View source for H.M.S. Audacious (1912)

{| align="right" border="2" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 0 0 1em 0.5em; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" width="300"
| align="center" colspan="2"|'''H.M.S. ''Audacious'''''
|-
! style="color: white; height: 30px; background: crimson;"| Career
! style="color: white; height: 30px; background: crimson;"| Details
|-
| Pendant Number:
| 54 (1914)<ref>Dittmar; Colledge. ''British Warships 1914–1919''</ref>
|-
| Built By:
| [[Cammell, Laird, Birkenhead]]
|-
| Laid Down:
| 23 March, 1911
|-
| Launched:
| 14 September, 1912
|-
| Commissioned:
| 21 October, 1913
|-
| Sunk:
| 27 October, 1914
|-
|}

==Alterations==
In October, 1914, it was decided that ''Audacious'' should receive an [[Open Director Sight]] for each of her turrets.  She was lost before they could be fitted, however.<ref>''The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in H.M. Ships''.  p. 18.</ref>  It is assumed that she was not fitted with director firing gear prior to her loss,<ref>Assumption based on ''Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918''.  p. 37, in conjunction with Brooks.  "Percy Scott and the Director".  p. 168.</ref> but photos of her sinking clearly show a director tower atop the spotting top.

==Loss==
The Second Battle Squadron put out from its Mull anchorage on 26 October for firing practice.  It rendezvoused at 05:00 on 27 October thirty miles North-by-West of Tory Island, at Lat. 55° 45' N., Long. 8° 30' W., where it met the light cruiser [[H.M.S. Liverpool (1909)|''Liverpool'']] with the targets.  At 08:45 the Second Battle Squadron was steaming twenty miles N. ¼ E. of Tory Island in line ahead, ''Audacious'' being third ship in line.  An 8 point turn to starboard in succession was signalled to take the squadron onto the gunnery range, and ''Audacious'' struck a mine, which exploded under the port engine room about 5-10 ft forward of the of the after transverse engine room bulkhead.  No water was thrown up by the explosion which suggests that the mine exploded well under the bottom&mdash;[[D. K. Brown (Naval Historian)|D. K. Brown]] cites a report which says 16 ft.  The crew were going to their battle practice stations at the time, and many doors and watertight hatches were open to facilitate movement.  It was claimed that all openings had been shut before flooding reached them.<ref name=Brown160>Brown.  ''The Grand Fleet''.  p. 160.</ref><ref>Corbett.  ''Naval Operations''.  '''I'''.  p. 249.</ref><ref>Liddle.  ''The Sailor's War''.  p. 39.</ref>

The port engine room was flooded, along with the port auxiliary M/C, water tight compartments below and outside these rooms, and "X" turret shell room.  ''Audacious'' quickly assumed a 10-15° heel, which was corrected to less than 9° by 09:45 by counter-flooding the double bottom and starboard bunkers.<ref name=Brown160/>  Captain Dampier, thinking that the ship had been attacked by a submarine, hoisted the submarine warning and the rest of the squadron steamed away from possible danger.<ref>Goldrick.  ''The King's Ships were at Sea''.  pp. 139-140.</ref>  ''Audacious'' was still capable of making 9 knots with her starboard engine running at full power.<ref name=Brown160/>  Dampier believed that he had a chance of making the 25 miles to land and beach the ship.<ref name=Goldrick140>Goldrick.  ''The King's Ships were at Sea''.  p. 140.</ref>  ''Liverpool'' circled repeatedly in case a submarine was present, and the tugs which had towed in the targets closed and stood by,<ref name=Corbett250>Corbett.  ''Naval Operations''.  '''I'''.  p. 250</ref> while ''Audacious'' broadcast distress signals by wireless.  The Commander-in-Chief of the [[Grand Fleet]], [[John Rushworth Jellicoe, First Earl Jellicoe|Sir John Jellicoe]] ordered every available destroyer and tug out to assist, but did not dare send out battleships to tow ''Audacious'' in because of the apparent submarine threat.  Meanwhile the White Star liner ''Olympic'' arrived on the scene.<ref name=Goldrick140/>  As ''Audacious'' settled lower in the water stern-first, a whaler and the accommodation ladder were dislodged, carrying away a number of mushroom tops from vents and damaging hatches, hastening the ingress of water.<ref name=Brown161>Brown.  ''The Grand Fleet''.  p. 161.</ref>

At 10:00, with flooding spread to the starboard engine room, ''Audacious'' stopped.<ref name=Brown160/>  Dampier brought the head of the ship round to sea and ordered all non-essential crew off.  Boats from ''Liverpool'' and ''Olympic'' assisted until all but 250 men were taken off.  At 13:30 the captain of ''Olympic'', Commodore Haddock, suggested that his ship attempt to take ''Audacious'' in tow.  Dampier agreed and with the assistance of the destroyer ''Fury'' a tow line was passed within half an hour.  The ships began moving toward Lough Swilly, but ''Audacious'' was so unmanageable that the tow line parted.  ''Liverpool'' and the collier ''Thornhill'' attempted to take the battleship in tow, but to no avail.<ref name=Goldrick140/>  In the mean time, at 13:08 a message had arrived from the coastguard station at Mulroy that the steamer ''Manchester Commerce'' had been mined in the same area the day before.  At 16:60 Malin Head reported that the sailing vessel ''Cardiff'' had also been mined the previous night.  Upon learning this, at 17:00 Jellicoe ordered the pre-dreadnought battleship [[H.M.S. Exmouth (1901)|''Exmouth'']] out to attempt to tow ''Audacious'' in.  In case the ship was saved he also requested an officer from the Construction Department at the Admiralty in anticipation of major repairs.<ref name=Corbett250/><ref>Jellicoe.  ''The Grand Fleet''.  pp. 149-150.</ref><ref name=Goldrick140/>

Vice-Admiral [[Lewis Bayly|Sir Lewis Bayly]], commander of the [[First Battle Squadron (Royal Navy)|First Battle Squadron]], arrived on the scene in the boarding vessel ''Cambria'' and took over the rescue operation.<ref name=Goldrick140/>  With dark approaching, Bayly, Dampier and the remaining men on ''Audacious'' were taken off at 19:15.<ref>Jellicoe.  ''The Grand Fleet''.  p. 149.</ref>  At 20:45 ''Audacious'' heeled over to 120°, hung there, then capsized.  She remained floating, 45° hull up, until 21:00 when a magazine (probably "B") exploded, sending débris 300 ft into the air.  There were two smaller explosions.  It has been suggested that a Lyddite H.E., Mk. 15 Fuse shell fell from a rack in a shell room, exploded, and detonated the magazine.<ref name=Brown161/>  A piece of armour plate fell on and killed a petty officer on ''Liverpool'', which was 800 yards distant.  This was the only casualty in connection with the sinking.<ref>Goldrick.  ''The King's Ships were at Sea''.  p. 141.</ref>

Jellicoe immediately proposed that the sinking be kept a secret, which the Board of Admiralty and the British Cabinet agreed to, an act ridiculed later on.  For the rest of the war ''Audacious's'' name remained on all public lists of ship movements and activities.  Many Americans on board ''Olympic'' were beyond British jurisdiction and discussed the sinking&mdash;many photos had been taken and even one moving film.  By 19 November the loss of the ship was accepted in Germany.<ref>Goldrick.  ''The King's Ships were at Sea''.  pp. 141-142.</ref>  Jellicoe's opposing number in Germany, [[High Sea Fleet]] commander [[Reinhard Scheer]], wrote after the war: "In the case of the ''Audacious'' we can but approve the English attitude of not revealing a weakness to the enemy, because accurate information about the other side's strength has a decisive effect on the decisions taken."<ref>Scheer.  ''Germany's High Sea Fleet in the War''.  p. 62.</ref>

On 14 November, 1918, shortly after the war ended, a notice officially announcing the loss appeared in ''The Times'' newspaper:

<blockquote>H.M.S. Audacious.<br>A Delayed Announcement.<br><br>The Secretary of the Admiralty makes the following announcement:—<br>H.M.S. Audacious sank after striking a mine off the North Irish coast on October 27 1914.<br>This was kept secret at the urgent request of the Commander-in-Chief, Grand Fleet, and the Press loyally refrained from giving it any publicity.<ref>"H.M.S. Audacious: A Delayed Announcement" (News in Brief).  ''The Times''.  Thursday, 14 November, 1918.  Issue '''41947''', col C, pg. 7.</ref></blockquote>

==Account of Lieutenant Galbraith==
Lieutenant [[Thomas Dunlop Galbraith]] (later First Baron Strathclyde) later recorded his experience of the sinking:

<blockquote>When we had almost completed the turn the bridge shuddered … At that moment Captain Dampier came dashing up the bridge ladder in a great hurry and capless - as he came he asked who fired that gun. I answered no gun was fired and as I said it we were on our way to the standard compass - as we arrived there the ship suddenly rolled over to port with a rush at which the Captain said, "Close all watertight doors." That order I repeated though we were at action stations and I assumed they were already closed.<br><br>The Captain then ordered the signal bridge to hoist the signal: "I have received damage from mine or torpedo." At the same time he ordered me to bring the ship's head to the swell as with the sea more or less on our beam we were rolling some 15 degrees or so to Port then coming back slowly. It was a horrible feeling -one wondered if she were going to come back and felt a great desire to walk up to Starboard as she rolled to Port. The ship was perceptibly making less headway. Gradually we stopped and then one felt she was dying. Horrible feeling. All this time things were happening. Boats were being got ready for launching and the main derricks were getting ready to hoist out the boom boats and then the power failed and the main derrick took charge and as we rolled, kept swinging from side to side smashing into the superstructure, but was soon got under control again and lashed so it could not move. As the main engines had stopped it was obvious that we would have to be towed and all preparations were made to that end.<br><br>… All of a sudden, so it felt, an enormous liner came into sight - the ''Olympic'' and with her appearance four destroyers came in sight - the sun had appeared and coming towards us at full speed they really made a wonderful picture.' One of the destroyers took a 6-inch wire hawser to Olympic and, with several shackles of cable attached to it, Olympic attempted to get Audacious moving. The wind on Audacious's superstructure swung her round and the wire parted. Meanwhile, ''Audacious'' was being evacuated of all but the executive officers and forty seamen. Disembarkation was far from easy in the heavy swell. As dusk fell, Audacious wallowed deeply in the water, well down at the stern. Rafts had been constructed against the emergency of the ship foundering at night but it was then decided that all those still in the battleship would be taken off for the night to the destroyers and would return in the morning physically better able to secure hawsers to the tugs anticipated from Belfast.<br><br>I personally with the Torpedo and Gunnery Lieutenants stepped into a destroyer's whaler from the upper deck abreast 'Q' turret.  All the other boats had gone but the Commander was still on board ''Audacious'' and in the dim light could be seen as he was wearing a white sweater, wandering round the upper deck.  Guns hailed him several times but he paid no attention to them.  Finally we shoved off and started rowing away still shouting to the Commander until eventually he came to the ship's side and we returned, took him off, and were taken to a destroyer.<ref>Quoted in Liddle.  ''A Sailor's War''.  p. 39, p. 41.</ref></blockquote>

==See Also==
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Audacious_(1912) Wikipedia]

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*{{BibBrownTheGrandFleet}}
*{{BibCorbettNOI}}
*{{BibGoldrickKing'sShips}}
*{{BibJellicoeGrandFleet}}
*{{BibParkesBritishBattleships}}
*{{BibScheerHSF}}
*{{BibUKFireControlInHMShips1919}}
{{refend}}

[[Category:Ships|Audacious]]

{{King George V Class (1911)}}