HMS Shark (1912)
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.jpg/330px-HMS_Shark_(WWI).jpg) |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Acasta class destroyer |
| Name: | HMS Shark |
| Launched: | 30th July 1912 |
| Fate: | Wrecked by gunfire and torpedoed 31 May 1916 |
| General characteristics | |
| Length: | 267 ft 6 in (81.5 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft |
| Draught: | 10 ft 6 in |
| Propulsion: | Yarrow-type water-tube boilers, Parsons steam turbines |
| Speed: | 29 kts |
| Armament: |
3 x QF 4 in L/40 Mark IV, mounting P Mk. IX |
HMS Shark, was an Acasta-class destroyer sunk during the Battle of Jutland on the evening of 31 May 1916.
She joined the 4th Destroyer Flotilla on completion and served with the Grand Fleet on the outbreak of World War I. Shortly afterwards the ship helped sink the German minelayer Koningen Louise.
During the Battle of Jutland, the 4th Flotilla was attached to Admiral David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet based at Rosyth, and assigned to cover the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron. During the battle, at around 6 pm, the destroyer led an unsuccessful torpedo attack by the flotilla on the German 2nd Scouting Group. The other three destroyers escaped with little damage, but Shark was crippled by gunfire. [1] The forecastle gun was completely blown away with most of its gun crew shortly before the captain, Commander Loftus Jones, declined an offer of assistance from the destroyer HMS Acasta.
Soon afterwards the aft 4 inch gun was also destroyed and the bridge wrecked. Jones and three seamen continued working the midship gun, engaging nearby German destroyers and leading to the sinking of V48.[2] The German destroyers closed on the ship and returned heavy fire, during which Jones lost a leg. Shortly before 7 pm he ordered the ship to be abandoned and around thirty of the crew managed to get onto the rafts, including the mortally wounded Jones. Seven were picked up six hours later by a Danish ship, but one died soon afterwards.[3]
At 7 pm the destroyer was sunk by a torpedo launched by the German torpedo boat S54 and which hit her abreast of the aft funnel. In March 1917 Jones was gazetted with a posthumous Victoria Cross.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ N. J. Campbell (1987). Jutland: An analysis of the fighting. ISBN 0 85177 379 6.
- ^ a b Biography: Loftus William Jones VC. Royal Naval Museum. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
- ^ Nigel Steel & Peter Hart (2004). Jutland 1916: Death in the Grey Wastes. ISBN 0 304 36648 X.
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