HMS Good Hope

1914

Coronel, von Spee, no survivors Location: Pacific Ocean, off Coronel, Chile · Coordinates: 36.85°S 73.97°W · Casualties: ~900 · Survivors: 0 · Depth: abyssal · not located · Cause: naval gunfire — Engaged by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee's German East Asia Squadron at the Battle of Coronel on the evening of 1 November 1914. Outranged and outgunned, she was struck by salvoes from SMS Scharnhorst which ignited her forward magazine at 19:50. She disintegrated in seconds. · Fate: abyssal Pacific · Type: armoured cruiser · Drake class · Tonnage: 14,100 tons · Crew: 919 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1901 Drake-class armoured cruiser, flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock's South Atlantic squadron. Engaged by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee's German East Asia Squadron off Coronel on the Chilean coast at 19:50 on 1 November 1914. No survivors, Cradock included. The first British naval defeat since the American Revolution; the Royal Navy's response, six weeks later off the Falklands, destroyed von Spee's entire force. The Vessel HMS Good Hope was a Drake-class armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy, commissioned at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Govan on 8 November 1902. She was 161 metres long, 14,100 tons standard displacement, armed with two 9.2-inch guns in single turrets fore and aft, sixteen 6-inch guns in casemate mountings, and four 18-inch underwater torpedo tubes. Her design speed was 23 knots on a two-shaft arrangement, placing her among the fastest armoured cruisers in service. The Drake class had been designed to counter Russian fast cruisers operating in Far Eastern waters, specifically against the emerging Russian Pacific Squadron of the 1900s. Their high speed and heavy 9.2-inch main armament gave them a range of engagement capabilities beyond the conventional armoured cruiser. By 1914, however, their design rationale had been overtaken by newer battlecruisers; Good Hope and her sisters were considered obsolete by the Admiralty and were assigned to secondary stations. Her commanding officer in the autumn of 1914 was Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, 52, a senior Royal Navy officer whose command of the 4th Cruiser Squadron had placed him in charge of British naval operations in the South Atlantic and the west coast of South America at the outbreak of the First World War. Cradock flew his flag in Good Hope; his squadron comprised Good Hope, the armoured cruiser HMS Monmouth, the light cruiser HMS Glasgow, and the armed merchant cruiser HMS Otranto. The Disaster The Battle of Coronel opened at 18:50 on 1 November 1914 at a range of 10,400 metres. The sea conditions were critical: the heavy swell caused the secondary armament of Cradock's cruisers (the 6-inch casemate guns mounted along their hull sides) to ship water and become unusable. The main 9.2-inch guns of Good Hope could still engage but at a reduced rate of fire. Scharnhorst's opening salvos found the range almost immediately. At 19:00 on 1 November 1914, a German shell struck Good Hope's forward 9.2-inch turret, destroying it. At 19:05 another German shell penetrated Good Hope's forward magazine through the destroyed turret. The magazine detonated. HMS Good Hope disintegrated at 19:53 on 1 November 1914 at approximately 36°48′S 74°06′W. Her bow and stern sections separated and sank within thirty seconds of the magazine detonation. All 919 officers and ratings aboard died. There were no survivors. HMS Monmouth, her accompanying armoured cruiser, was also destroyed in the same engagement by SMS Gneisenau at 20:55 on 1 November 1914; of Monmouth's 734 crew, all died. The combined British loss at Coronel was 1,653 sailors killed in less than three hours. HMS Glasgow and HMS Otranto escaped the engagement.