She was laid down by
Vickers Limited on 21 August 1916, and launched on 5 July 1917, being commissioned into the navy on 14 December 1917.
Curlew left Devonport, under command of Captain Holbrook, on the 9 December, 1922, for the
Imperial fortress colony of
Bermuda to replace HMS
Constance in the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron on the
America and West Indies Station, based at the
Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda, on
Ireland Island. Expected to arrive there on the 17th of December, foul weather delayed her arrival 'til the 19th. She was hove to offshore, outside Bermuda's encircling reefline, when the
1926 Havana–Bermuda hurricane reached Bermuda on 22 October 1922. Vessels in the Bermudian dockyard at the time included
Admiralty Floating Dock No. 1 (AFD1), the cruisers
HMS Calcutta, flagship of the
America and West Indies Station, and
HMS Capetown, the sloop
HMS Wistaria (which was in the submerged AFD1 in the South Yard),
RFA Serbol, the
tugboats St. Abbs, St. Blazey, and Creole, and No. 5 Battle Practice Target. The dockface (or 'the wall') in the South Yard and old North Yard of the dockyard are on the eastern (
Great Sound) shore of the island of
Ireland (with the western shore on the open North Atlantic).
Calcutta was torn free of the wharf, with all forty hawsers that had tethered her snapping, when the windspeed reached 138 mph (the highest speed recorded before the storm destroyed the dockyard's anemometer) and was saved only by the most desperate actions of her crew and other personnel, including Sub-Lieutenants
Stephen Roskill of
Wistaria and Conrad Byron Alers-Hankey of
Capetown, who swam to attach new lines to the oil wharf. Meanwhile,
Curlew, which had sustained damage to her upper deck ("No. 1 gun, bent shield and stay Forecastle Deck torn and supporting stanchions bent. Other slight damage to material, fittings etc. Motor Boat badly damaged. Both whalers and 3 Carley Floats lost") while she rode out the storm offshore, was instructed at 16:10 on the 22nd to attempt to make contact with
HMS Valerian, which had signalled "Am hove-to 5 miles south of
Gibb's Hill" at 08:30 (and which had already gone down at 13:00). The dockyard received wireless
SOS transmission from
Eastway at 17:52. SS
Luciline and SS
Fort George made way to the position of
Eastway. Although a wireless signal was sent to
Curlew at 18:40 by the Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies, to continue searching for
Valerian as the two merchant ships were going to aid
Eastway,
Curlew signalled the Commander-in-Chief a minute later that she was heading towards
Eastway.
Eastway signalled at 18:45, "W/T signals are weak. Am shorting with water here. Cannot last long old man. Am listing more every few minutes. Port lifeboats gone. Urgent assistance required. Radio giving out and stokehold flooding". The Commander-in-Chief signalled
Curlew at 18:54 to cancel the previous instruction and go to the aid of
Eastway. At 19:00, this message was cancelled and
Curlew ordered to resume the search for
Valerian.
Capetown was ordered to put to sea to join the search for
Valerian at 20:03. The following day, 23 October,
Capetown signalled that two men had been sighted on a raft at 31.59 North, 64.45 West. These were the first survivors from
Valerian to be rescued. Two officers and seventeen men would be plucked from the ocean by 11:33.
Luciline rescued twelve survivors from the crew of the
Eastway by 12:34 and took them to Bermuda. In common with most of her sisters
Curlew was rearmed to become an
anti-aircraft cruiser in 1935–36. On the outbreak of war, she served with the
Home Fleet. She participated in the Norwegian Campaign, and whilst operating off the Norwegian coast on 26 May 1940, she came under attack from German
Junkers Ju 88 bombers of
Kampfgeschwader 30 and was sunk in Lavangsfjord,
Ofotfjord near
Narvik. Nine sailors were lost with the ship. ==Notes==