HMS Ambrose (1903)

Drawing of HMS Ambrose, dazzle-painted, anchored in a dock. Three submarines are alongside, and a fourth is seen broadside to port.
History
United Kingdom
Name: SS Ambrose
Owner: Booth Steamship Co
Builder: Sir Raylton Dixon & Co, Middlesbrough
Yard number: 496
Launched: 31 March 1903
Maiden voyage: 20 September 1903
Fate:
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Ambrose
Acquired:
  • 10 December 1914
  • Bought 20 October 1915
Commissioned: 10 December 1914
Renamed: HMS Cochrane, 1 June 1938
Reclassified: As submarine depot ship, 1917
Fate: scrapped 1946
General characteristics
Type: armed merchant cruiser
Tonnage: about 4,000 GRT
Displacement: 6,600 tons
Length: 387 ft 9 in (118.2 m)
Beam: 47 ft 6 in (14.5 m)
Draught: 20 ft 9 in (6.3 m)
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Armament: 8 × 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns
General characteristics
Type: Submarine depot ship
Speed: 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h)
Complement: 238
Armament: 2 × 1 - QF 12-pounder anti-aircraft guns

HMS Ambrose was a cargo and passenger liner bought by the Admiralty from the Booth Steamship Company early in World War I and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Later in the war she was converted into a submarine depot ship and spent most of the 1920s supporting submarines in the Far East. Upon her return home in 1928, Ambrose was placed in the Reserve Fleet. She was later modified to support destroyers and did so throughout World War II before she was sold for scrap in 1946.

Description

Ambrose was 387 feet 5 inches (118.1 m) long overall, had a beam of 47 feet 6 inches (14.5 m), and a draught of 20 feet 9 inches (6.32 m).[1] She was rated at approximately 4,000 GRT.[2] The ship had one propeller shaft powered by a vertical triple-expansion steam engine rated at 6,350 indicated horsepower (4,740 kW) that used steam generated by an unknown number of coal-fired cylindrical boilers.[1] In passenger service, she had a crew of about 102 officers and crewmen. SS Ambrose could carry 149 passengers in first class and 330 in steerage as originally built.[2]

As an armed merchant cruiser, Ambrose's armament consisted of eight 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns and she displaced 6,600 tons.[3] After her conversion to a submarine depot ship, Ambrose is noted as having a maximum speed of 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h), an armament of two quick-firing 12-pounder anti-aircraft guns, and had a crew of 238 officers and enlisted men.[1] Much of her passenger accommodations would have been modified to serve the crews of her submarines as part of her conversion.[4]

Construction and career

Ambrose was built by the Sir Raylton Dixon and Company shipyard, as yard number 496, in Middlesbrough for the Booth Steamship Company. The ship was launched on 31 March 1903 and began her maiden voyage, from Liverpool to Manaus, Brazil, on 20 September. She apparently ran aground on 3 October 1906 and was repaired by Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn. The repairs also included an increase in her passenger capacity through an enlarged poop deck and lasted until 30 March 1907.[2]

The ship was requisitioned and commissioned as HMS Ambrose on 10 December 1914 for service as an armed merchant cruiser.[3] She was purchased on 20 October 1915[3] and converted into a submarine depot ship in 1917.[4] Ambrose was stationed at Berehaven, Ireland in January 1918 and transferred to Falmouth, Cornwall in November. In 1919, the ship was based in Devonport.

On 1st October 1919, she and HMS Titania were both commissioned as submarine depot ships to support the 4th Submarine Flotilla in Hong Kong and to replace HMS Rosario. She, under the command of Cecil Ponsonby Talbot, and HMS Titania, under the command of Frederick Avenil Sommerville[5][6], departed for the Far East.

HMS Ambrose sailed to Hong Kong with six L-class submarines of the 4th Submarine Flotilla (L1, L3, L4, L7, L9 and L15), arriving there in January 1920. The submarines of the 4th Flotilla that accompanied HMS Titania and HMS Ambrose are identified on the britsub.x10.mx website[7]. They were all of the L-Class.

She remained in Hong Kong until 1928. She sailed from Hong Kong on 28 March of that year and was paid off into the Maintenance Reserve on 4 December at Rosyth.[4]

The sources are unclear when she was converted to support destroyers;[4] she was renamed HMS Cochrane on 1 June 1938.[3] Cochrane served as a depot ship during World War II and was paid off on 1 March 1946.[4] The ship was sold for scrap in August and arrived at the breaker's yard at Inverkeithing on 13 November 1946.[3]

Commanders[8]

Commanders
NameFromTo
1 Commander Charles W. Bruton[9] 23 Nov 1914 23 Mar 1915
2 Commander Vincent L. Bowring[10] 23 Mar 1915 8 Oct 1915
3 Commander Martin E. Nasmith[11] Nov 1917 Sep 1918
4 Commander Nicholas E. Archdale[12] 15 Nov 1917 Dec 1917
5 Commander Cecil P. Talbot 19 Sep 1918 30 Oct 1920
6 Commander Robert R. Turner[13] May, 1920 1 Jul 1922
7 Commander Geoffrey R. S. Watkins[14] 30 June, 1922 1924
8 Commander John G. Bower[15] 15 Jun 1924 10 Nov 1926
9 Lieutenant-Commander Allan Poland[16] 15 Jun 1926 25 Jun 1928
10 Commander Gerald A. Garnons-Williams[17] 25 Jun 1928 1 Aug 1928
11 Commander Alan G. D. Twigg 1 Aug 1928 14 Nov 1928
12 Commander Hugh B. Robinson 19 Nov 1928 10 Jul 1929
13 Lieutenant-Commander Alfred W. Sprott 20 Dec 1930 9 Mar 1932
14 Lieutenant-Commander John Murray 9 Mar 1932
15 Lieutenant-Commander John G. Crossley 1 Aug 1933
16 Lieutenant-Commander Rupert C. Taylor 8 Aug 1935
17 Captain Charles G. Brodie 17 Nov 1939 14 Mar 1940

See Also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Lenton, p. 586
  2. 1 2 3 O'Neill
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Colledge & Wardlow, p. 12
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Joyce, p. 18
  5. ↑ "Frederick Avenel Sommerville, RN". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  6. ↑ "Frederick Avenel Sommerville, RN". www.wikitree.com.
  7. ↑ "L-Class Boats". britsub.x10.mx. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  8. ↑ "H.M.S. Ambrose (1903)". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  9. ↑ "Charles William Bruton". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  10. ↑ "Vincent Lewin Bowring". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  11. ↑ "Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  12. ↑ "Nicholas Edward Archdale". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  13. ↑ "Robert Ross Turner". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  14. ↑ "Geoffrey Robert Sladen Watkins". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  15. ↑ "John Graham Bower". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  16. ↑ "Allan Poland". dreadnoughtproject.org.
  17. ↑ "Gerald Aylmer Garnons-Williams". dreadnoughtproject.org.

References

  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
  • Joyce, A.H. (Winter 1987). "Ambrose's Unique Conversion". Warships Supplement. Kendal: World Ship Society. 91: 18. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • Lenton, H. T. (1998). British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
  • O'Neil, Jim (1995). "The Lost Voyage of the SS "Ambrose"". Ceejay Publishing. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
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