HMS Niobe (1897)

The Diadem-class cruisers were reduced versions of the preceding Powerful class. The first four ships of the class, of which Niobe was one, displaced 11,000 long tons (11,000 t) and were 435 feet (133 m) long between perpendiculars and 462 feet 6 inches (140.97 m) overall. They had a beam of 69 feet (21 m) and a draught of 25 feet 6 inches (7.77 m). The first four cruisers of the class were propelled by two shafts powered by steam from 30 Belleville boilers driving a four-cylinder triple expansion engine that created 16,500 indicated horsepower (12,300 kW). This gave the ships a maximum speed 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph). The cruisers carried 1,900 long tons (1,900 t) of coal as fuel.^[1]

The Diadem-class were equipped with sixteen QF 6-inch (152 mm) guns. Four single-mounted guns with gun shields were placed on the forecastle and quarterdeck, while the remaining twelve were placed in casemates on either side of the ship. The foremost and aftermost guns on each side were mounted in two-story casemates, with the other eight in single-story casemates amidships.^[2] The class was criticised for the lack of heavier armament. The cruisers were given fourteen single-mounted QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval guns and three single-mounted QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns.^[a] The cruisers also mounted three 18-inch (460 mm) torpedo tubes, one positioned above water in the stern and two submerged broadside.^[1]

The cruisers were given a 4–2+1⁄2-inch (102–64 mm) armoured deck and 2-inch (51 mm) armour for the ammunition hoists. The casemates and the 6-inch gun shields were given 4+1⁄2–2 inches (114–51 mm) armour and the conning tower, 12 inches (300 mm). The vessels had a complement of 677 in Royal Navy service.^[1]

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Powerful-class cruiser

Powerful-class cruiser

The Powerful class were a pair of first-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1890s, designed to hunt down enemy commerce raiders. Both ships served on the China Station and participated in the Second Boer War of 1899–1900. Terrible went on to help suppress the Boxer Rebellion a few months later. Powerful served as the flagship of the Australia Station in 1905–1912; shortly after her return home, she became a training ship and remained in that role until she was sold for scrap in 1929. Terrible was mostly in reserve after she returned home in 1902 and was often used as an accommodation ship. During the First World War she was disarmed and made one voyage as a troop transport in 1915. The ship became a depot ship when she returned home and then became a training ship in 1918. Terrible was sold for scrap in 1932.

Displacement (ship)

Displacement (ship)

The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weight. Traditionally, various measurement rules have been in use, giving various measures in long tons. Today, tonnes are more commonly used.

Length between perpendiculars

Length between perpendiculars

Length between perpendiculars is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the sternpost, or main stern perpendicular member. When there is no sternpost, the centerline axis of the rudder stock is used as the aft end of the length between perpendiculars.

Length overall

Length overall

Length overall is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also used for calculating the cost of a marina berth.

Beam (nautical)

Beam (nautical)

The beam of a ship is its width at its widest point. The maximum beam (BMAX) is the distance between planes passing through the outer extremities of the ship, beam of the hull (BH) only includes permanently fixed parts of the hull, and beam at waterline (BWL) is the maximum width where the hull intersects the surface of the water.

Draft (hull)

Draft (hull)

The draft or draught of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull (keel). The draught of the vessel is the maximum depth of any part of the vessel, including appendages such as rudders, propellers and drop keels if deployed. Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate. The related term air draft is the maximum height of any part of the vessel above the water.

Knot (unit)

Knot (unit)

The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, exactly 1.852 km/h. The ISO standard symbol for the knot is kn. The same symbol is preferred by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), while kt is also common, especially in aviation, where it is the form recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The knot is a non-SI unit. The knot is used in meteorology, and in maritime and air navigation. A vessel travelling at 1 knot along a meridian travels approximately one minute of geographic latitude in one hour.

Coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is a type of fossil fuel, formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. Many significant coal deposits are younger than this and originate from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.

Gun shield

Gun shield

A gun shield is a flat piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece.

Forecastle

Forecastle

The forecastle is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase "before the mast" which denotes anything related to ordinary sailors, as opposed to a ship's officers.

Quarterdeck

Quarterdeck

The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on board, and the word is still used to refer to such an area on a ship or even in naval establishments on land. Many such facilities have areas decorated like shipboard quarterdecks.

Casemate

Casemate

A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.

Niobe was ordered as part of the 1895/96 Estimates and was laid down by Vickers Limited at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 16 December 1895.^[1] The cruiser was launched on 20 February 1897,^[3] and commissioned on 6 December 1898.^[1]

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.^[4]

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,^[5] and in September the same year she again escorted the royal yacht from St. Vincent to Halifax, Nova Scotia. She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII,^[6] and the following month visited Souda Bay, Crete for combined manoeuvres with other ships of the Channel and Mediterranean stations.^[7] After a brief visit to Gibraltar in early October,^[8] she returned to Portsmouth to pay off at Devonport for a refit. From 1905 to 1909, Niobe was the flagship of the Rear-Admiral Reserve Squadron and was refitted in 1908. In April 1909, the cruiser was recommissioned into the 4th Division of the Home Fleet at Devonport and was paid off in September 1910.^[9]

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.^[10] Niobe and HMS Rainbow were provided to the Dominion of Canada to seed the new Canadian navy.^[11] Payment for Niobe was deferred until after the vote on the naval service in the Canadian House of Commons. The Naval Service 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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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 to operate in colder waters, an up-to-date galley and the latest in Marconi wireless.^[14]

Niobe in drydock at Halifax

Niobe reached Halifax, Nova Scotia 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.^[15] 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.^[16] This initially limited Niobe to training duties in Halifax and prevented her from making a tour of the Caribbean Sea.^[16]

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 Captain W. B. MacDonald negligent for not ensuring his officers were performing their duties properly.^[17]

Having been laid up after repair pending the arrival of the new government,^[18] Niobe's condition gradually deteriorated. She was effectively rotting at her berth in 1913.^[19] 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.^[20] This was difficult as her crew had been sent west to Esquimalt when she was laid up.^[21] To fill in its crew, the sloops Shearwater and Algerine, which had passed into Canadian control, were paid off at Esquimalt, British Columbia and their crews sent east.^[22] In September 1914, to complete her complement, Niobe travelled to the Dominion of Newfoundland to pick up a contingent of 107 sailors from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve.^[23]

After returning to operational status, Niobe was sent with HMS Lancaster to patrol the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Following that from 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 the cruiser developed defects and required a week to repair.^[24] Those defects prevented the ship from escorting the large troop convoy carrying Canadian soldiers in October.^[25]

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. After refuelling, the raider's captain opted for his vessel to be interned by the Americans instead of fighting the Niobe.^[26] As the patrol work continued Niobe began to wear out. Her final patrol was 4–17 July 1915, after which the cruiser returned to Halifax. Her funnels were found to be rapidly deteriorating, her boilers were worn and her bulkheads were in poor shape.^[27] As a result of being worn out, Niobe was paid off on 6 September 1915 to become a depot ship in Halifax.^[22]

The mascot of HMCS Niobe

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.^[27]

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 instantly.^[28] The explosion caused serious damage to Niobe's upper works, and the deaths of seven other crew members.^[29][30][31] 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.^[32] 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.^[30][33]

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Keel laying

Keel laying

Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the borough will merge with Eden and South Lakeland districts to form a new unitary authority; Westmorland and Furness. At the tip of the Furness peninsula, close to the Lake District, it is bordered by Morecambe Bay, the Duddon Estuary and the Irish Sea. In 2011, Barrow's population was 56,745, making it the second largest urban area in Cumbria after Carlisle. Natives of Barrow, as well as the local dialect, are known as Barrovian.

Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory and city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 (2.6 sq mi) and is bordered to the north by Spain. The landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, at the foot of which is a densely populated town area, home to over 32,000 people, primarily Gibraltarians.

Cape Province

Cape Province

The Province of the Cape of Good Hope, commonly referred to as the Cape Province and colloquially as The Cape, was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Colony, as well as Walvis Bay, and had Cape Town as its capital. In 1994, the Cape Province was divided into the new Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces, along with part of the North West.

HMS Doris (1896)

HMS Doris (1896)

HMS Doris was an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s.

Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town, nicknamed the Mother City, is South Africa's oldest city. It serves as the country's legislative capital, being the seat of the South African Parliament. It is the country's second-largest city and the largest in the Western Cape. The city is part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.

Queen's South Africa Medal

Queen's South Africa Medal

The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, and to civilians employed in an official capacity, who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps were awarded, to indicate participation in particular actions and campaigns.

English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel, also known as simply the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world.

Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the Municipality. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is itself within the urban/suburban area of Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life, colonial buildings and monuments.

Royal yacht

Royal yacht

A royal yacht is a ship used by a monarch or a royal family. If the monarch is an emperor the proper term is imperial yacht. Most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head. The royal yacht is most often crewed by personnel from the navy and used by the monarch and his/her family on both private and official travels.

George V

George V

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.

Mary of Teck

Mary of Teck

Mary of Teck was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936 as the wife of King-Emperor George V.

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.^[32]

On 17 October 2014, Canada announced that 21 October will be recognised annually as "Niobe Day" to commemorate the ship's arrival in Halifax in 1910.^[34]