by River Gunboats- An Illustrated Encyclopaedia (retail) (epub)
At this point, big game hunter John Lee suggested to the British Admiralty that they send two armed motor boats to Lake Tanganyika, to wrest control of the Lake from the Germans. The plan was approved in April 1915, two Thornycroft petrolengined motor boats, from a series of eight ordered as seaplane tenders for the Greek air force were requisitioned, and armed with a 3-pounder forward and a Maxim MG on the stern. During trials on the Thames it was discovered that the 3-pounder had to be fired only pointing straight ahead, as the boats’ structure was not sturdy enough to resist lateral recoil forces. The petrol tanks were protected with bulletproof plates.
On 15 June 1915 the expedition commander, Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson, RN, left England on board the steamer Llanstephen Castle, which carried the two boats, named by him as Mimi and Toutou. Their epic journey across land and rivers from the Cape to Lake Tanganyika would take them five months. The boats were ready by 23 December 1915, and on the 26th they went into action against the German gunboat Kingani, which they easily overwhelmed. The Kingani was salvaged, repaired, rearmed with a 12-pounder gun, and renamed HMS Fifi.
The next encounter took place on 9 February 1916, when in a three hour chase, Mimi and Fifi sank the Hedwig von Wissmann. When the Graf von Götzen went searching for the missing Wissmann, Spicer-Simpson wisely avoided combat with his large and well-armed adversary. Instead, he searched for a suitable steamer to arm to challenge the von Götzen, and found a fast steamer at Leopoldville, the Saint George, belonging to the British Consul, who however refused to release her.
The battle for the lake ended when the Allies captured the German railway to Kigoma. The Götzen was scuttled, and the Wami, the replacement for the Kingani, was attacked by the Netta at the southern end of the lake and also scuttled.
Cecil Rhodes
There is a suggestion that the Germans were attempting to tow away the Cecil Rhodes to repair her as part of their flotilla. It may be that her hull was insufficiently watertight after many years ashore, or perhaps the holes for her propeller shafts had not been sufficiently caulked, which would explain why she sank offshore. Despite divers finding a part of an engine in the Bay in 2008, at the time of writing her hull has not yet been discovered.
Good News
The wreck of the 54ft long (16.46m) steam launch Good News still lying at Katuta Bay in 1954–5, where she was abandoned after being damaged in 1914. Although basically a missionary vessel, she was capable of being armed with a light gun. (Photo by R L Kinsey, official photographer of the Federal Information Dept., courtesy of Colin Carlin of Abercornucopia.com)
Cecil Rhodes as reassembled on Lake Tanganyika. Interestingly, the builder’s model in the Greenwich Maritime Museum collection shows her armed with a 3-pounder QF gun. (Photo from Website: http://www.wivenhoehistory.org.uk/content/topics/events/first-world-war/cecil-rhodes-steamer-lake-tanganyika)
Cecil Rhodes laid up at Kasakalawe, lacking her engines, photographed by Captain Zimmer of the Götzen on 4 July 1915 or soon afterwards. (Photo Frankfurt University by courtesy of Holger Kitthaus, from Website: http://www.abercornucopia.com)
Launched:
8 November 1899 by Forrestt & Son Ltd, Yard No 355, Wyvenhoe. Reassembled on the Lake by 1901.
Dimensions:
Displ: 84.3 tons; L: 23.85m/78ft 3in; B: 4.27m/14ft; D: 1.52m/5ft.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × 2-cyl Mumford compound steam engines, total 97ihp/10 knots.
Guns/Armour:
Could be fitted with 1 × 3-pounder QF Hotchkiss gun + Maxim MG.
Fate:
Reported captured by the Graf von Götzen July 1915 and sank under tow.
Mimi and Toutou
Launched:
1915 by Thornycroft on the Thames.
Dimensions:
Displ: 4.5 tons; L: 12.2m/40ft; B: 2.24m/7ft 4in; D: 0.63m/2ft.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × 100bhp petrol engines/19 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 3-pounder Hotchkiss QF; 1 × .303in Maxim MG/Bulletproof plating around the petrol tanks.
Fate:
Mimi scuttled in the lake in the 1920s? Toutou sold as pleasure cruiser in South Africa c. 1930.
The well-known photo of HMS Mimi and Toutou on trials on the Thames. Note the size of the main armament compared to the size of the vessels.
Plans of Mimi and Toutou held in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
HMS Fifi
Fifi was the former German gunboat Kingani, captured by Mimi and Toutou on 26 December 1915, and brought to the shore in sinking condition. After repairs she was rearmed with a large 12-pounder QF gun up front, and a 3-pounder at the stern, a significant load for such a small vessel. It is reported that when her 12-pounder was fired, the recoil slowed her progress almost to a halt. This gun was, however, responsible for sinking the Hedwig von Wissmann. (For basic details, see GERMANY.)
HMS Fifi as rearmed by the British. (Photo Musée Royale de l’Armée, Bruxelles)
Lake Victoria
In 1914 the Germans armed a tug SMS Muansa, and threatened the movements of the nine British steamers on the Lake. In response the British administration armed several of the steamers with 4in and 12-pounder guns, plus Maxim MG. This overwhelming force ensured British domination of the Lake up until the end of hostilities. The ships gave valuable fire support to the troops fighting ashore.
The British flotilla included:
HMS William MacKinnon
William MacKinnon was built by Bow, McLachlan & Co. in 1890 for the Imperial British East Africa Company. When the kit of her parts arrived in Mombasa it was put into storage until 1895, when it was bought by Uganda Railways. The kit was taken out of storage and sent to Kisumu, where reassembly began in 1898. Finally in 1900 she was launched on the lake, and completed in 1901. As a gunboat in 1914 she would have been armed with a 4in gun like the other steamers, plus MG. Withdrawn from commercial service in 1929, she was scuttled in deep water.
Launched:
1890 by Bow, McLachlan & Co., Paisley; launched Kisumu 1900.
Dimensions:
Displ: 110 tons; L: 21m/70ft; B: 4.9m/16ft.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × VTE steam engines.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 4in gun; .303in Maxim MG.
Fate:
Scuttled 1929.
SS William MacKinnon in drydock. From her overall appearance this photo does not represent her first reassembly, but rather when she was later undergoing maintenance.
Launch of SS Sybil at Port Florence, Kisumu, 8 January 1904.
HMS Winifred and HMS Sybil
Sister-ships SS Winifred and SS Sybil were ordered by Uganda Railways from Bow, McLachlan & Co in 1901. Winifred was launched in 1902 followed by Sybil in January 1904. Both were armed as gunboats on the outbreak of war in 1914. The 4in gun on Winifred was one of the six salvaged from the wreck of HMS Pegasus, sunk by the Königsberg.
When on patrol on 5 November 1914 HMS Sybil struck a rock at Majita, and had to be beached in German territory. On 30 March 1915 her sister-ship HMS Winifred shelled the stranded Sybil, to prevent the Germans from seizing her, but even forty-nine shell hits failed to destroy her. So the British decided to try to salvage their gunboat, and on 11 May a substantial body of troops sailed in five vessels of the flotilla. Arriving the next morning they discovered some thirty German Askaris dug in on the beach, and under naval bombardment these were driven off. The British troops set up a defensive perimeter while a naval salvage party worked on refloating the Sybil. They succeeded on 16 May, and after permanent repairs she rejoined the flotilla.
Launched:
1900 by Bow, McLachlan & Co., Paisley; Winifred launched Kisumu 1902, Sybil January 1904.
Dimensions:
Displ: 812 tons; L: 58m/189ft; B: 8.8m/29ft.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × VTE steam engines/9 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 4in
gun; 1 × 12-pounder QF; 1 × .303in Maxim MG.
Fate:
Winifred scuttled 1936 to form breakwater off Luamba Island; scrapped 1954; Sybil scuttled to form breakwater at Kisumu 1967.
Launch ceremony for SS Nyanza 21 December 1907. She refused to move down the slip, and launched herself later when the assembled guests had gone to lunch. The officer on the left appears to be suggesting that the assembled company pushes to help her on her way! (Photo East African Railways & Harbours, in their Magazine Spear Volume V No 4 of August 1961, via Website: http://www.britishempire.co.uk)
HMS Nyanza
Nyanza is a 1,146-ton cargo steamer, built by Bow, McLachlan & Co in 1907. In 1914 she was armed with one 4in, one 6-pounder QF and a .303in Maxim. She was still extant at the time of writing, laid up and awaiting disposal.
HMS Kavirondo
Kavirondo is a tug, built by Bow, McLachlan & Co in 1912 and launched at Kisumu in 1913. In 1914 she was armed as an auxiliary gunboat. Her 3-pounder was salvaged from the wreck of HMS Pegasus, sunk by the Königsberg. Laid up in 1984, Kavirondo was used as an accommodation vessel, but sank at her moorings. In 2005 she was salvaged and was reported as still in existence at the time of writing.
Launched:
1912 by Bow McLachlan & Co., Paisley, Yard No 285. Shipped in sections to Lake Victoria, relaunched December 1913.
Dimensions:
Displ: 228 tons; L: 30.48m/100ft; B: 6.4m/21ft.
Power/Speed:
Single screw; VTE steam engine, 400ihp.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 12-pounder; 1 × 3-pounder QF; 1 × Maxim MG.
Fate:
In existence at the time of writing.
Kavirondo before being armed as a gunboat. (Photo from defunct website: www.clydeships.co.uk)
Rufiji Delta
The three heavily-armed and armoured vessels of the Humber class were originally designed by Vickers for the Brazilian Navy, to complement the South American dreadnought race. Just as with the battleship Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilians found themselves unable to pay for the completed river monitors. Henry Wickham, a British botanist and explorer, had secretly stolen thousands of Hevea seeds out of the Brazilian jungle. Grown and propagated at Kew, they had provided the genetic stock for rubber plantations in Malaya and elsewhere. The industrial scale harvesting of the rubber in Malaya ruined the cottage-industry rubber growers in Brazil, and the country’s economy collapsed. Vickers found no buyers for the river monitors, even though the Romanians inspected them. (Presumably in 1914 it would have been impossible to deliver them via the Dardanelles, and they were never designed to be broken down and transported in sections.)
The original design of the Humber class, with the twin 6in turret forward. Note her extremely broad beam, essential to carry her heavy armament on such a shallow-draught vessel. The profile drawing shows one of the twin propeller shafts, but in reality these were enclosed within a cavity at the rear of the hull, between the twin rudders. When their turret guns were worn, Severn and Mersey received two 6in on individual mountings fore and aft, so their 120mm howitzers on the stern deck were moved one deck higher up, to allow the rear 6in a clear field of fire. (Drawing courtesy of The Blueprints)
At the same time as he placed machine-gunners on the gangplanks to prevent the Turkish crewmen from boarding Rio de Janeiro to sail her home, Churchill requisitioned the three Brazilian river monitors. The Royal Navy had no immediate plans for their employment, but it was felt necessary to prevent their sale to another Power.
When they ran their RN trials, it was found that none of the three could attain their contract speed of 12 knots. In fact, at full load displacement and with several months’ hull fouling, none could even reach 10 knots. In any side wind on the high sea, they were simply blown sideways, and their decks were awash in even moderate swells. It was also quickly discovered that they could not be steered going astern. To remedy this a hinged flap was fitted on the stern above the propeller cavity. Another fault emerged during gunnery trails, when a pair of strengthening straps had to be bolted along the top side of the boat deck, continuing down to the foredeck, to remedy a structural weakness at the join of the foredeck and superstructure.
Once modified, the three soon proved their worth in bombarding the advancing German troops on the Belgian coast with their 6in guns and 4.7in howitzers. In fact, before they were withdrawn because of increased U-boat activity (one had even fired a torpedo at Severn which passed underneath her thanks to her shallow draught), both Severn and Mersey had worn out their turret guns. As no spares were available for the special Vickers design, both ships had the turret removed, and single 6in guns fitted fore and aft. To allow space on the quarterdeck, the two 4.7in howitzers had to be moved up to halfway along the boat deck. The RN also took the opportunity to double the thickness of the armoured deck over the magazines.
Thus rearranged, the trio were shored up and towed to the Mediterranean, for possible deployment at Gallipoli. Humber stayed in the Med, seeing action at Gallipoli and Mersa Matruh, and finishing the Great War as guardship at the Southern end of the Suez Canal. Her two sisters carried on with their epic voyage to the Rufiji Delta, where the German light cruiser Königsberg was holed up for engine repairs after sinking HMS Pegasus at Zanzibar. Blockading cruisers drew too much water to be able to come within gun range of Königsberg’s hiding place.
With the aid of spotting aircraft, the two shallow-draught monitors carried out two attacks. The first ended when a hidden German spotter brought accurate shellfire down on Mersey, damaging her and forcing both monitors to withdraw after scoring just three hits on Königsberg. During their second attack, they succeeded in crippling the German cruiser, and her captain detonated two torpedo warheads to scuttle his ship. Her 10.5cm guns were to turn up again on the East African battlefield, one even arming the Graf von Götzen on Lake Tanganyika.
Königsberg wrecked. (Aerial shot taken by Captain G T Gill, RNAS, from the Gill Family website at: https://gillww1.wordpress.com/tag/rnas/page/2/)
The result of two 6in ‘overs’, with the wreck of Königsberg in the background. Many more of the monitors’ shells fell in the mud and did not explode. Presumably some are still there . . .
The extent of the fatal shell damage to her starboard side, plus the results of the torpedo warheads used to scuttle her.
After their successful mission the two monitors provided gunfire support for land forces, and at the end of hostilities sailed up the Danube. Then in 1919 all three were earmarked for North Russia, but in fact only Humber was deployed. See RUSSIA below.
Launched:
Humber 17 June 1913, Severn 19 August 1913, Mersey 30 September 1913 by Vickers, Son & Maxim, Barrow.
Dimensions:
Displ: 1,155 tons light, 1,520 tons full load; L: 81.3m/266ft 9in; B: 14.9m/49ft; D: 1.32m/4ft 4in light, 5ft 7½in full load.
Crew:
9 officers + 131 men.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; VTE steam engines, 1,450ihp/9.5 knots.
Guns/Armour:
As designed: 1 × twin 6in; 2 × 4.7in howitzers; 4 × 3-pounder QF; 6 × 7mm Hotchkiss MG /4in turret face and conning tower sides; 1½in (38mm) to 3in (76mm) hull sides; deck 1in (25mm) to 2in (50mm). As modified: Humber: twin turret + I × single 6in; + 3in HA. Severn and Mersey: 2 × single 6in.
Fate:
Severn and Mersey sold for scrap 1921; Humber converted to crane barge 1920, scrapped after 1945?
BURMA GUNBOATS
The First Anglo - Burmese War 1824
HEIC Diana
Diana was originally built in 1822 for a consortium of Calcutta merchants, who put up sixty-five shares of 1,000 rupees each. She was of teak construction with machinery sent out from England. When the Anglo-Burmese War broke out, Captain Maryatt of HMS Larne persuaded the Bengal Government to purchase the Diana, and she became the property of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) for the sum of 80,000 rupees, a handsome profit for her owners.
In 1835 she was broken up at Calcutta and her machinery was transferred to a new vessel bearing the same name.
Launched:
1822, by James Kyd of Kidderpore.
Dimensions:
Displ: 132 tons; L: 30.5m/100ft; B: 4.88m/16ft; D: 1.83m/6ft.
Power/Speed:
Side paddle wheels; steam engines, 32 nominal hp.
Guns/Armour:
Congreve rocket launchers.
Fate:
Broken up in Calcutta 1835.
Inset: HEIC Diana 1824, an enlargement of one corner of the larger illustration showing the harbour of Port Cornwallis, Great Andaman Island, with the British fleet getting under way for Rangoon. Diana is foreshortened in this view seen from her starboard bow, and appears dwarfed by her huge ensign. (Handcoloured print of a painting by Lieutenant Joseph Moore)
The Third Anglo - Burmese War 1885
The Third Anglo-Burmese War came about when the usurper King Theebaw spurned the British officials at his court and turned to foreign powers to intervene. The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company furnished some fifty river steamers and barges to transport the British expeditionary force, and many vessels were apparently adopted as ‘HMS’, whether armed or not, for example, HMS Anthony Eden and HMS Sir William Peel.