HMS Amphion (1911)

Ordered as part of the 1910 Naval Programme, Amphion was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard's No. 5 Slipway on 15 March 1911 and launched on 4 December by Mrs. Mundy, wife of the dockyard's Captain-Superintendent, Captain Geoffrey Mundy. She was completed in March 1913 and her first commander was Captain Frederic Dreyer with Lieutenant John Tovey as his First Lieutenant. Amphion was commissioned on 2 April and assigned to the 4th Battle Squadron of the First Fleet.^[6] A month later, the ship was assigned to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron by 18 May.^[7] She remained with the squadron for nearly a year and was serving as the flotilla leader of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla by 18 June 1914.^[8]

By the start of the First World War in August, Amphion and her flotilla was assigned to the Harwich Force, defending the eastern approaches to the English Channel, under the command of Captain Cecil H. Fox. In the morning of 5 August, Amphion and the 3rd Flotilla sortied into the North Sea to patrol the area between Harwich and the Dutch island of Terschelling for German activity. At 10:15 a ship in the black, buff, and yellow colours of the Great Eastern Railway's steamers that plied between Harwich and the Hook of Holland was spotted. Fox sent the destroyers Lance and Landrail to investigate and shortly afterwards another destroyer reported that a trawler had seen a suspicious ship, 'throwing things overboard, presumably mines'. Amphion led the flotilla to investigate and observed that the fleeing ship was deploying mines even then. At 10:45, Lance opened fire at a range of 4,400 yards (4,000 m).^[9]

The target was SMS Königin Luise, a former Hamburg-Heligoland excursion boat that had been converted to an auxiliary minelayer by the Germans. They had planned to mount a pair of 8.8-centimetre (3.5 in) guns on board, but they did not have the time to do so; her only armament was a pair of lighter guns and 180 mines. On the night of 4 August, she had departed Emden and headed into the North Sea to lay mines off the Thames Estuary, which she began to do at dawn.^[10]

The fire from the destroyers was ineffective until Amphion closed to a range of 7,000 yards (6,400 m) and began hitting the German ship at about 11:15. By noon, Königin Luise was sinking and the three British ships rescued 5 officers and 70 ratings. The flotilla proceeded onwards with their patrol until they reached the Dutch coast around 21:00 and turned for home. Fox was uncertain as to the locations of the mines laid by Königin Luise and laid a course that was seven nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi) west of where he thought the mines were. He guessed wrongly and led his flotilla over the danger area.^[11]

At 06:35, Amphion struck a mine that detonated underneath her bridge. The explosion set her forecastle on fire and broke the ship's keel. The destroyer Linnet attempted to tow the cruiser, but a deep crack across her upper deck showed that she was hogging badly and Fox ordered his crew to abandon ship. Shortly afterwards, her forward magazine exploded, throwing one 4-inch gun into the air that narrowly missed Linnet. One of Amphion's shells burst on the deck of the destroyer Lark, killing two of her men and the only German prisoner rescued from the cruiser. Amphion then rapidly sank within 15 minutes of the explosion losing 1 officer and 131 ratings killed in the sinking, plus an unknown number of the crew rescued from Königin Luise.^[12] The wreck is a protected site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.^[13]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Amphion (ship, 1913).

• Barnett, Len (January 2003). "A 'Well Known' Incident Reassessed—The German Attempted Mining of the Thames in August 1914". The Mariner's Mirror. 89 (2): 185–202. doi:10.1080/00253359.2003.10659285. ISSN 0025-3359.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben & Bush, Steve (2020). Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (5th revised and updated ed.). Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-9327-0.
• Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8.
• Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
• Goldrick, James (2015). Before Jutland: The Naval War in Northern European Waters, August 1914–February 1915. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-349-9.
• Phillips, Lawrie (2014). Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5214-9.
• Preston, Antony (1985). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Conway Maritime Press. pp. 1–104. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.

52°07′N 2°22′E / 52.11°N 2.36°E / 52.11; 2.36