5,394 GRT ocean liner
Location where
Princess Irene
exploded
HMS
Princess Irene
was a 5,394
GRT
ocean liner
which was built in 1914 by
William Denny and Brothers Ltd
,
Dumbarton
,
Scotland
for the
Canadian Pacific Railway
. She was requisitioned by the
Royal Navy
on completion and converted to an auxiliary
minelayer
. On 27 May 1915, she exploded and sank off
Sheerness
,
Kent
, while being loaded with
mines
prior to a deployment mission, with the loss of 352 lives.
Description
[
edit
]
Princess Irene
was 395 feet (120 m) long, had a beam of 54 feet (16 m), and a draught of 17 feet (5.2 m). Her four
steam turbines
were built by Denny's, and could give the ship a service speed of 22.5 knots (41.7 km/h).
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Princess Irene
was built by
William Denny and Brothers Ltd
,
Dumbarton
, for the
Princess fleet
of the
Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service
. Her hull was launched on 20 October 1914.
[1]
With her sister ship
Princess Margaret
, she was built to serve on the
Vancouver
?
Victoria
?
Seattle
route.
[2]
Her port of registry was Victoria.
[3]
Princess Irene
was requisitioned by the
Royal Navy
on her completion in 1915 and converted to an auxiliary
minelayer
.
She had a complement of 225 officers and men.
[2]
On 8 May 1915,
Princess Irene
and
Princess Margaret
laid a minefield northwest of
Heligoland
, with
Princess Irene
laying 472 mines.
[5]
[6]
Loss
[
edit
]
In May 1915,
Princess Irene
was moored in Saltpan Reach, on the
Medway Estuary
in
Kent
between
Port Victoria
and
Sheerness
, being loaded with
mines
in preparation for deployment on a minelaying mission. At 11:14
GMT
on 27 May, she exploded and disintegrated. A column of flame 300 feet (100 m) high was followed a few seconds later by another of similar height and a pall of smoke hung over the spot where she had been,
[7]
reaching to 1,200 feet (400 m).
Two barges lying alongside her were also destroyed.
[3]
The explosion was larger than that which had destroyed
HMS
Bulwark
in the Medway six months earlier, although the loss of life was less. A total of 352 people were killed,
including 273 officers and men, and 76 dockyard workers who were on board
Princess Irene
. On the
Isle of Grain
a girl of nine was killed by flying debris, and a farmhand died of
shock
.
A
collier
half a mile (800 m) away had its crane blown off its mountings. A part of one of
Princess Irene'
s boilers landed on the ship; a man working on the ship died from injuries sustained when he was struck by a piece of metal weighing 70 pounds (32 kg).
[7]
[9]
[10]
Wreckage was flung up to 20 miles (32 km) away, with people near
Sittingbourne
being injured by flying debris,
[3]
some of which landed in
Bredhurst
.
[2]
Severed heads were found at
Hartlip
and on the Isle of Grain. A case of
butter
landed at
Rainham
, 6 miles (10 km) away.
A 10-ton (10,160 kg) section of the ship landed on the Isle of Grain. The
Admiralty's
oil storage tanks there were damaged. The sole survivor from
Princess Irene
was a stoker, David Percy Wills, who suffered severe burns.
Three of her crew had a lucky escape as they were ashore at the time.
[11]
The victims whose bodies were recovered were buried at Woodlands Road Cemetery,
Gillingham
.
[2]
A memorial service for the victims was held at the Dockyard Church, Sheerness on 1 June 1915. It was led by
Randall Davidson
, the
Archbishop of Canterbury
.
[12]
Inquests
were held on two victims of the disaster.
[10]
The
coroner
stated that he did not intend to hold an inquest for any other victim unless there were exceptional circumstances that warranted it.
[13]
A Court of Inquiry was held into the loss of
Princess Irene
. Evidence was given that priming of the mines was being carried out hurriedly and by untrained personnel. A faulty primer was blamed for the explosion.
[2]
Following the loss of
HMS
Natal
on 30 December 1915 and
HMS
Vanguard
on 9 July 1917, both caused by internal explosions, suspicion was raised at the inquiry into the loss of
Natal
that
sabotage
was to blame for the loss of all four ships. A worker at
Chatham Dockyard
was named as a suspect, but a thorough investigation by
Special Branch
cleared him of any blame.
Memorials
[
edit
]
A memorial to those lost on
Bulwark
and
Princess Irene
was erected at the Dockyard Church, Sheerness in 1921. It was dedicated by
Archdeacon
Charles Ingles
, the
Chaplain of the Fleet
.
[14]
It was unveiled by
Hugh Evan-Thomas
,
Commander-in-Chief, The Nore
.
[15]
Victims of both ships are also commemorated on the
Naval War Memorial
at
Southsea
.
[16]
Another memorial was placed in Woodlands Road Cemetery, Gillingham, as part of the Naval Burial Ground.
[17]
Media coverage
[
edit
]
On 19 November 2002, the story of
Princess Irene
was covered by
BBC Radio Four
's
Making History
programme.
[18]
The remains of
Princess Irene
at
51°25.80′N
0°41.60′E
/
51.43000°N 0.69333°E
/
51.43000; 0.69333
[19]
are marked as an
hazard to ships
using
Thamesport
, but it is not planned to raise her.
[2]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Launched 1914: TS PRINCESS IRENE"
.
Clyde-built Ship Database
. Archived from the original on 22 October 2011
. Retrieved
21 May
2011
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Loss of HMS Princess Irene"
. Great War Primary Document Archive
. Retrieved
21 May
2011
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Complete destruction".
The Times
. No. 40866. London. 28 May 1915. col 3, p. 8.
- ^
Naval Staff Monograph No. 29 1925
, pp. 202?203
- ^
Corbett 1921
, p. 400
- ^
a
b
"Flames 300 feet high".
The Times
. No. 40866. London. 28 May 1915. col E, p. 8.
- ^
"The Princess Irene".
The Times
. No. 40867. London. 29 May 1915. col F, p. 3.
- ^
a
b
"Princess Irene disaster".
The Times
. No. 40869. London. 1 June 1915. col F, p. 5.
- ^
"Princess Irene blown up".
The Times
. No. 40866. London. 28 May 1915. col E, p. 8.
- ^
"The Princess Irene".
The Times
. No. 40868. London. 31 May 1915. col B, p. 3.
- ^
"Loss of the Princess Irene".
The Times
. No. 40881. London. 15 June 1915. col B, p. 8.
- ^
"Memorials at Sheerness".
The Times
. No. 42731. London. 27 May 1921. col C, p. 18.
- ^
"Bulwark and Princess Irene".
The Times
. No. 42732. London. 28 May 1921. col B, p. 7.
- ^
"Portsmouth Naval War Memorial".
The Times
. No. 43782. London. 14 October 1924. col C, p. 19.
- ^
"HMS Bulwark and HMS Irene War Memorial, Woodlands Road Cemetery"
. www.geograph.org.uk
. Retrieved
13 February
2013
.
- ^
"Making History"
. BBC Radio Four
. Retrieved
21 May
2011
.
- ^
"England ? East coast: River Medway, Garrison Point to Folly Point" (Map).
Admiralty charts
. UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO). Vol. 1834.
Sources
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Hendy, John (2001).
Blown to Eternity! The Princess Irene Story
. Ramsey: Ferry Publications.
ISBN
1-871947-61-8
.
External links
[
edit
]
51°25′47″N
0°41′37″E
/
51.42972°N 0.69361°E
/
51.42972; 0.69361
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