Protected cruiser HMS Europa

The protected cruiser HMS Europa belonged to the Diadem class, which consisted of eight ships, with only three of the ships still participated in the First World War.

 

Launching and design:

The ships of the Diadem class were from the Powerful class and should be used primarily in the protection of trade routes. To save costs, a weaker propulsion system was installed, which reduced armor and did not mount heavy guns. In addition, fewer crew members could now be used, which reduced the costs to the predecessor ship by 15%.

Thus, no 234 -mm guns but two 152 -mm guns were mounted at the bow and at the rear, which significantly reduced the impact. The other 12 cannons were laterally embedded in casemates.

The launch of HMS Europa took place on March 20, 1897, the commissioning on November 23, 1899.

 

 

 

 

 

History of HMS Europa:

After commissioning and the test drives took place in 1900, a trip to Australia to take an exchange crew of the British warships there. Since the ship had a very high consumption of coal, it had to start altogether at ports to receive coal there. Alone these loads lasted 30 days, so that the ship arrived after only 88 days in Sydney.

As the tensions between Russia and Japan intensified at the end of 1903, Europa was sent to the area to investigate and possibly evacuate British nationals from the danger zone.

1907 was the second trip to Australia to carry out an exchange of crews. On September 6, 1907, the Europa ran together with the HMS Edgar of Portsmouth, Sydney this time could already be reached on October 3, 1907, making this trip lasted only 27 days.

Subsequently, the ship was assigned to the reserve.

 

 

 

Use in the war:

When the First World War broke out, the HMS Europa, together with its sister ships HMS Argonaut and HMS Amphitrite, was reactivated and assigned to the 9th Cruiser Squadron in Gibraltar. From there, the ships were to oversee the area and raise German merchant ships.

After the Ottoman Empire had joined the war against Great Britain, starting from the beginning of 1915, the planning and preparations for a landing company began on the Dardanelles. The responsible for the attack on Gallipoli Admiral Wemyss demanded from the British Admiralty a ship, which should serve as a floating depot for the troop transport. Since the HMS Europa was correspondingly large enough and the drive system would soon be due for an overhaul, this ship was selected and relocated in June 1915 in the operational area.

On the way there, the ship was still a part of its crew to other warships, on site, then the largest part of the machine personnel were delivered. Since the ship also had a modern radio system, it served until the end of the war not only as a depot but also as a working ship for the staffs.

 

 

 

Whereabouts:

After the First World War, HMS Europa was brought back to Britain and decommissioned there.

On September 15, 1920, it was sent to the company C.F. Bletto sold in Malta, which wanted to convert it in Genoa to an emigrant ship.

On the way there, the ship sank in January 1921 during a storm. It could be lifted, but the damage was so strong that it could only be scrapped in Genoa.

 

 

 

Ship data:

Name:	HMS Europa
Country:	Great Britain
Ship Type:	Protected cruiser
Class:	Diadem-Class
Boatyard:	J.& G. Thompson, Clydebank
Building-costs:	unknown
Launched:	March 20, 1897
Commissioning:	November 23, 1899
Whereabouts:	Sold on 15 September 1920, sunk on the way to Genoa in January 1921, subsequently lifted and scrapped
Length:	140,97 meters
Width:	21,05 meters
Draft:	Max. 7,77 meters
Displacement:	Max. 11.000 tons
Crew:	677 men
Drive:	30 Belleville boilers 2 triple expansion machines
Power:	16.500 PS
Maximum speed:	20,25 kn
Armament:	16 x 152 mm cannons 14 x 12-pounder guns 3 x 3-pounder guns 8 x machine guns 2 x 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armor:	Armored deck 65 to 102 mm Casemates 114 mm Shields 114 mm Command tower 305 mm

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the right literature here:

 

British Battleships of World War One

This new edition of a classic work on British battleships is the most sought after book on the subject. Containing many new photographs from the author's exhaustive collection this superb reference book presents the complete technical history of British capital ship design and construction during the dreadnought era. Beginning with Dreadnought, all of the fifty dreadnoughts, 'super-dreadnoughts' and battlecruisers that served the Royal Navy during this era are described and superbly illustrated with photographs and line drawings.

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The British Battleship: 1906-1946

Norman Friedman brings a new perspective to an ever-popular subject in The British Battleship: 1906-1946. With a unique ability to frame technologies within the context of politics, economics, and strategy, he offers unique insight into the development of the Royal Navy capital ships. With plans of the important classes commissioned from John Roberts and A D Baker III and a color section featuring the original Admiralty draughts, this book offers something to even the most knowledgeable enthusiast.

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British Battlecruisers 1905-1920

The brainchild of Admiral Sir John Fisher, battlecruisers combined heavy guns and high speed in the largest hulls of their era. Conceived as "super-cruisers" whose job it was to hunt down and destroy commerce raiders, their size and gun-power led to their inclusion in the battlefleet as a fast squadron of capital ships. This book traces in detail the development of Fisher's original idea into the first battlecruiser Invincible of 1908, through to the "Splendid Cats" of the Lion class, and culminating in HMS Hood in 1920, the largest warship in the world for the next twenty years. The origins of the unusual "light battlecruisers" of the Courageous type are also covered.

The well-publicized problems of British battlecruisers are examined, including the latest research throwing light on the catastrophic loss of three of the ships at the Battle of Jutland. The developmental history is backed by chapters covering machinery, armament, and armor, with a full listing of important technical data. The comprehensive collection of illustrations includes the author's superb drawings and original Admiralty plans reproduced in full color. This revised and updated edition of the classic work first published in 1997 will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the most charismatic and controversial warships of the dreadnought era.

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British Battlecruiser vs German Battlecruiser: 1914–16 (Duel)

Battles at Dogger Bank and Jutland revealed critical firepower, armor, and speed differences in Royal Navy and Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) Battlecruiser designs.

Fast-moving and formidably armed, the battlecruisers of the British and German navies first encountered one another in 1915 at Dogger Bank and in the following year clashed near Jutland in the biggest battleship action of all time. In the decade before World War I Britain and Germany were locked in a naval arms race that saw the advent of first the revolutionary dreadnought, the powerful, fast-moving battleship that rendered earlier designs obsolete, and then an entirely new kind of vessel - the battlecruiser. The brainchild of the visionary British admiral John 'Jacky' Fisher, the battlecruiser was designed to operate at long range in 'flying squadrons', using its superior speed and powerful armament to hunt, outmanoeuvre and destroy any opponent. The penalty paid to reach higher speeds was a relative lack of armour, but Fisher believed that 'speed equals protection'. By 1914 the British had ten battlecruisers in service and they proved their worth when two battlecruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, sank the German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off the Falklands in December 1914.

Based on a divergent design philosophy that emphasised protection over firepower, the Germans' battlecruisers numbered six by January 1915, when the rival battlecruisers first clashed at Dogger Bank in the North Sea. By this time the British battlecruisers had been given a new role - to locate the enemy fleet. Five British battlecruisers accompanied by other vessels intercepted and pursued a German force including three battlecruisers; although the battle was a British tactical victory with neither side losing any of its battlecruisers, the differences in the designs of the British and German ships were already apparent. The two sides responded very differently to this first clash; while the Germans improved their ammunition-handling procedures to lessen the risk of disabling explosions, the British drew the opposite lesson and stockpiled ammunition in an effort to improve their rate of fire, rendering their battlecruisers more vulnerable. The British also failed to improve the quality of their ammunition, which had often failed to penetrate the German ships' armour.

These differences were highlighted more starkly during the battle of Jutland in May 1916. Of the nine British battlecruisers committed, three were destroyed, all by their German counterparts. Five German battlecruisers were present, and of these, only one was sunk and the remainder damaged. The limitations of some of the British battlecruisers' fire-control systems, range-finders and ammunition quality were made clear; the Germans not only found the range more quickly, but spread their fire more effectively, and the German battlecruisers' superior protection meant that despite being severely mauled, all but one were able to evade the British fleet at the close of the battle. British communication was poor, with British crews relying on ship-to-ship flag and lamp signals even though wireless communication was available. Even so, both sides claimed victory and the controversy continues to this day.

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