'Did Hazard His Ship'

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The TIMES reported January 25th











"HMS Hood and HMS Renown in collision








The Secretary of the Admiralty announces that HMS Hood and HMS Renown were in collision at about noon on Wednesday during exercises off the coast of Spain. Slight structural damage was received buy both ships but there was no injury to personnel. Both ships are proceeding to Gibralter in accordance with their programme."







A week or so later it was announced that the rear-admiral commanding the battle-cruiser squadron and the captains of the Hood and Renown were to be court-martialled by three seperate courts Plymouth.

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The story of the accident was interesting.


It was planned to carry out an exercise known as an 'inclination' exercise on January 23rd, and a day or so beforehand the navigating officers of the squadron were called to a conference aboard Hood by Commander E.V.Lees, the squadron navigating officer, to discuss the general arrangements.
[Inclination exercise:- The object of an inclination exercise is to give a moving ship practise in observing and plotting the course of another ship.]


One of the officers who went to the conference was Lt-Cdr G.M.S.Stitt, navigating officer of the Renown. After the conference, with typical naval hospitality, Cdr Lees invited the visiting officers into the anteroom for drinks and they chatted together. But they also discussed the forthcoming exercise, and Lees and Stitt had a short chat together in which the senior of the two gave the other an outline of what was to happen.
He explained tha the squadron would sail in line ahead in a roughly south-westerly direction, with the Renown following in the wake of the Hood. They would pass the Isle of Salvora on the starboard side and then the battle-cruisers would seperate, steaming on different courses, until the two ships were about twleve miles apart. At that point, both ships would alter course and steam parallel to each other to the south-west again, carrying out their inclination exercise. When the exercise was over the two ships would again alter course with the object of closing with each other, reforming line ahead, and proceeding due south to carry out an anti-submarine exercise.

Lees then, according to his own subsequent account of the conversation, told Stitt that he had been thinking over the manoeuvre and thought that it would save time if the Hood altered course to the south as the Renown approached, as this would allow the latter ship to return to the line ahead formation with only one change of course. He said he would suggest this to Admiral Bailey if he had the chance. Stitt, however was left with the impression that this was what the plan was to be. Stitt, back aboard Renown pulled out his notebook and explained to his captain what he thought was to happen.

Next day, the inclination exercise were conducted, Admiral Bailey was satisfied with the way the exercise went, and just before 11:36 am he sent a signal to end it and the two battle-cruisers swung from their courses and began to close again.
The admiral watched from his bridge in the Hood and as the two ships drew to within about a mile of each other he appreciated the fact that the Renown was steaming on a course that would eventually bring her into collision with his flagship if she held it. This did not trouble him, however, for it is common practise for a ship closing on another to line ahead formation first to steam for a point abreast of her proper station and then to ease her way over to her correct place, he assumed that the Renown was carrying out such a manoeuvre.

The ships closed to seven cables (1400yds) and the captain of the Renown became slightly annoyed. "She's leaving it damned late, Stitt," he shouted, We'd better hold our course and leave her more room to turn."

The admiral was also getting annoyed, and at seven cables seperation told one of his staff officers to hoist a signal :
'Form single line ahead in sequence of fleet numbers on course 254 degrees'.

Half a minute latter the ships were six cables apart and Captain Sawbridge (Renown) began to get worried. At five cables apart the signal reached Captain Sawbridge who had already given the order : 'Starboard 35. Stop engines.' quickly followed by 'Engines half astern'. then 'Engines full astern.'


On the Captains Bridge on the Hood, a point had been reached where it seemed to Captain Tower that the Renown was not going to react to the signal, and, right or wrong, if he did not take action himself, collision was inevitable. So he gave the only orders he could reasonably give and altered course to port and full speed ahead, looking over his right shoulder he was horrified to see the Renown bearing down hard on the Hood. He immediately reversed the Hood's rudder to starboard to get the ships stern away from the Renown's bow, but it was too late, both ships quivered with the impact.

The squadron now made for Gibralter and then to the drydocks at Plymouth and Portsmouth.
Damage wasn’t heavy, Renown’s bow had been gashed in several places by the Hood’s propellers and Hood had suffered broken and chipped blades on both starboard propellers and the midshipmans cabins had been sprung on the starboard side.


Pictures are from the HMS Hood site.

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Court-martial




Five weeks later, three senior officers had to face tribunals on grave charges.

Rear-Admiral Bailey was first.

It appears that Rear-Admiral Bailey is to blame in that, having ordered Renown to close Hood on a course of 192 degrees and Hood to steer 254 degrees, he failed to take action to prevent the development of a situation in which risk of a collision between the ships arose.

Several witnesses were called and built up a picture of the collision for the court. The main facts of the case were not disputed, though there was a considerable difference of opinion over the matter of when the admiral’s signal to Renown was hoisted.

The court-room doors remained closed for a two full hours. Then a marine orderly opened them and everyone filed back in once more. On the court table lay Admiral Bailey’s sword, its point towards the president. There was an atmosphere of relief in the room.

Next morning the trial of Captain H R Sawbridge began before a new court, presided over by Rear-Admiral C G Ramsey.

The circumstantial letter was read to the court and was the same as the Admiral Bailey’s except for the last paragraph:

It appears that Captain Sawbridge is to blame in that he continued to steer a course until the risk of collision was present and, subsequently, failed to take effective action to prevent a collision.

The evidence was almost identical with that given the day before, although rather more was said about the conversation in the Hood between Lees and Stitt.

The court took an hour and a quarter to decide upon their verdict in this case, and as the public filed back into the room not a word was spoken, for the sword that lay on the court table had its point towards the chair where Captain Sawbridge had sat through out the day.

He was recalled and told that the sentence was of the court was that he was to be “dismissed his ship”.

The third and final court martial was held on the following day, when Captain Tower appeared before a fresh court.
This time the circumstantial letter ended:

It appears that Captain Tower is to blame in that, on seeing Renown approaching on a dangerous bearing, he did not take action in sufficient time to avert a collision.

The evidence that was called was the same as in the previous court martials.

When Captain Tower gave his own evidence he stated that he no reason for believing that the Renown would do anything other than take station astern of the Hood in accordance with normal cruising procedure. As soon as he realized that something had gone wrong he did the only thing that any reasonable person could have done in the circumstances and put the Hood’s rudder hard over.

This time the court took under an hour to reach their verdict, and when he was called back Captain Tower was handed back his sword by Admiral Tottenham, who said :

“Captain, I give you back your sword—with my congratulations”.

Two weeks later the Secretary to the Admiralty released a statement to say that the Board of Admiralty had reviewed the proceedings and had confirmed Captain Sawbridge’s conviction but had reduced his sentence to a severe reprimand in view of what they felt to be considerable mitigating circumstances.






regards Collin:ernae:

[PSULLYKEYS]

Thanks Collin. Very interesting case, and a look at British Navy Court - Martial proceedings and discipline!

[michael davies]

A pilot once told me at work ( Port of Felixstowe ) " big ships should always be seperated by large areas of water", they really do not handle well in close quarters !.

Interesting to read about the court room and the sword, very informative and I suspect steeped in naval history rigtht back to the ships of the line I wouldn.t wonder ?.

Best

Michael

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A pilot once told me at work ( Port of Felixstowe ) " big ships should always be seperated by large areas of water", they really do not handle well in close quarters !.

Interesting to read about the court room and the sword, very informative and I suspect steeped in naval history rigtht back to the ships of the line I wouldn.t wonder ?.

Best

Michael

Michael, your pilot is quite correct, large ships have their own unique magnetism, which draws them together. Also the method of steering with a rudder on the rear makes turning different to driving a car, the bow digs in and the stern swings round to the direction that the ship is to point too. So when you want to avoid another ship very close by like in this case, you have to turn the helm hard over towards the direction of the other ship so that the stern swings away from the other ship.

I'm not to sure when the sword tradition came into practice, but its been around for about 3 centuries. If point towards you, you are guilty, if it points to the court president you are innocent and he will hand it to you.

I have most of the court proceedings in this case but had to precis it substantially as its about 20 pages long.

My interest in this started when I managed to get hold of a 'Hood nugget', when the Renown was in dry dock, bits of the Hoods propellers were found inside her forward bilge areas. The Hood Association has one, and so do I, no more are known at present.

regards Collin:ernae:

[crashaz]

WoW what a cool piece of history!

Would be like if I had a piece of the Arizona.. if only.

When I was out at Pearl and having dinner with the USS Arizona Survivors Association. I took the opportunity to ask Daniel Martinez about the whereabouts of the forecastle cut away from the Arizona. Rumor had it that it lies on the Waipio Peninsula (seperating East and West Lock).

He said it was true but not much was left. You need Navy permission to get on the peninsula.

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Crashaz,

there's more than the forecastle left, a lot of the top hamper was cut off and dumped, not sure where, but its mentioned with photos in a "After the Battle" edition.

regards Collin:ernae:

[redriver6]

that is just amazing that you own a piece of one of the most famous warships in history...

not to change the subject too much but i was thinking the other day about the Hood/Prince of Wales vs Bismark/Prinz Eugen and was wondering what if...the Hood and PoW instead of turning at extreme range to present their broadsides...what if they had continued to close the range at high speed firing only the forward guns.

its easy to armchair general but the closer the Hood got, the less extreme the plunging fire would have been...who knows.

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Its a good question Redriver6, why not start a new thread here in the naval forum? There's a load of 'old salts' within the membership who might want to comment on such a subject plus the usual flying suspects and general drunks.

regards Collin:ernae:

[Dirtman]

Hood nugget? Was that recovered from the Admiral's skivvies?

:costumes: :costumes: :costumes:
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Some more piccies of the damage.

regards Collin:ernae:

[Dirtman]

Gee ..... I sure hope they had insurance....

:costumes: :costumes: :costumes:

[Good_2_Be]

The insurance company covered the repairs but it was a $10,000 deductable with a 25% increase on the premium. Happily they replaced the Admirals skivvies free of charge :caked: