Armed Merchant Cruisers

 

On the outbreak of WW1 the main threat to shipping and ports in the Gulf of Aden was from surprise attack by German light cruisers, likely to be acting independently. Although the Royal Navy was huge there were not the cruisers available, once those required for the Grand Fleet had been allocated, to cover all the outposts around the Empire. The solution to this problem was to commandeer liners and arm them with 4.7-inch guns. These were classified as ‘armed merchant cruisers’ (AMCs), very much ocean-going vessels with a reasonable turn of speed. There must have been detailed contingency plans to commission these liners as one of those involved at Aden was taken over the day war was declared. Many of these AMCs were used as escorts and for convoy protection around the United Kingdom and in the North Atlantic. For command and control purposes they were formed into the large 10th Cruiser Squadron. Those not in the 10th were sometimes also referred to as ‘auxiliary cruisers’, but the designation AMC is being used in this article. 

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In August 1914 there were six German light cruisers stationed outside the confines of the North Sea but the only one likely to pose a threat to Aden was the Emden and she was sunk as early as 9 November 1914, in other words almost a month before the first AMC arrived at Aden. The other five were all accounted for by March 1915. So the AMCs arriving at Aden became maids of all work – many of the tasks being ones that could have been done as well by, and in some cases better by, ships a fraction of the size. Within eight or nine months all four of the AMCs that had been sent to Aden and the Red Sea had been replaced by Armed Boarding Steamers. There follows a brief summary these four liners. 

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Empress of Asia

The first of the Empresses to be converted was the Empress of Asia, presumably because she was already in Hong Kong when war between Germany and Britain was declared on 4 August, the day she was taken over. The Empress of Asia and her sister ship the Empress of Russia belonged to the Canadian Pacific Line and at 16,800 tons they were large for pre-war liners (and new too – they were both built in 1912). Liners were preferred to merchant ships as they were quite a bit faster. These two could manage 17 knots without difficulty and 20 in emergencies.

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By 9 August she had been loaded with 1,600 rounds of ammunition for the eight 4-7-in guns that were being fitted on the bridge deck, four forward and four aft. 2,450 tons of coal had also been loaded, half the capacity of her bunkers. She did not arrive in Aden until 9 December, presumably having been kept further East because that was where the Emden was currently raiding.  

HMS Empress of Asia

SMS Emden

The Empress of Asia’s first task was to take Major General Shaw to Perim, doing a reconnaissance of the Arabian coast along the way. Even though the ship took on a company of Indian infantry at Perim for a patrol of the coastline further North, this would have hardly have filled the cabins! In common with the other AMCs most of the time was spent at sea, with patrols on average lasting around eight days.

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On 23 March the Empress of Asia sailed for Hong Kong. Soon after she  was in dock at Bombay for just over two months in April to June 1915, but was back in Aden at the end of the first week of July, just in time to help cover the retreat from Lahej and its subsequent recapture.  The Empress of Asia left Aden for the last time on 15 October 1915. At Bombay some of her officers were transferred to HMS Suva, one of the armed boarding steamer replacements for the Empresses in the Aden area.

HMS Empress of Russia

HMS Empress of Russia off Steamer Point

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Although taken over by the Navy three weeks after her sister ship, she had arrived in Aden on 28 November 1914. Her first major task was to take the guards to protect the three Red Sea island lighthouses.  

Her patrol programme from then on was similar to that of the other two Empresses. For a detailed look at how these ships were being used see  ‘2 months in the life of an Empress’, a diary of the Empress of Russia for June and July 1915. 

 

HMS Empress of Japan

As well as the two large Empresses, a third Empress of the Canadian Pacific Line was taken over by the Royal Navy for use at Aden. This was the Empress of Japan, more than 20 years older than the other two, and quite a bit less than half the tonnage, but with a similar cruising speed. She had two funnels as opposed to the three of the other two Empresses. She did not arrive at Aden until 24 February 1914, but then had a similar active patrol programme to the other two Empresses, but also being employed as guardship at Perim, being there when the Turks mounted their attack on Perim in mid-June 1915.

 

 

In retaliation for the Turks firing over 200 shells at the lighthouse, the Empress of Japan that afternoon shelled Turkish gun positions and the next day sank two dhows off Khor Gorrera, the inlet northwest of Sheikh Syed. Two days later, in the early hours of the morning, the Turks attempted a landing on the North coast of Perim and the Empress Japan sailed round from the harbour to try to intercept the vessels carrying the assault troops back to Sheikh Syed. She failed to catch them and as a result of this it was decided to replace her at Perim with more warlike vessels. [It is probable that the problem was not just her size, but the time it took to raise steam] She was relieved at Perim on 17 June and soon after was returned to Hong Kong, to be the first of the three Empresses to be handed back to their owners.

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HMS Himalaya

Apart from the Empresses another liner taken over at Hong Kong by the Navy early in the war was the Himalaya. Built in 1892 she belonged to P&O and had a gross tonnage of just under 7,000 tons. She was commissioned on 17 August when still in dry dock at Kowloon.

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By the 23rd her eight 4.7-inch guns had been mounted and the following day she put to sea to fire them. The Himalaya remained in the Far East until towards the end of 1914 and arrived for the first time at Aden on 3 January 1915. Having coaled she sailed for Suez via Port Sudan. She remained in the Suez area until 20 February and from there steamed to Bombay, making a two-hour call Aden on the way. She had to go to Bombay as she needed to go into the dry dock there for repairs to her propeller. It was not until early April that she was ready to return to Aden, where she arrived on 7 April. After five days there she left for Port Sudan, calling in very briefly at Perim on the way. Until she sailed for the United Kingdom in the autumn of 1915 most of the next six months or so were spent with the northern Red Sea patrol. She then sailed for the UK for further conversion, having been bought by the Royal Navy. The remainder of the Himalaya’s war was spent working out of Simonstown, where this photograph of the ship was taken. 

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HMS Northbrook and HMS Hardinge 

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These two ships, and others, are described under Royal Indian Marine. Although they on occasions were employed as armed merchant cruisers, their primary roles were to be troopships and station ships, (the latter in WW1 being referred to as guardships.) The Northbrook in particular was very active around Aden and in the Red Sea for most of WW1.