HMY Mekong

The Texas newspaper El Paso Herald on 16 October 1914 reported that when war broke out Montpensier gifted it to the British Royal Navy representatives in Tokyo. They accepted his offer on 5 August 1914 but "begged"^[2] him to sail it to the British colony port of Weihaiwei in China.^[3] In the tradition of British privateers, they armed his ship with "three little guns made more for ornament than use, and but one man on board who knew how to fire them."^[2] On their maiden raiding voyage, while the ship was still commanded by the Duc de Montpensier's American Captain Henry E. Morton, they came across a German merchant ship SS Hamametal (4,000 GRT). The German ship tried to run but quickly surrendered when fired upon. Hamametal was taken as a prize ship and it and the Mekong sailed to Weihaiwei.^[2]

HMY Mekong was operating off the coast of Great Britain when a storm hit on 12 March 1916. Under the command of Admiral Frank Finnis who had come out of retirement at the age of 65, the ship struck rocks off Gristhorpe, Yorkshire and was driven ashore under the cliffs, becoming a total wreck. Of around the 50 crew who were aboard the ship, three were lost to the sea as the crew were rescued.^[4]

• "French Noble Captures Ship". El Paso Herald. El Paso, Texas. October 16, 1914. pp. 1–12. ISSN 2159-5623. OCLC 18614885. Retrieved October 23, 2025.
• history.net (2025). "British Naval Vessels Lost at Sea Part 2 of 2 - M.15 (monitor) to Zylpha (Q-ship)". Naval History. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
• "A Fine Exploit". Lyttelton Times. Christchurch New Zealand. January 9, 1915. OCLC 13240216. Retrieved October 23, 2025.
• The Scarborough News (March 10, 2016). "Dramatic fate of the Mekong, shipwrecked off Gristhorpe". National World. Retrieved October 23, 2025.