Hawkins-class cruiser


The Hawkins class was a class of five heavy cruisers of the Royal Navy designed in 1915 and constructed throughout the First World War. All ships were named after Elizabethan sea captains. The three ships remaining as cruisers in 1939 served in the Second World War, with Effingham being an early war loss through wreck; Raleigh had been lost in a similar shipwreck on uncharted rocks in 1922. Vindictive, though no longer a cruiser, also served throughout the War. This class formed the basis for the definition of the maximum cruiser type under the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.

Design

Although the Hawkins class were the first heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy, they were designed as improved versions of the Birmingham sub-class of the Town-class light cruisers, thus they were initially known as the "Improved Birmingham" type. Their lineage descended through an intermediate sketch design of 1912 known as the "Atlantic Cruiser", armed with a combination of 7.5 and 6-inch guns, designed to counter reported large German cruisers armed with guns.
In 1915, a new design of cruiser was prepared for trade protection on distant waters, for which a heavy armament, long range and high speed was required; meaning a large ship. Previous large cruisers had been of the armoured cruiser or protected cruiser type. These ships had been made obsolete by the adoption of oil-firing and the steam turbine engine and had been superseded by the battlecruiser and the light cruiser. The Hawkins design was basically a light cruiser enlarged sufficiently to increase their range and armament as required. A mixed armament of 9.2 and 6-inch guns was rejected after wartime experience illustrated the difficulty of controlling a mixed battery as shell splashes could not be differentiated. Thus, a uniform battery of 7.5-inch calibre was adopted, controlled by the innovation of director firing.
The development of director firing made the planned armament obsolete, as director control relies on "straddles" in which some shells in a given salvo are seen to fall short of the target and some long. As long as straddles are maintained, some percentage of the shots will be hits. With a main battery consisting of only two guns, a straddle of one shell falling short and one long mathematically eliminates the possibility of a hit, while a uniform six-gun broadside allows the possibility of up to four hits out of a straddle.
The boilers were initially a combination of coal and oil firing to ensure a supply of fuel on distant stations; coal being more available and the ships could cruise on coal firing alone. The installed power was for. However, only Hawkins and Vindictive were completed as such. The other ships were not constructed with as much haste and were completed post-war with oil-firing only, increasing power to for.
These ships did not suit the Royal Navy's post-World War I needs well, as Britain needed numbers of cruisers, rather than individually powerful ships. As breaking them up on the slips would have been an unwarranted waste of money, they were completed anyway. At just under 10,000 tons and armed with 7.5-inch guns, they became the prototype of the heavy cruiser designs based on limitations set by the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922.

''Vindictive''

The fifth and last ship of the class - laid down as Cavendish - was altered to an aircraft carrier while building, renamed to perpetuate the name of the cruiser sunk at the Second Ostend Raid and her construction was rushed to bring her into service before her cruiser sisters. She had a flying-off platform forwards and a landing deck aft and a hangar for up to eight aircraft. She was armed with four 7.5 inch and six 12-pounder guns. In 1923 she reverted to a cruiser, but retained the hangar forwards and did not carry a 'B' gun; a crane and catapult being carried instead for seaplanes. After 1935 she did not serve in a cruiser role.

Modifications

No ships were completed with the original design secondary armament. Hawkins carried only the 12-pounder anti-aircraft guns, her sisters having two or three QF 4-inch Mark V guns on mountings HA Mark III. In 1929, Hawkins had her 12-pounder guns replaced by an equal number of the same model of guns as her sisters. Frobisher was partially disarmed as a training ship in 1932, but reverted to a cruiser in 1937 when Vindictive was specially demilitarised for this role.
The ships were scheduled for disposal in 1936, but rising international tensions caused their retention. In 1937, Effingham was rebuilt as a light cruiser with nine BL 6-inch Mark XII guns on single mountings CP Mark XIV. These were shipped superfiring forwards in 'A', 'B' and 'C' positions, on either wing, triple aft in 'W', 'X' and 'Y' positions with the ninth gun being on the quarterdeck in position 'Z'. The after boiler rooms were removed and the remaining uptakes trunked into a single large funnel. Secondary armament was eight QF 4-inch Mark XVI on twin mountings HA/LA Mark XIX, eight QF 2-pounder Mark VIII guns on two quadruple mountings Mark VII and twelve 0.5 inch Vickers machine guns on three quadruple mountings Mark I. The submerged torpedo tubes were removed. She had a new bridge and spotting top and carried a crane amidships; the catapult and aircraft were never fitted.
It had been planned to rebuild Hawkins and Frobisher on similar lines, but other priorities prevented this. They were re-armed for war with all their guns, except in Frobisher which had the wing guns removed so that the gun deck could be extended out to the ship's sides. In 1940, they received two or four quadruple 2 pounder "multiple pom-pom" mountings and seven or eight 20 mm Oerlikon guns on single mountings P Mark III. They received an outfit of centimetric Radar Type 273 target indication on the bridge, Type 286 air warning at the mastheads, Type 275 on the HACS gun director for ranging and bearing and, in Frobisher only, a pair of Type 282 sets on the pom-pom directors on the bridge. Further wartime additions increased the number of 20 mm guns.

Service

NameNamed forBuilderLaid downLaunchedCommissionedFate
John HawkinsHM Dockyard Chatham3 June 19161 October 191719 July 1919Broken up at Dalmuir, 1947
Walter RaleighWilliam Beardmore & Company, Dalmuir4 October 1916,28 August 1919,July 1921Ran aground at Point Amour, Forteau Bay, Labrador 8 August 1922
Demolished September 1926.
Martin FrobisherHM Dockyard Devonport2 August 191620 March 19203 October 1924Broken up at Newport, 1949
Charles Howard, Lord EffinghamHM Dockyard Portsmouth2 April 19178 June 19219 July 1925Wrecked Faksen Shoal, Bodø, Norway 18 May 1940
Sunk by gunfire & torpedoes by 21 May 1940
Thomas CavendishHarland & Wolff, Belfast29 May 191617 January 19181 October 1918Converted to aircraft carrier and renamed Vindictive, June 1917
Broken up at Blyth, 1946