TALE OF TWO CRUISERS

A Tale of Two Cruisers

(Or a diary of on-going research)

1 July

I have been attempting to identify the two cruisers in the ‘Farrington Court’ photograph, but so far without success. Equally I have been trying to find the correct date. On the back of the photograph, in pencil, are written ‘December 1918’ – but the ‘18’ has been overwritten ‘09’ in ink. I had already come to the conclusion that the ink alteration was done some years later. I also had my suspicions as to how contemporary was the original pencil description: “Run ashore Dec 1918 ss Farrington Court”. This was because there was no Court Line ship of that name; the ship was the ‘Barrington Court’, a steamer of around 4,500 tons.

I went to Kew today to try to confirm that the 1918 date was correct. Two things about the cruisers pointed to the date not being 1909. The first was the warship grey colour of the cruiser on the left – in 1909 British warships stationed in hot climates were painted a much lighter colour. Secondly I have an idea class funnel identification markings were not in use in 1909 – but they certainly were universal during WW1.

Assuming the warships were British there were not many two-funnelled cruisers in service. For much of the war the flagship of the Red Sea Flotilla was the cruiser HMS Fox and for several reasons I am for the moment assuming that the cruiser on the left of the photograph is the Fox. Both ships look pretty identical. At Kew I sought out the logs for the Fox, but found that there are some frustrating gaps. For example after the Fox went into dry dock in Bombay towards the end of July 1918 there are no further monthly logs for the remainder of that year. By 1st January 1919 she is in another theatre so there is no way of proving that she was at Perim during December 1918. However she was at Perim on 1st January 1918, on which day she sailed, but unfortunately the log for December 1917 is also missing – just in case the year was 1917 and not 1918.

During the last week of May 1918 the Fox was patrolling out of Perim, usually for only a few hours each day. The log mentions that HMS Topaze was there as well. My hopes rose when I found that she was also a cruiser – but they fell when I came across several photographs, as she had three funnels not two!

The best hope of solving the problem is to work out which other cruiser might have been patrolling out of Perim in December 1918, then find her log and look for mention of Fox. If nothing comes up for (November or) December 1918, I will have to widen the search to prior to 1918.

3 July

Looking at the back of the photograph I had previously noticed that a piece across the top had been cut off. One can see the word ‘harbour’ in ink. But now looking yet again for the ‘nth’ time I can see something else as well, between ‘harbour’ and the description across the middle of the back. Partially rubbed out one can make out ‘for Dear Edward’.

This begins to make sense and supports the theory that the photographer was on the Barrington Court and that he was enjoying a ‘run ashore’. It follows on from this that the photograph at some later date was given to Edward, the donor knowing Edward had been stationed there. It is possible that Edward, although not the photographer, had also been on the Barrington Court when she called at Perim.

Having had a careful look at cruisers of all shapes and sizes in service 1915-18, the name of the second cruiser in the photograph can only be one of not very many; most cruisers had three funnels and few of the older two-funnelled ‘protected’ cruisers were still in commission. It is likely to be one of Diana, Doris, Minerva or Venus, with the favourite being Diana as she is said to have been in the Red Sea sometime in 1918.Minerva was there in 1917 and Venus in 1915 and possibly also later. Much depends on the veracity of ‘December 1918’.

If the photograph was much earlier than 1918 then Pyramus could be a faint possibility, or the Philomel which was also at Perim on a number of occasions. The problem here is that the second cruiser in the photograph looks quite a bit bigger than a vessel of the Pelorus class. The Astraea (same class as the Fox) spent the war on the Cape station, but I suppose might have been on her way home in December 1918, the war having ended in early November. She was the only sister ship of the Fox still in commission, other than on depot ship and other employment.

5 July

What I need to find today is a log that shows one of these cruisers being at Perim in company with Fox. I am pinning my hopes on Diana!

Faint hope! Diana was never at Perim as far as I can see; and none of Doris, Minerva or Venus were there either in the autumn of 1918 – and Astraea was still on the Cape Station.

Whilst waiting for some of the logs to be produced I decided to see if there was a copy of Jane’s Fighting Ships, or similar, in the reference library at Kew to hopefully find photographs of likely ships different from those I had seen on the internet. I came across a photograph of HMS Royal Arthur and this set me thinking! I knew that she had coaled at Perim in 1908, taking on nearly 650 tons at one go. Lo and behold she had only two funnels! I called forward her logs for the period and found that in 1908 or 1909 she had coaled three times at Perim.

Now one good thing about ships’ logs is they nearly always list other warships in port, or arriving or sailing whilst the particular ship is there. For two of her visits there were no other ships mentioned but when she arrived at 0700 on 9 February 1908 against that entry in the log is “HMS Hawke in harbour”. In fact the Hawke had arrived only 45 minutes before the Royal Arthur, which took on 500 tons of coal in four and a half hours and then sailed at 1730, some 15 minutes after HMS Crescent had entered harbour. The Crescent had only entered Perim harbour to receive a crew member from the Hawke and she sailed more or less immediately at 1815. The Hawke sailed at 2000. Another look at the reference book showed that Hawke (and Crescent) were sister ships of the Royal Arthur. It seemed that the problem was solved – that the ships were the Royal Arthur and the Hawke and that the photograph had been taken on 9th February 1908. Certainly their size (about 7,350 tons) was a positive and the fact that they were sister ships seemed to more or less settle it.

Or did it? A diagram in the reference book had also given the funnel markings of the six ships of the class. (So they were in use pre-WW1, certainly for ships of the same class operating in the same squadron.) The Royal Arthur should have had two white rings on each funnel! One ring on the forward funnel was to identify HMS Endymion and one on the rear funnel to identify HMS Edgar. I only had time on today to call forward Edgar’s logs from May 1907 to June 1909 and Endymion’s for the period July 1906 to February 1908. (Fortunately pre-WW1 one logbook covered at least a 12 month period, whilst from 1914 logbooks covered only a calendar month – and at the National Archives one can only order three items at a time!)

No luck so far! The Endymion was in home waters throughout and although the Edgar went to the Far East and back (all the ships were based in Portsmouth, which explains the dark grey paint) she called in at Aden and not Perim both ways.

Remembering that the date on the photograph was amended in ink to 1909 I am now pinning my hopes on the next volume of the Edgar’s log! I am hopeful as cruisers other than the Royal Arthur coaled at Perim during this period, and the Hawke and the Crescent did not do so on 9 February 1908.

From what I have found so far I would be very surprised if the two cruisers turned out to be from another Class of ships. We shall see!