The Voyages
of HMS Clio
Pea-Bee’s interest in HMS Clio was sparked
by two newspaper cuttings, yellowed with age and neither more than seven lines
long, found among the memorabilia hoarded by Grandmother.
The cuttings posed so
many questions: Why keep them? What was Clio to her? And what was the story
these cuttings hinted at? In setting out to answer these questions, Pea-Bee
started turning up more and more about HMS Clio and so this blog was born.
Before the story is
allowed to unfold, however, it must be pointed out that at the beginning of the
20th century, rather confusingly, there were two ships in the Royal Navy called
Clio. The older one, a wooden screw corvette launched in 1858, had, since 1877,
been moored in the Menai Strait off Bangor, where she was used as a training
ship for boys. Many hundreds of boys passed through her over her 40-odd years as
a school – and Pea-Bee apologises to any of their descendants who have come to
this blog hoping to find out more about life aboard her.
This blog is about the
other Clio – a Cadmus-class sloop launched in 1903 and sold in 1920.
Clio was a small ship – the complement of officers and men
was usually about 120 – but she certainly had an eventful career, and frequently she
had to battle the elements: that typhoon reported in the cuttings was not the
only storm she had to weather.
Clio’s life with the Service can be divided into five
distinct phases:
1.
Her maiden voyage at the beginning of 1904
2.
Nearly a year on the Australia station, mainly
cruising the islands of the South Pacific
3.
Ten years on the China Station, protecting
British interests along the coast and in the lower reaches of the Yangtze
4.
Four years in the Middle East as part of the
campaign against the Turks in Arabia during the First World War.
5.
Having been paid off towards the end of the war
and put into the Reserve, Clio was recommissioned for one last adventure – the campaign
against “The Mad Mullah” in Somalia – before she was sold for scrap in November
1920.
But first,
the technical bit
Clio was the fifth of six Cadmus-class sloops built at the
beginning of the 20th century. She took just over a year to build: her keel was
laid down at Sheerness dockyard on 11 March 1902 and she was launched on 14
March 1903.
The Cadmus class sloops were built of copper-sheathed steel
and each had both a steam engine and a full rig of sails. The engine was a three-cylinder
vertical triple expansion steam engine developing 1,400hp and driving twin
screws. The sail plan was barquentine-rigged, that is, three masts with a
square-rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main and mizzen masts. Clio could reach speeds in excess of 13 knots.
Each ship had six 4-inch/25-pounder and four 3-pounder
quick-firing breach loaders together with three Maxim machine guns.
Clio had a length
of 185ft, was 33ft at the beam and had a draught of 11¼ft. Overall, she had a
displacement of 1,070 tons and carried 195-225 tons of coal.
The officers and crew
The size of the
crew varied considerably. Most of the time the ship’s complement was between 110
and 120 officers and men, but for the Somaliland Campaign of 1919/1920, there
were over 150 on board.
It would be
extremely difficult – if not impossible – to produce a complete crew list for
her 16 years of service. After her initial commissioning in 1904, Clio
recommissioned six times – effectively six complete new crews to try to
identify. Officers and warrant officers appeared in the Navy Lists of the time,
and these will appear in a suitable appendix to this blog, as will the handful
of other men who have been identified.
Clio was fitted
with a hand capstan and hand wheel, situated after under the poop. As a result,
the complement of the crew was allowed to include one musician for playing when
weighing anchor or working cables. However, there does exist a photograph of
Clio’s band and there are 14 men in view – including three members of the Royal
Marine detachment on board. There was a bass drummer, two side drummers/buglers
and 10 flute players, plus a drum major. How many were musicians by trade is
not known but at least four, including the drum major, wore gunners’ badges.
At this point,
all that is necessary is to give the dates of recommissioning and a chronology
of the commanding officers.
19 January 1904 Sheerness Commander Henry Douglas Wilkin
DSO
1 August 1906 Hong Kong Commander Cecil Dacre
Staveley Raikes
24 September 1908 Hong Kong Commander Charles Tuthill Borrett
12 October 1910 Hong Kong Commander Henry Rawdon Veale (joined
30 September)
17 October 1912 Hong Kong Commander Colin MacKenzie DSO (joined
25 July)
4 April 1916 “abroad” Commander Arthur
Welland Lowis (joined 26 January)
Paid off 27 August 1918 Port Said [Lt
RNR Charles Lennard (joined 7 September 1916)]
5 March 1919 Port
Said Commander Harold
Brisbane Bedwell
27 March 1919
Port Said Commander
Vernon Stanhope Rashleigh
4 November 1919 Gibraltar Commander Charles Harold Jones
DSO (joined 13 September)
Part I Clio’s maiden voyage
Clio’s career did not get off to a good start, even though
her sea trials after commissioning were satisfactory. It was on her maiden
voyage, which began on 29 January 1904, that things started to go wrong. She
was heading for the Australian station and, as reported at the time:
“Very heavy weather
conditions were experienced down the English Channel, and Clio proved herself
to be anything but a good vessel in a seaway. She shipped large quantities of
water, and being a ship of extremely light draught rolled and pitches severely.
So roughly was she handled by the elements that her commander deemed it
advisable on the day after sailing to run into Portland for shelter, and while
there two of the ship’s company deserted. The stormy conditions having somewhat
moderated the voyage was resumed on January 31, and Plymouth was reached the
same afternoon. A few hours were spent at this port and Clio sailed the same
evening.
“While steaming across
the Bay of Biscay a terrific tempest was encountered, resulting in some amount
of damage being done to the ship. No sooner had Clio lost sight of the
Eddystone lighthouse than a violent gale sprang up. The tempest continued to
rage with unabated fury during the whole of February 1 and 2. One of the ship’s
dinghies which was hanging over the stern of the ship was dashed to atoms by
the mountainous seas which were running at the time. The jib forward was washed
away and a good deal of damage done aft. The mess deck forward was flooded to
the extent of 2ft or 3ft, and the contents were floating from one side of the
side to the other. Clio rolled and pitched heavily, and at intervals of every
few minutes shipped gigantic seas. On February 3, after passing Finisterre, the
conditions moderated, and Gibraltar was safely reached, much to the relief of
the whole of the ship’s company, on February 5. The ship was coaled and
departure was again taken on February 8 for Malta.”
But the voyage had only just begun. On leaving Gibraltar,
Clio sustained further damage: one of the blades of the port propeller was bent.
When she reached Malta on 11 February, Clio went into dry dock and the repairs
delayed her until 18 February, when she resumed her journey, arriving at Post
Said on 22 February. The coal bunkers having once more been replenished, the
Clio entered the Canal on the following day, and anchored off Ismalia for the
night. The next morning she arrived at Suez and set sail down the Red Sea on 25
February.
Just about the time Clio was sailing between Gibraltar and
Malta, the Russo-Japanese war broke out.
“In the Red Sea Clio
encountered a fleet of Russian warships, and those in command scanned the Clio
with great suspicion. During the night one of the Russian destroyers, with all
her lights extinguished, steamed within 50 yards of Clio, and followed her
closely for about 10 minutes. No signals were made, and no communication of any
kind took place. Eventually the Russians having evidently satisfied themselves
that Clio belonged to Great Britain abandoned pursuit, and the destroyer which
had shadowed her was soon lost to sight.”
After her close encounter with the
suspicious Russians, Clio continued her voyage past Aden and across the Indian
Ocean without incident until…
“While in the Malacca Straits
on the way to Singapore, Clio picked up a native canoe floating bottom upwards.
There were no traces of life in the vicinity, but it was presumed that the
disaster had overtaken some boating party. The canoe was secured, and has been
brought on to Sydney…[where] its history created a good deal of interest.”
Clio arrived at Singapore on 26 March and after a few days
relaxing set off again on 3 April.
“Early on the morning of
Sunday, 10 April, Engine-room Artificer Andrew Mott died of appendicitis, and
at 11 am that day he was buried at sea off Timor with naval honours.”
Andrew John Mott had been born in Chelsea on 5 September
1878 but his birth was not registered and his parents have not been identified.
On 11 April, Clio reached Thursday Island off the tip of
Cape York, Queensland. She remained there until 19 April, during which time football
matches were organised against some of the shore teams.
“Three of the ship’s
company, a stoker and two boys, deserted the ship in one of the boats. An
exhaustive search was made, and although the boat was eventually discovered no
trace of the missing men could be found.”
Clio sailed without them but when she reached Cooktown, further down the Queenland coast on 23
April “orders were received from
Vice-Admiral Fanshawe from Sydney to return to Thursday Island to arrest the
three deserters, who had in the meantime been captured by the civil
authorities. The Clio arrived for the second time at Thursday Island on April
28, and received the deserters on board the following day. She sailed on April
30 for Sydney direct, and a stop was made each night while coming through the
Great Barrier Reef.”
On reaching Sydney on 9 May 1904, there was some good news
reported: “Since leaving Gibraltar
excellent weather conditions had prevailed.”
Clio was to replace HMS Sparrow (which had been taken out of
commission) on the Australian station and upon arrival at Sydney moored in Farm
Cove, just off Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.
Sources
Unlike other of Pea-Bee’s blogs, individual
facts have not been referenced this time. That is because virtually everything
appears in The Sydney Morning Herald of
Tuesday 10 May 1904 (via trove.nla.gov.au)
Other sources are:
The Navy List (via Ancestry.com)
Naval Database (www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/C/01006.html)
Naval-History.net (www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-18-HMS_Clio3.htm)
Exeter Flotilla (www.exeterflotilla.org/history_misc/nav_customs/nc_customs.html)
Historical Photographs of China (hpc.vcea.net/Database/Images?ID=31207)
