H.M.S. Rhododendron (1917)

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H.M.S. Rhododendron (1917)
Pendant Number: T.95 (Jan, 1918)[1]
Builder: Irvine's Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company[2]
Ordered: Feb, 1917[3]
Launched: 15 Oct, 1917[4]
Sunk: 5 May, 1918[5]
Fate: by U.70
H.M.S. Rhododendron was one of twenty-eight Anchusa Class convoy sloops completed for the Royal Navy.

Service

Rhododendron was lost on 5 May 1918 in action with U 70 less than a month after she entered service. The sloop was immediately hit and heavily damaged by a torpedo, prompting the crew to abandon the ship with an embarrassing rapidity. Worse, when the ship did not sink immediately, those men who re-boarded her neglected to engage the surfaced U-boat.

Lieutenant-Commander R.N.R. Charles A. Peal's performance in this action was sufficiently poor that he was tried by Court Martial on 31 May for "not using utmost endeavours to engage [the] enemy", "desertion of post" and having "negligently or by default suffered his ship to be lost." Peal was deprived of all accrued seniority as a Lt. Cdr., dismissed the ship, and severely reprimanded.[6]

Captains

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 96.
  2. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 96.
  3. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 96.
  4. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 96.
  5. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 96.
  6. Peal Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 240/54/57. f. 57.
  7. Peal Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 240/54/57. f. 57.
  8. Hepper. British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era: 1860-1919. p. 129.

Bibliography


Anchusa Class Convoy Sloop
Anchusa Bergamot Candytuft Ceanothus Convolvulus
Eglantine Spiraea Syringa Arbutus Auricula
Bryony Chrysanthemum Coreopsis Cowslip Dianthus
Gardenia Gilia Harebell Ivy Marjoram
  Mistletoe Pelargonium Rhododendron Saxifrage  
  Silene Sweetbriar Tuberose Windflower