a Canadian Navy. Once terms of purchase were settled, the newly renamed HMCS (His Majesty's Canadian Ship) Niobe was transferred to Canada on 6 September 1910, commissioning at Devonport Dockyard.^[7] Before departing Great Britain, Niobe and Rainbow were altered in order to meet the requirement as training vessels for the nascent Canadian navy. This required the installation of new heating systems, an up-to-date galley and the latest in Marconi wireless.^[8]

Niobe reached Halifax on 21 October that year, her entry into the harbour timed to coincide with Trafalgar Day. Formal transfer of the ship only took place on 12 November 1910, once she had been paid for.^[9] After commissioning, the status of the new Canadian vessels and their ability to operate independently of the Royal Navy arose and prevented the ships from leaving coastal waters until the matter was settled.^[10] This initially limited Niobe to training duties in Halifax and prevented her from making a tour of the Caribbean Sea.^[10]

After departing on a training cruise, Niobe ran aground in fog off Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, on the night of 30–31 July 1911. Damage control saved the ship. The repairs took six months, completing in January 1912 and she had a permanently reduced maximum speed as a result. The resulting court martial found that the navigating officer, Charles White, who had not been on the bridge, should have been present during the navigation of the area due to its difficulty, and also found that captain, W.B. MacDonald, negligent for not ensuring his officers were performing their duties properly.^[11]

Having been laid up after repair pending the arrival of the new government,^[12] Niobe's condition gradually deteriorated. She was effectively rotting at her berth in 1913.^[13] However, with the outbreak of the First World War, she was ordered to be brought up to an acceptable state of readiness for combat purposes.^[14] This was difficult as her crew had been sent west when she was laid up.^[15] In order to fill out her crew, the sloops Shearwater and Algerine, which had passed into Canadian control, were paid off at Esquimalt, British Columbia and their crews sent east.^[16]

The mascot of HMCS Niobe

After returning to operational status, Niobe was sent with HMS Lancaster to patrol the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Following that from the 11–13 September 1914, she escorted The Royal Canadian Regiment, aboard the transport Canada, to Bermuda, where they took up garrison duties. On her return journey she developed defects and required a week to repair.^[17] Those defects prevented the ship from escorting the large troop convoy carrying Canadian soldiers in October.^[18]

On 6 October 1914, Niobe joined the Royal Navy's 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. She was engaged in intercepting German ships along the American coast until July 1915. During this period she chased the German raider, SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich into Newport News, Virginia, which opted to be interned by the Americans instead of coming out to face the cruiser once it had refueled.^[19] As the patrol work continued Niobe began to wear out. Her final patrol was 4–17 July 1915, after which she returned to Halifax. Her funnels were found to be rapidly deteriorating, her boilers were worn and her bulkheads were in poor shape.^[20] As a result of being worn out, she was paid off on 6 September 1915 to become a depot ship in Halifax.^[16]

While Niobe's operational life was coming to an end, Vice-Admiral Kingsmill attempted to swap her back to the Royal Navy for a newer cruiser. However the British only offered HMS Sutlej, a cruiser in a similar state of repair, and therefore nothing came of the exchange.^[20]

On 6 December 1917, the ammunition ship SS Mont-Blanc was rammed by another vessel. The ramming caused Mont-Blanc to catch fire. Laden with tons of explosives, the ship was abandoned by her crew and left to drift through the harbour. Niobe was laid up in harbour at the time and the alarm was raised aboard the ship once the danger was known. Warrant Officer Albert Mattison and six men sailed to Mont-Blanc in Niobe's pinnace and boarded the ammunition ship in an effort to scuttle her. However, while the group was boarding, Mont-Blanc exploded, killing the seven men instantaneously.^[21] The Halifax Explosion of 1917 caused serious damage to her upper works, and the deaths of several of her crew.^[22][23] It also caused her to be dragged from her moorings, despite the use of a concrete embedded anchor. Once re-secured, additional anchors were put in place.^[24] She remained in use as a depot ship until disposed of in 1920, and sold for scrap. She was broken up in 1922 in Philadelphia.^[23][25]

Legacy

As the first large ship in the Royal Canadian Navy, Niobe's name has considerable symbolic importance in the Canadian navy, being used among other things as the title of a series of scholarly papers. Models and collections of artefacts of Niobe can be found at several Canadian museums including the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Naval Museum of Halifax in Halifax. The latter devotes a room to Niobe which includes her original ship's bell. There is also a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps located in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia that carries her name as RCSCC 62 NIOBE.

On 14 October 2014, an anchor believed to have belonged to Niobe was unearthed at HMC Dockyard in Halifax. The particular anchor, and the location it was discovered, is consistent with being from Niobe. The anchor is believed to be one of her three bow anchors used to secure her in her new position following the Halifax Explosion.^[24]

On 17 October 2014, Canada announced that 21 October will be recognized annually as "Niobe Day" to commemorate the ship's arrival in Halifax in 1910.^[26]

Commanding officers

• Captain John Denison, RN in 1901^[27]
• Commander W. B. MacDonald RN 6 September 1910 - ?
• Lt Commander C. E. Aglionby RN 20 June 1913 - ?
• Captain R. G. Corbett RN 15 August 1914 - 1 September 1915
• A(Acting)/Commander P. F. Newcombe RN 16 October 1916 - ?
• Commander H. E. Holme RCN 22 December 1917 - 1 June 1920

Notes

1. Colledge, p.444
2. Diary of a seaman on Niobe
3. "The Duke of Cornwall´s visit to the colonies" The Times (London). Thursday, 14 March 1901. (36402), p. 6.
4. Gimblett, p.9
5. MacMillan-Murphy, Jim. "Esquimalt Remembers" Esquimalt Heritage Advisory Committee. Retrieved 20 July 2013 Archived April 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
6. Pelletier, Martin (Fall 2010). "Bourassa, Laurier and the 1910 Naval Service Act: Canadian Identity and the Birth of a Navy" (PDF). Canadian Naval Review 6 (3): 13.
7. Johnston et al. p.225
8. Johnston et al. p.233
9. Johnston et al. p.240
10. Johnston et al. p.242
11. Johnston et al. p.251
12. Johnston et al. p.250
13. Johnston et al. p.267
14. Johnston et al. p.294
15. Johnston et al. p.297
16. Gimblett, p.27
17. Johnston et al. p.325
18. German, p.40
19. Johnston et al. p.352
20. Johnston et al. p.355
21. German, p.47
22. "Halifax Explosion - The Devastation". CBC.ca. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
23. Macpherson and Barrie, p.12
24. "Anchor of Historic Canadian Naval Ship Found in Halifax Harbour". www.forces.gc.ca. Royal Canadian Navy. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
25. "Canadian Navy Heritage". Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
26. "Niobe Day". Royal Canadian Navy. Government of Canada.
27. "Naval and Military intelligence" The Times (London). Friday, 22 February 1901. (36385), p. 10.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• German, Tony (1990). The Sea is at our Gates: The History of the Canadian Navy. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Incorporated. ISBN 0-7710-3269-2.
• Gimblett, Richard H., ed. (2009). The Naval Service of Canada 1910—2010: The Centennial Story. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55488-470-4.
• Johnston, William; Rawling, William G.P.; Gimblett, Richard H.; MacFarlane, John (2010). The Seabound Coast: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Navy, 1867-1939 1. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55488-908-2.
• Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910-2002 (Third ed.). St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing. ISBN 1-55125-072-1.

External links