HMAS Geranium
Template:Other ships Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMAS Geranium (formerly HMS Geranium) was an Template:Sclass sloop built in Scotland and launched in 1915. The ship was operated by the Royal Navy as a minesweeper from 1915 until 1919, when she was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) for use as a survey ship between 1919 and 1927. The ship was decommissioned in 1927 and scrapped during 1932, with the remains scuttled in 1935.
Design and construction
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Geranium was one of 56 Arabis-class sloops built for the Royal Navy during World War I.[1] The sloops-of-war were intended for minesweeping duties in European waters.[1]
Geranium had a displacement of 1,250 tons.[1] She was Template:Convert in length overall, had a beam of Template:Convert, and a maximum draught of Template:Convert.[2] The propulsion system consisted of a four-cylinder triple expansion engine, connected to a single propeller shaft.[2] Maximum speed was Template:Convert, and the ship could achieve a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert.[2] Up to 250 tons of coal could be carried.[3]
Geranium was laid down for the Royal Navy by the Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Company, Greenock, Scotland, in August 1915 and launched on 8 November 1915.[4] She was delivered to the Royal Navy on 18 March 1916.[5]
Operational history
Geranium joined the Mediterranean Fleet after commissioning, being based at Malta.[6]
After World War I, Geranium and two sister ships (Template:HMAS and Template:HMAS) were sent to Australia to clear mines deployed by the German auxiliary cruiser Template:SMS.[1] Despite hard work in rough seas, the ships only found one mine.[1]
Geranium and the other two ships were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy on 18 October 1919.[1] The ships' minesweeper design made them suitable for handling survey equipment,[1] and Geranium entered RAN service as the navy's first survey ship.[7] The ship was poorly designed for survey duties in tropical Australian waters: she was designed for the North Sea climate, and was required to carry a ship's company of 113, 36 more than the intended ship's company of 77.[1] In 1923, the sloop ran aground on an uncharted reef off Vanderlin Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.[8] The ship's company were able to refloat the ship and patch the damage, and after repairs in Sydney, the ship resumed northern survey operations.[9] In October, Geranium rescued the civilian steamship Montoro after she struck Young Reef.[9]
In early 1924, the ship ran aground again in the MacArthur River.[9] The ship was refloated and repaired.[9] Later that year, Geranium was fitted to carry a Fairey IIID seaplane: the first RAN survey vessel to carry an aircraft.[10] In May 1927, the survey ship assisted the steamship Tasman, which had hit a reef off Clarke Island.[10]
Decommissioning and fate
Geranium paid off in 1927.[7] The ship was broken up for scrap at Cockatoo Island Dockyard during 1932, and the stripped hulk was sunk as a target in the Tasman Sea outside Sydney Heads on 24 April 1935.[10][11]
Citations
References
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Template:Arabis-class sloop Template:1935 shipwrecks Template:Navbox shipwrecks of New South Wales
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Frame & Baker, Mutiny!, p. 114
- ↑ a b c Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 90
- ↑ Frame & Baker, Mutiny!, p. 115
- ↑ Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 91
- ↑ Dorling 1935, p. 366
- ↑ Template:Cite magazine
- ↑ a b Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 92
- ↑ Frame & Baker, Mutiny!, pp. 118-9
- ↑ a b c d Frame & Baker, Mutiny!, p. 119
- ↑ a b c Frame & Baker, Mutiny!, p. 120
- ↑ Gray, Randal, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985, Template:ISBN, p. 95.