HMS Vulcan (1889)

RN 1890-1931. Torpedo Boat Depot Ship.

HMS Vulcan was the world’s first dedicated torpedo boat mothership. She was a 1880s concept of flotilla carrier, able to deploy them to attack an enemy fleet or protect a colonial station but the best deterrent of its time. A very “Jeune Ecole” concept though, by certain aspects, she inspired the French cruiser La Foudre, built immediately after. However if the concept seemed sensible on paper, the small size of the 3rd class torpedo boats and minesweeping launches she carried, were anything but usable in North Sea or Atlantic waters. This soon restricted her deployments and general usefulness, apart her repairing ship ship abilities, very precious to the fleet. She became a submarine ship after conversion in 1914 and from 1931 a training hulk, renamed Defiance III, used until stricken and BU in December 1955.

Development

The “torpedo” as a self-propelled weapon in its modern sense (in the 1860-70s this was a mine) opened a lot of possibilities. Pioneered by Whitehead in Austria-Hungary from an earlier salcavoste patent, it became one of the great revolution in naval warfare of the XIXth century, still in use today, but to kill submarines. The idea of a dedicated carrier emerged almost as soon as the weapon was perfected enough to see some service. In Britain, albeit this weapon was seen with some suspicion by traditional circles of the admiralty, its adoption by other naval powers, notably France, was enough of concern to motivate the creation of a first dedicated “torpedo boat”, HMS Vesuvius (1874) and later the grounbreaking Polyphemus (1852). Many other fast vessels were also built, launches, converted private yachts, with pioneers such as Thornycroft to perfect these type of fast vessel that brought torpedo boats to the fore as a credible weapon.

A Pioneer: HMS Hecla

In the mid-1880s already, the Royal Navy operated a wide array of torpedo boats of the 1st, second and 3rd class. These flotillas needed support, hence the creation early on of a tender/depot ship for torpedo boats, HMS Hecla (1878). She was a converted torpedo boat carrier and depot ship purchased in 1878 for this purpose, originally a commercial ship when laid down. The idea of carrying torpedo boats on a mothership was to some sort of dynamic fleet protection not only in open sea but also at anchor when the fleet was in transit in a possible dangerous area. There were multiple applications, chief of which was an enemy harbor attack, but some conditions needed to be met: The Torpedo boat needed to be small enough to be carried aboard -on this chapter the goal was achieved- and still be capable of operating with the fleet. Hecla was the former merchant ship British Crown, requisitioned and converted whilst under construction by the admiralty. The hull was modified with a new aft section dedicated to carry up to six 2nd class “torpedo boats”. See also British ww1 Torpedo Boats.

Considered a bit as a “secret weapon”, the ship was stationed (like her purpose-built sister HMS Vulcan) in the Mediterranean, where sea conditions were more lenient. HMS Hecla was given to the best officers in RN especially experts in torpedo boats. Under their guidance, they conducted scores of tests. But like HMS Vulcan, conclusions were the same: Despite the merits of the solution, 2nd class TBs needed absolutely calm weather to operate. They were still slow and lacked capabilities to achive their missions in a wide range of circumstances. HMS Hecla was transformed in 1912 as a destroyer tender, eventually sold in 1926.

Genesis of HMS Vulcan

Launch at Portsmouth, the Graphic 1889

Vulcan was built on the same premises, as a specialist torpedo support ship from the keel up, a motheship that could carry six torpedo boats on deck, had repair workshops and equipment stores. But the admiralty aslo wanted her full cruiser capabilities to act with the fleet. The initial idea was to deploy her against an enemy fleet as a deterrent, accompanying a squadron out at sea to scatter an enemy formation, or attacking/blockading an enemy port using torpedo boats and minesweeping launches. Her workshop facilities included from the start would enable her to support her own torped flotilla far from any facility, notably along the British Empire.

Unlike HLS Hecla, Vulcan was a purpose-built mothership, a bit like the French Foudre. She looked like a cruiser and was well armed, but kept the same aft modifications to carry six 2nd class TBs operated by a large gooseneck crane. She also had a workshop and full equipments as a depot ship. Unlike Hecla, she was more specialized into fleet combat and intended to deploy her torpedo boats organically in a squadron. Built at Portsmout NyD, laid down 18 june 1888 and launched in June 1889, trials took time due to boilers issues and the in-house “battle of the boilers”. She eventually was reboilered and arrived in service more than ten years after HMS Hecla, which already proved the limitations of the concept. Her service was further delayed by strenghtening the hull and curing her of teething problems past 1903.

Design of the class

Hull and general design

HMS Vulcan was designed as a standard protected cruiser, but with extra space for its torpedo boats, located past the funnels on deck fittigs. She was the longest ship ever built at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard. Displacement was 6,820 tons (standard) with other sources giving 6,620 tonnes. She measured 350 ft (110 m) between perpendiculars, or 113.7 meters overall for a beam of 58 ft (18 m) and draught of 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m). In general appearance she looked like a cruiser, with a ram bow, narrow cruiser stern, low superstrctures, a wooden bridge with wings forward of the first funnel, a conning tower aft of the formast, a mainmast aft, also raked, and fitted with a boom. One prominent feature was her pair of heavy duty gooseneck cranes (see later) just amidship the second funnel to put to sea her torpedo boats. Her extra lenght was due to these peculiar boat accomodations (see flotilla). Her crew was large at 432, including officers, NCOs, sailors, the TB crews, and workshop specialists, machinists and all sorts of artisans. In short, despite her large size, she was crowded.

Powerplant

She had two shap propellers, driven by two VTE (Vertical Triple Expansion) Humphrys and Tennant steam engines, fed in turn by the steam coming from four double-ended Scotch (or other) boiler and an auxiliary single-ended boiler to power her workshop machinery. This was one of the earliest example of auxiliary power to run systems when the ship was anchored, sometinng that became standard on later depot and repairs ships. Under natural draught this machinery had an output of 8,167 shp, and under forced draught up to 12,000 shp for a max speed, under natural draught of 18 knots forced draught 20 knots, which was appreciable for a 1880s cruiser, but less so in the late 1890s. She developed boilers issues that plagued her early career.
She carried also an estimated 1000 tonnes of coal, enough for an endurance, of 12,000 nautical miles (22,224 hm) at 10 knots.

Protection

HMS Vulcan received the protection level of a protected cruiser, with steel, limited to a turtleback deck over the machinery space and ammunition stores, as well as her steering room. Here is the detail:
Armoured Deck: 5 inches or 127 mm amidships, 2 inches or 51 mm at the ends. The slopes were likely 5-inches.
Conning tower forward: 6 inches (152 mm).
Engine hatches: 5 inches or 127 mm.

Armament

HMS Vulcan was armed like a cruiser and could perfectly take her place in a battle line, or defend its own fleet of torpedo boats. She had eight 4.7-in (120mm)/40 QF Mk I/II/III/IV guns, likely one pair fore and aft, sponsoned, and the remainder in two sponsoned positions amidship, then twelve single 3-pdr or 47mm/40 Hotchkiss Mk I, with about six on either sides, placed between the main guns, and the remainder on structures fore and aft. She also had twelve 11.4mm/94 Nordenfelt Machine guns for close defence, placed at strategic locations. She also had six torpedo tubes, one forward , two at the beam and one aft 1 aft, all above water as well as two more underwater in the beam. But of course her best asset was to carry up to nine 2nd class torpedo boats (see flotilla). She was rearmed later in her career (see below).

4.7-in/40 QF

Barrel & breech 4,592 lb (Mk I–III), lenght 15 ft 9 in (4.8 m). Crew: 10
Shell: Separate loading QF, AP, Shrapnel, Common Lyddite or pointed, HE 45 Ibs.
Loading: Single motion interrupted screw, recoil 12 inches (305 mm).
Elevation -6° – 20°, 5–6 rounds per minute at 1,786 feet per second (544 m/s)
Range: 10,000 yards (9,100 m) at 20°.

Hotchkiss 3-Pdr (47 mm/1.9 in)

Mass: 240 kg (530 lb), 2 m (6 ft 7 in) total, 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) barrel.
Shell: Fixed QF 47 × 376 mm R, full 3 kg (6.6 lb)+ 1.5 kg (3.3 lb)
Breech: Vertical sliding-wedge, 30 rpm, MV 571 m/s (1,870 ft/s).
Max range: 5.9 km (3.7 mi) at +20°.

Flotilla

The main reason this ship was built in the first place was its torpedo boat flotilla. Sources diverges about its composition through. Some states she carried as much as nine of them. There were supports for nine boats but most sources point out her normal provision of six 2nd class torpedo boats, which were 16 tonnes models. She also carried one “1 boat gun” (likely an armed launch) and two countermining launches as well as four other steam boats. In her “maximum” configuration she carried four TBs either side of her funnels amidships, two pairs, then five in a row aft of the second funnel, all served by the gooseneck cranes abaft it.

Her “normal boats” were located further aft and served by the boom crane of the aft mast. The foremast also had a boom crane and a hold between the guns. These 2nd class boats were comparble to the 113 footers of 1884-86 but more compact. The general concept was to carry these midget TBs on davits of larger ships, either specialized (like HMS Hecla and Vulcan) or battleships or even large cruisers for self-defence. Many were built from 1878 to 1889, so for a decade, before it was realized nothing was a substitute for larger, more seaworthy and sturdier boats for this task. The idea was abandoned and the 2nd class TBs were it.

Equipment

As a true mothership and thus, torpedo boat base, she was designed to be sent in distant colonial outposts, and was provided with everything its flotilla needed. She was a torpedo depot to provide its boats, but also acting as repairing workshop and floating dockyard as the torpedo boats were deposed on deck and their hull was accessible at all times. She could put to sea its torpedo boats by hydraulic cranes with a 30 tons capacity. She was fitted with lathes, drilling and planing as well as slotting and punching machines. She had circular saws, and a smither as well as forges and furnaces to fix any part, in adition of having a spare parts reserve.

In addition to her torpedo supplies she also could fix them as well. She ald had mining apparatus. A “torpedo nurse” that was unique in the world at that time. Outside her TB care, she could perform all kinds of naval repair work and became the only RN ship able to make large brass and iron castings at sea in her facilities. For this, she stands pre-eminent and alone. Over time, thousands of pounds of iron and brass castings were made on board and finished to repair ships of the fleet. The brass furnaces were kept in almost constant service, working far into the night, with ongoing iron casting. In time she received electric blower air blast.

⚙ specifications
Displacement	6,820 tons
Dimensions	350 x 58 x 23 ft 6 in (113 x 18 x 7.16 m)
Propulsion	2 shafts Humphrys & Tennant VTE, 4 boilers 12,000 Ihp
Speed	20 kts
Range	Coal 1,000t, endurance, nm(kts), 12,000(10)m
Armament	8× 4.7 in, 12× 3 pdr, 16× MGs
Flotilla	6× 16-ton TBs, 2 countermining launches, 4 steam boats
Protection	Steel deck 2.5-5 in
Crew	432

Career of HMS Vulcan

HMS Vulcan as completed

HMS Vulcan was laid down on 18 June 1888 at Portsmouth NyD and launched on 13 June 1889, almost exactly a year later, the completed in Jult 1891. Her early career is not well known.
Her trials were delayed however because of troubles with other vessels having similar boilers and her own boilers. She was one of the victims of the infamous ‘battle of the boilers’ raging over the type of boilers to adopt by the RN by the early 1890s. She had however the means to repair her boilers unlike other ships. In 1902, she was however reboilered completely to cure her issues, but continued to suffer from many teething troubles, partly due to her hull structure, took weak to carry all nine torpedo boats. It had to be strengthened before completion and gradually she routinely operated only six of them. So the entire decade until 1902 was spent testing these 2nd class torpedo boats in home waters and later in the Mediterranean.

Her relatively wide beam in proportion to her length was sufficient to stabilize her however, and she kept reasonable speeds, bu the modernization of 1902 did not incorporated fuel oil yet.
Captain Henry Jackson was appointed command in December 1899, and she became a torpedo depot ship on the Mediterranean Station. Captain Charles John Briggs succeeded him in command on 12 December 1901, before her overhaul. The posting was logical given her TBs were ill-adapted for sea conditions in the north sea and Atlantic the best of times. She made several cruises eastward and was also posted at Malta, visiting in between many Italian and Spanish ports as well as Greece. Exercises were made in Ionian waters wut formation torpedo run, gun practice. Photos showed her for example stationed at Plataea.

Over time, her workshop and repair capabilities made her a much appreciated asset for the RN on Mediterranean outposts lacking any facilities: She had five lathes of various sizes, from 18in down to 3ft 6 as well as two drilling machines, with complete sets of twist drills, boring bars. She had equipments for planing, shaping and slotting as well punching or shearing plus a circular saw bench, all driven by her auxiliary dedicated steam engine in the workshop. Most appreciated were her ability for casting and founding, using a generous hot air furnace. It was able to melt down 2 cwt of iron or brass, with air blown by a fan running at 2,000 pm. She also had a sand pit and moulding boxes, fitters benches and vices, plus a full store-room with hand tools and her own metal reserves. She still was used in 1914, but mostly as depot ship, not carrying them anymore since the 1890s. Also in 1915, her eight 4.7 in guns were all replaced by four 3 pdr guns, making more room to be used as depot ship.

As a submarine depot ship (1915)

IWM photo, CC, later in her career

Vulcan was in 1915 converted as a dedicated depot ship back in Britain. She spent the war there. On 18 October 1919, she was in harbour at Blyth in Northumberland (NZ319816) for repairs to her main engines. She was moored close to HMS H41 when in the afternoon, building up a steam to start a slow-speed trial. Restricted waters in the dock basin and suction from Vulcan her propellers drew H41 towards her. The crew could not prevent keeping them apart, until Vulcan′s propeller tore down the submarine’s stern, all the way through her outer casing, then slicing open her pressure hull. H41 sank but her crew already had escaped. She was was raised but not repaired, sold for scrap directly.

HMS Vulcan during the war cared for the the Dundee flotilla, twelve C-class submarines and a few destroyers. She was moored in the Tay, off Newport, close to the shore base at King William IV Dock and the workshops at the West Graving Dock. Access was complicated by a tide-restricted entrance, but three submarines lied at moorings next to the depot ship at all times, ready to depart under a short notice. Later the 7th Flotilla was rediced to nine submarines. Life was monotonous but in 1918 HMS Vulcan’s crews were hit by the influenza pandemic. Eight men from the 7th Flotilla lost their lives while serving at Dundee. Many future officers were formed here like Colin Cantlie (later CO of HMS Royal Oak, Admiral in 1945) or Geoffrey Layton escaped (HMS Hood 1939) and CiC of Hong Kong and Singapore in 1942. Sidney Winn commanded B11 and torpedoed the Mesudiyein the Dardanelles. Postwar, Vulcan was assigned the 6th submarine flotilla.

Later career (1930-55)

Vulcan in 1928, Agence Rol cc

In February 1930, HMS Titania (Commander A. B. Lockhart, D.S.C, 4th Flotilla) coming from Hong Kong after ten years, relieved HMS Vulcan as depot ship of the 6th Flotilla. By then Vulcan was stationed in Portland. She still retained her seagoing status. One submarine was retained in full commission to relieve H34, 5th Flotilla. The very large L3 completed in 1918 was scrapped. The remaining four were reduced to reserve, at Fort Blockhouse. In 1931 she became the HMS Defiance III, her name given to a new ship, and she was stripped of any armament, fitted for training as a training hulk. She remained used for this task until stricken from the refister and sold for BU in 1955.