HMS NATAL – Chatham Ship Lost to Internal Combustion in First World War
HMS NATAL – Chatham Ship Lost to Internal Combustion in First World War
Research volunteer, and writer of the Warship Wednesday series, Tony writes about warships lost to internal combustion during the First World War.
A gravestone in my local cemetery records the death of a member of HMS VANGUARD’s ships company in 1917. Investigating further in the Dockyard’s Reading Room, I discovered Table III in “British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914 – 1918” which notes five RN warships lost to internal explosion during the First World War.
The list comprises of:
Battleships x 2, Cruiser x 1, Coast Defence Ship x 1 and Minelayer x 1.
Kent Connection
All five incidents had a Chatham or Kent connection.
HMS NATAL was a Chatham-manned Warrior class armoured cruiser, built by Vickers Shipbuilders and completed in 1907.
On April 5th 1907, NATAL was commissioned at Chatham Dockyard as a unit of the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet.
Chatham Dockyard was NATAL’s home dockyard, she was recommissioned here on 7th April 1908 and 10th May 1910, and her last recommissioning was at Sheerness Dockyard on 17th September 1912. In 1909 she was transferred to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, Grand Fleet.
On 31st December 1915, while serving with the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, NATAL was destroyed by an ammunition explosion at 15.30 whilst moored in the Cromarty Firth. Of the ship’s company, 404 men were lost, and included in the toll were 7 women and 3 children, visiting the Wardroom for lunch and a cinema show.
NEWS of the INCIDENT
There was no statement in Parliament about the loss, and no helpful details were published to identify the location so that the German Navy could not claim it as one of their submarine successes.
The first official news of the sinking appeared in the evening papers the next day: “The Secretary of the Admiralty announces that the armoured cruiser NATAL (Captain E P C Black) blew up and sank yesterday afternoon as the result of an internal explosion. About 400 survivors are reported and their names are being communicated to the press as soon as possible”.
On 5th January 1916, a corrected list of the dead and missing was issued by the Admiralty, originally estimated to be 300. The total was now given as 390.
In the Medway towns, the news of the loss of yet another Chatham-manned ship came as a physical blow. Three Chatham manned cruisers, HMS CRESSY, HOUGE. and ABOUKIR had been sunk by the German submarine U-9, 18 months earlier on 22nd September 1914 with a total loss of 1459 men.
On 19th January 1916, there was a brief press report stating that a court-martial had been held at Chatham, but no members of the press had been invited.
Five months later an MP asked a question regarding the lack of a public statement regarding the findings of the court-martial. In reply, Dr Macnamara, Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, replied “No public statement would be issued as to the result of the NATAL inquiry”.
The court-martial had been held in the RN Barracks at Chatham, HMS Pembroke, on 18th and 20th January 1916. No members of the press or public were permitted to be present.
The findings of its members recorded “ their opinion that the loss of the cruiser was due to an internal ammunition explosion and that it was not due to design, carelessness or the negligence of officers and men. The survivors were therefore honourably acquitted”.
HMS NATAL
NATAL was classified as a “First-class Armoured Cruiser”, the class consisted of four ships, NATAL, WARRIOR, COCHRANE, and ACHILLES.
She had a length of 505ft overall x 74ft beam. Displaced 13,550 tons, with a ship’s company of 704 men. Powered by 2 sets of 4-cylinder triple expansion steam engines with a designed horsepower of 23,500. Noted in the 1910 copy of Janes Fighting Ships “Present Best Speed 23.1 knots”. Steam was produced by 19 boilers.
Armament consisted of:
Main: 6 x 9.2inch guns ( single turret on centreline, fwd and aft, 2 x single turrets port and stbd., in broadside position).
Secondary: 4 x 7.5inch guns (2 x single turrets port and stbd., in broadside position).
