She could make 25 knots top speed but her limited coal capacity was the class’s Achilles heel. The impact on neutral opinion was equally powerful. Some accounts of the sinking have survived: We were struck right amid ships between the two funnels, quite close to one of the magazines. Despite this “wake up call” regarding vulnerability of warships at low speed the Royal Navy initiated a patrol of the northern entrance of the English Channel with five obsolete Cressy class armoured cruisers. U-9 dived and remained submerged. Click here to return to Steam, Steel and Strife, Disaster 1914: The loss of HMS Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue. Details of the Cressy class, of which Cruiser Force C was composed, were as follow: Displacement: 12,000 tons Britain’s armoured cruisers can be fairly described as the most unsuccessful and unfortunate type of warship ever employed by the Royal Navy. A quick appraisal led Weddigen to order diving but he continues to observe through his periscope. On September 24th U-9 entered the main German naval base at Wilhelmshaven to the cheers of the entire fleet. He was sixteen years of age. Cressy was stationary and her boats had been lowered. The Bacchante class had been placed in the Reserve Fleet. As this was still running Weddigen took his craft down to 50 feet, then heard “a dull thud, followed by a shrill-toned crash”. This was perhaps their only positive attribute. Henry Charles Wickenden, was lost with the HMS Cressy on 22 September 1914. U-9, still unsuspected, observed the disaster through the periscope. Weddigen still had three torpedoes left, two aft, one forward. She had an active career, also sinking HMS Hawke and serving in the Baltic, being the only one of her class to survive the war. She eventually l… At 7:20, Cressy sighted a torpedo track, and the order was given "full speed ahead both", too late. The Secretary of the Admiralty on September 25 authorized the following statement with reference to the sinking of HMS Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue in the North Sea on September 22:- The facts of this affair cannot be better conveyed to the public than by the attached reports of the Senior Officers who have survived and Landed back in England. The sinking of HMS HAWKE: One of the greatest single losses of Royal Navy sailors from Ulster with 49 Ulstermen lost to just one U-boat. The Aboukir was struck at about 6.25 a.m. on the starboard beam. 837 men were rescued but 1459 men were killed in total Kapitaenleutnant Otto Weddigen, in command of the German submarine U-9 – the low number indicting just how early a unit this vessel was in the Imperial Navy’s submarine force – had left Wilhelmshaven on September 20th. Thinking she had struck a mine, and sinking fast, the order was given to abandon ship. The Hogue’s end was almost identical to her sister’s and the “abandon ship” order meant leaping into the water as her boats were already busy with saving Aboukir’s survivors. Intended to form part of the battle fleet, they had been rendered obsolete by the advent of the almost equally-disastrous battle-cruiser concept. On the day of her destruction her bunkers were so depleted that she was restricted to 5 knots, making her an easy target for the U-Boat. ABOUKIR (survivor list included) ABBS, Tom W R, Sick Berth Attendant, M 4398 (Ch) ABRATHAT, William, Private, RMLI (RFR B 1999), 12609 (Ch) U-9 targeted and sank the HMS Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy, killing over 1400 officers and men. Thinking she had struck a mine, and sinking fast, the order was given to abandon ship. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Pnel 7. A total of 837 men were rescued, but 1,397 men were lost. The logic of maintaining a patrol in the area was unassailable as a fast German raiding force of destroyers could wreak havoc on British maritime supply lines between the English Coast and Northern France should they enter the Channel. [7], Coordinates: 52°15′01″N 3°40′08″E / 52.25028°N 3.66889°E / 52.25028; 3.66889. But that’s another story. On September 21st he identified his position as some 20 miles off the Dutch coast at Scheveningen, the port of The Hague. Every member of the crew received the Iron Cross, Second Class. About a half hour after Cressy went down a small Dutch steamer, the Flora, approached and managed to pluck 286 men from the water. "Booty Trawl". In 1907 she was transferred to the North America and West Indies Station before being placed in reserve in 1909. Cressy was hit forwar… The U-9 was very primitive by later standards, her surface displacement 505 tons, her length 188 ft. Hogue and Cressy approached to pick up survivors, throwing anything that would float into the water for the survivors to cling to. The numerous “artists’ impressions” of the sinkings which were published in illustrated magazines did nothing to understate the horror involved. Taken hastily from reserve –which meant they had been unmanned and poorly, if at all, maintained – on outbreak of war they were quickly overhauled and put back in service. Cressy's boats had been sent to pick up survivors from the other two ships, and returned already loaded with men. Assuming that he had hit a mine – even after the loss of the Pathfinder the submarine threat was still underestimated – Captain Drummond ordered Cressy and Hogue to come closer so that Aboukir’s wounded could be transferred.  Even had a mine indeed been responsible the order would have been an unwise one, but with the U-9’s presence still unsuspected it was to prove fatal. Each ship had over 700 officers and men from the Royal Navy reserves, many being middle aged family men from local towns and villages. HMS Aboukir at Malta – note 6″ weapons in casemates along sides. Cressy rolled to her starboard side, paused, then went bottom up with her starboard propeller out of the water. The squadron was composed of four obsolete Cressy Class Armored Cruisers, the HMS Cressy, HMS, Aboukir, HMS Hogue, and HMS Euryalus. After finishing her sea trials she passed into the fleet reserve at Portsmouthon 24 May 1901. Aboukir sinking – by the famous British maritime painter Norman Wilkinson Chatham-based cruisers HMS Cressy, HMS Aboukir and HMS Hogue were sent to the bottom of the sea about 20 miles off Holland in September 1914, leaving 1,459 sailors dead. The lessons of the Pathfinder, Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue sinkings still did not appear to have been learned at the Admiralty. Once again - as with the 'live bait squadron' - Submarine U-9 had struck. They continued to patrol as the weather improved until sunrise on 22 September.[4]. He delegated command to Captain Drummond in Aboukir . The Dawlish Chronicles Blog. No money was to be spent repairing them, but they were to be used until they were completely worn out. HMS Cressy was launched in December 1899, and after finishing her trials was passed into the fleet reserve at Portsmouth on 24 May 1901. In addition, nine naval cadets, some as young as 15, were allocated to each ship, being taken directly from the Royal Naval College.  The general view of Cruiser Force C’s fighting potential was summed up in the nickname it quickly acquired – the “Live Bait Squadron”. Lord Charles Beresford never again referred to submarines as "playthings" or "toys". HMS Cressy when new – still in Victorian livery. A further step in the path leading to disaster was made when Christian did not make it clear that Drummond had the authority to order supporting destroyers to sea if the weather improved, as it indeed did later the following day. Weddingen managed to get his craft under again and as he did heard two explosions. Through his periscope he could see the surface strewn it wreckage, bodies, swimmers and overcrowded boats. At dawn on September 22nd U-9 surfaced to find the storm over, the sea calm but for a slow swell. HMS Aboukir was a Cressy-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy around 1900. Six even-older old cruisers, the 10th Cruiser Squadron, were left patrolling off Aberdeen, on the North-East Scottish coast. Kapitaenleutnant Weddigen was by now back at sea and on the morning of October 15th – three weeks after his previous exploit – he found Hawke and her sister Endymion stationary and transferring mail. Their average age was only 27 years old. Engines: Triple Expansion, 21,000 hp The most devastating criticism was of Rear Admiral Campbell, who had been Christian’s superior, and for whom the latter had been acting – at the inquiry he made the remarkable statement that he did not know what the purpose of his command was. The earlier classes – the six ships of the Cressy class being the oldest – had very limited offensive capability, especially in rough weather. She capsized almost immediately and 524 of her crew died. The bulk of the blame was directed at the Admiralty for persisting with a patrol that was dangerous and of limited value against the advice of senior sea-going officers. All three cruisers sank within ninety minutes, with the total loss of 1,459 lives. This disaster in question was to cost 1459 men their lives and destroy three ships. The cruisers were part of the Southern Force (Rear-Admiral Arthur Christian) composed of the flagship Euryalus, the light cruiser Amethyst and the 7th Cruiser Squadron (7th CS, also known as Cruiser Squadron C, Rear-Admiral H. H. Campbell, nicknamed the live-bait squadron), comprising the Cressy-class armoured cruisers HMS Bacchante, Aboukir, Hogue, Cressy and Euryalus, the 1st and 3rd Destroyer flotillas, ten submarines of the 8th Oversea Flotilla and the attached Active-class scout cruiser, Fearless. Cressy was hit forward on the starboard side, and lurched high enough out of the water that a second torpedo passed under her stern. A drawing of the Cressy’s end by the American artist Henry Reuterdahl (1870-1925) Smoke was seen on the horizon and the U-9’s engines were immediately shut down to get rid of their exhaust plume. This action altered U-9’s balance and her bow broke surface, drawing fire from Hogue. At 6:55, Hogue was struck by two torpedoes. She was armed with four torpedo tubes, two forward, two aft, and carried reloads for the forward tubes only. Upon completion she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and spent most of her career there. Though only 32, Weddigen was an experienced submariner and had survived a peacetime accident to the U-3, from which he and 27 others had escaped though a torpedo tube. Now hit on the port side the already stricken Cressy rolled over and remained on the surface, bottom up, for a further twenty minutes. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Cressy and her sister ships Bacchante, Euryalus, Hogue and Aboukir were assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron, patrolling the Broad Fourteens of the North Sea, in support of a force of destroyers and submarines based at Harwich which blocked the eastern end of the English Channel from German warships attempting to attack the supply route between England and France. [5], As a result of the losses, the Admiralty ordered all capital ships to remove themselves from danger in the future, and leave rescue attempts to smaller ships. U-9 dived and remained submerged. The sinking of the Battleship Cressy, together with the Battleships Aboukir and Hogue on the 22 September 1914 was a disaster in itself, but was made all the more significant because it ushered in the dawn of a terrible new weapon, the submarine. The force pa… SINKING OF CRUISERS ABOUKIR, HOGUE, CRESSY OF DUTCH COAST by U.9 . HMS Cressy was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 7 March 1810 at Frindsbury. [6], In 1954 the British government sold the salvage rights to the ship and salvage is ongoing. The U-9, having spotted British destroyers, but managing to escape detection, signalled news of her success when she reached the Ems Estuary. Weddingen ordered the empty torpedo tube reloaded and identified Hogue as his next victim. Cheering erupted on U-9. Hit by a torpedo fired by the German submarine U-21, she was to gain the unfortunate title of being the first British warship to be sunk in this way. The Pathfinder was a “Scout Cruiser”, a type which was to evolve in time into the Light Cruiser. Tuesday, 22 September 1914 sinking of the 3 cruisers HMS Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy off the Dutch coast by U.9 being sunk one by one as each ship went in turn to the assistance of their sisters. Two Dutch trawlers had approached initially but bore away in fear of mines. She was commissioned by Captain Henry Tudor for service on the China Station on 28 May 1901, but her departure was delayed for several months when her steering gear broke down shortly after leaving the base and she had to return. Hit by a torpedo fired by the German submarine U-21, she was to gain the unfortunate title of being the first British warship to … The magazines of the time left little to the imagination. Weddigen attempted to navigate by soundings – a doubtful technique even in the best of circumstances. Originally capable of 21 knots they now found it hard to make 15. Less than a month later, U-9 sank the even more elderly cruiser, HMS Hawke. As the three Royal Navy cruisers sunk into the cold waters a few miles off the coast of the Netherlands. On September 20th 1914 Cruiser Force C’s patrol consisted of HMS Euryalus, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy, with a fifth vessel, HMS Bacchante in remaining in port. My Great Grandfather Walter Charles Wood was on the HMS Hogue during the engagement, he survived not only the sinking of the Hogue, but also the HMS Cressy too after he got aboard following the Hogue going down, i have his Medals, a PDF of his Service Record (1895 – 1919) and his “Diddy Box” too, i am trying to gain as much information as i can on his service, and especially … At 7:30, a third torpedo hit Cressy on the port beam, rupturing tanks in the boiler room and scalding the men. Antoine Vanner blogs weekly – and often more frequently – on naval and more general history and personalities in the period 1700-1918.Topics include naval warfare in the Age of Fighting Sail, the transition from Sail to Steam, international rivalries, dramatic happenings and little known events that have helped shape the world we live in. The subsequent court of inquiry attributed blame to all of the senior officers involved – Captain Drummond for not zigzagging and for not calling for destroyers and Rear Admiral Christian for not making it clear to Drummond that he could summon the destroyers. Though destroyers and light cruisers would have been more suited to the task it was believed that destroyers would be unable to maintain the patrol in bad weather and insufficient modern light cruisers were available. Note the heavy exhaust. She remained in this position for 20 minutes, then sank at 7:55. At 10:30 a single torpedo from the German submarine hit HMS Hawke. The steamer Titan rescued another 147 men, and later eight of Tyrwhitt's destroyers arrived. U-9’s batteries were almost depleted but Weddigen was determined to continue his attack. Aboukir and Hogue, on the morning of the 22nd of September, while on patrol duty. Length: 472 feet Also 2X18” torpedo tubes HMS Hogue – the 6″ weapons in the lower casemates were unworkable in rough seas. A contemporary German drawing of the U-9 on patrol. – the Hogue is seen dropping boats to pick up survivors,  A contemporary illustration of the Aboukir’s end Her greatest weakness was her heavy-oil engine, which produced a very visible exhaust plume. At the outbreak of war in 1914 all major navies had small numbers of submarines. In 1914, the best speed they could manage was 15 knots. U-9’s periscope was spotted and the cruiser opened fire, the surged forward in an unsuccessful attempt to ram.  Then, unaccountably, she stopped again. The supremacy of British naval power had been assumed ever since Trafalgar and was now suspect.  The First World War had opened badly at sea for Britain, and yet more disasters were imminent. Hit amidships on the port side, the engine and boiler rooms were flooded and the ship listed to port. Self-propelled torpedoes dramatically increased effectiveness of submarine warships. Fevered development during the First World War was to change such views but in September 1914 many commanders who had grown up in purely surface navies still held to such opinions. From that point on, the Royal Navy took submarine attacks on the fleet much more seriously and radically improved its anti-submarine practices. Initial scouting patrols against surface warships sank several cruisers in the first month of World War I.Incidental encounters with merchant ships were handled by signalling the ship to stop and sinking the ship after removing the crew in accordance with international law. Now only the Cressy remained and she was transmitting distress signals by wireless. She was now stationary and Weddigen fired both bow tubes at her. Armament: 2 X 9.2”, 12 X 6” and many smaller. Attempts to counter Aboukir’s list by counter flooding proved unsuccessful and when it was obvious that she was going to roll over “abandon ship” was ordered. On 17 September, in rough seas, the destroyers were sent back to Harwich. September 22nd 2014 saw the hundredth anniversary of the first massive loss by the Royal Navy in the First World War. Then she too sunk, her crew’s plight all the worse since the boats she had sent off were already crowded with Aboukir’s and Hogue’s survivors. There was little over a decade’s experience of their employment and designs were largely experimental. HMS Cressy was launched 4 December 1899, and along with her sister ships HMS Aboukir and HMS Hogue, was torpedoed by a single submarine, the U9, off the Dutch coast early on 22 September 1914. German reports that the sinkings were the work of a single submarine and the Times newspaper speculated that an entire German submarine-flotilla had been responsible, from which only the U-9 had returned safely. Hogue and Cressy were now creeping towards Aboukir’s survivors and lowering boats. His orders were  to attack British transports landing troops at Ostend, on the Belgian coast. The vulnerability of these cruisers was recognised by many senior officers, not only because of their obsolescence but because of their manning. He took his vessel down to 50 ft for the night, stopping his batteries, and resting his crew. Her commander, Otto Weddigen, was not so fortunate. The crew were immediately national heroes and Weddigen was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, as well as other decorations. In all 837 men were saved from the three cruisers but 1459 had been lost. The single torpedo was to prove enough to destroy Aboukir. Three vessels were approaching – the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue – and Weddingen steered on his electric motors towards the central vessel, Aboukir. The reality cannot have been much different to this, horrible as it was. 22nd Sep 1914 HMS Aboukir HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue sunk HMS Aboukir was a, armoured cruiser of the Cressy-class.She has been launched in 1900 and was sunk by a torpedo along with HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue on the 22nd of September 1914 by U.9 in the North Sea. HMS Cressy was a Cressy-class armoured cruiser in the Royal Navy. At 6:20 AM on 22 September, HMS Aboukir was torpedoed by SM U-9 and sank in 35 minutes. On September 22, 1914, the sister ships HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue, and HMS Cressy were patrolling off the Dutch coast, tasked with supporting the naval blockade against Germany. With Christian unable to transfer his flag, command devolved to Captain John Drummond of the Aboukir. Hit on the starboard side, the cruiser heeled over, then began to right herself.  Some ten minutes later Weddigen fired his last torpedo from its bow tube. 30 Ulstermen are buried at sea, with only 1 Ulsterman with a known grave. Pressdram Ltd. 2011. p. 31. Cressy was sunk on 22 September 1914 along with two of her sisterships, by the German U-boat U-9. HMS Cressy had stopped to pick up survivors, but got underway, before she was hit by a torpedo and damaged. Primary Documents - Sinking of the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue by the U-9, 22 September 1914 Reproduced below is a memoir of the sinking of three British cruisers - the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue - by a single German U-boat, U-9, on 22 September 1914. (Note that the Netherlands was neutral throughout World War 1). Her heavy-oil engines, of 1040 hp, gave her a surface speed of 13.5 knots. He manoeuvred to bring U-9’s stern tubes to bear and fired both at a range of a thousand yards.  One torpedo struck the Cressy but the second missed. All hands were on deck, and it was a terrible explosion. Undetected, U-9 came within 600 yards of Aboukir’s port bow before firing a torpedo. Dutch fishing trawlers were in the area, but remained at a distance until 8:30 when the steamship Flora from Rotterdam arrived and rescued 286 men. At 6:20 AM on 22 September, HMS Aboukir was torpedoed by SM U-9 and sank in 35 minutes. H.M.S.Cressy. The impact on British public-consciousness was massive – comparable to the loss HMS Courageous and HMS Royal Oak in 1939 – and all the more so since it was recognised not only as avoidable, but the result of poor professional decision-making. On 15 October the protected cruiser HMS Hawke was lost to the same submarine, U-9, off Aberdeen, when she was steaming at 13 knots and not zigzagging. Though the three ships lost in the Broad Fourteens were of little fighting value the impact on British public opinion was massive, not least because of the heavy loss of life. I have the honour to submit the following report in connection with the sinking of H.M.S. At 6:55, Hogue was struck by two torpedoes. As Hawke got under way again – without zigzagging – Weddigen sank her with a single torpedo. Launched in 1905, she was just under 3000 tons, 385 feet long and carried nine 4-in guns and smaller weapons. The original plan was to support the destroyers of Reginald Tyrwhitt's Harwich Force, but frequent bad weather caused the plan to change and the cruisers became the front line as they could handle the rough seas. He was the son of Mr and Mrs H. Wickenden, of 9 Dolphin Lane, Dover, and the husband of Mary Ann, nee Colyer, whom he … 12 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) Mk VII guns. Cressy, in company with H.M.S. Cressy was sunk on 22 September 1914 along with two of her sisterships, by the German U-boat U-9. Of these, at least 31 men had connections to Ulster, most of them Stokers and three quarters of them part time reservists. [1] She was commissioned by Captain H. M. T. Tudor for service on the China Station on 28 May 1901,[2] but her departure was delayed for several months when her steering gear broke down shortly after leaving the base and she had to return. And because they never sighted periscopes, they no longer zigzagged. At 7:20, Cressy sighted a torpedo track, and the order was given "full speed ahead both", too late. On 20 September Rear-Admiral Arthur Christian returned to port with HMS Euryalus to coal, reducing the patrol to three ships, Cressy, Aboukir and Hogue. 2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk X guns HMS Cressy was a Cressy-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy around 1900. Of these 34, a total of 13 were to be lost in the next four years. The solution was to deploy old armoured cruisers which had at least got the necessary station-keeping capability. The ship was sufficiently close inshore for her loss to be witnessed by many on the coast, including the future novelist Aldous Huxley. Only one boat got away, the others either wrecked by the explosion or impossible to launch. Upon completion she was assigned to the China Station. HMS Cressy was a Cressy -class armoured cruiser in the Royal Navy. Maximum Speed: 21 Knots on completion, probably 15 in 1914 After weeks of daily patrols, their old engines could no longer even maintain 15 knots and speed dropped to 12 knots, and often as low as 9. Loss of HMS Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue The German submarine U9. Poor weather made it impossible for the protecting destroyer force to remain in company and Euryalus had to drop out due to lack of coal and weather damage to her wireless.  Christian had to remain with his ship as the weather was too bad to transfer. The survivors were almost all naked, and so exhausted they had to be hauled aboard with tackle. As many as five men clung to a single life vest, and a dozen men to a single plank. The first indication of the submarine’s potential came on September 5th 1914, when the British cruiser HMS Pathfinder was sunk in the North Sea off the Scottish coast. The 34 vessels of this type that were in service at the outbreak of war had entered service between 1902 and 1908 – they were not old ships. Cressy, named after the 1346 Battle of Crécy, was laid down by Fairfield Shipbuilding at their shipyard in Govan, Scotland on 12 October 1898 and launched on 4 December 1899. Each ship also carried nine cadets from the Royal Navy College at Dartmouth, most of whom were under 15. Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom, Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I, Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany and the Winning of the Great War at Sea, https://military.wikia.org/wiki/HMS_Cressy_(1899)?oldid=2641757, Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls. Zigzagging at 13 knots was made mandatory for all large warships in submarine waters. Crews were in short supply, leading the ships to be manned by reservists, many middle-aged, many of them pensioners, who had not previously served or exercised together as teams. This group was known as “Cruiser Force C” and the patrol area they were assigned to was in the shallow waters off the Dutch coast known as the “Broad Fourteens”. A magazine exploded within minutes after the ship was hit and she went down with a loss of 259 men from her crew of some 270. each displacing 12,000 tons and mounting two 9.2” and 12 6” guns. Among these was HMS Hawke, a protected cruiser of 7700 tons which dated from 1893 and was the survivor of a collision with the liner RMS Olympic in 1911. Rear Admiral Christian, in Euryalus, was in temporary command of the force. They were torpedoed by a single German U-boat and the day could be called the beginning of an era, an important wake-up call, and a major lesson to both Germany and Britain on … Twenty-five minutes after the torpedo strike Aboukir capsized, remained on the surface, bottom-up, for a few minutes with a few wretches clinging to her, then disappeared. They were large – and expensive – ships and they needed large crews. 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