seaplane being hoisted aboard in 1913
Hermes, named after the Greek god
Hermes, was
laid down by
Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering at their shipyard in
Govan,
Scotland on 30 April 1897, and
launched on 7 April 1898, when she was named by
Lady Kelvin. She was completed on 5 October 1899, and two months later arrived in
Nassau, Bahamas with her
shaft broken and boilers damaged. Towed to
Jamaica by , she then underwent repairs in the dockyard at
Kingston, Jamaica. She served as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station until late 1901 when she returned home to have her troublesome Belleville boilers replaced with
Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The work was undertaken by
Harland & Wolff at
Belfast, where she arrived from
Devonport in May 1902, in tow of the special service vessel HMS
Traveller. She was assigned to the Channel Fleet until 1905 when she was reduced to reserve at
Portsmouth Royal Dockyard. The ship was recommissioned the following year as the flagship of the
East Indies station, but she became the flagship of the
Cape of Good Hope Station in 1907.
Hermes returned home in March 1913 and was reduced to reserve as part of the
Nore Command the next month. Work began to modify her to accommodate three seaplanes in April to evaluate the use of aircraft in support of the fleet. Her forward 6-inch gun was removed and a
tracked launching platform was built over the forecastle. A canvas
hangar was fitted at the aft end of the rails to shelter the aircraft from the weather and a
derrick was rigged from the
foremast to lift the seaplane from the water. The guns on the quarterdeck were removed to allow for a seaplane to be stowed there in another hangar. A third aircraft could also be carried amidships, exposed to the elements. Three storage lockers were fitted with a total capacity of of
petrol in tins.
Hermes was recommissioned on 7 May and loaded two unknown aircraft on 5 July, making nine flights with them before 14 July. For the trials she initially used a
Borel Bo.11 and a Short Folder, but the Borel was damaged in a storm and replaced by a
Caudron G.2 amphibian. This latter aircraft took off successfully while the ship was moving on 28 July, but the take-off platform only seems to have been used twice during this time. During the manoeuvers, she simulated a reconnaissance
Zeppelin for the Red Fleet, commanded by
Vice Admiral John Jellicoe. The Folder could only carry a small wireless transmitter because of weight limits and it would be launched to search for enemy ships and report back to Hermes which would retransmit its message with its more powerful transmitter. The aircraft made a total of about 30 flights before 6 October. The tests showed that aircraft required radio transmitters to usefully perform reconnaissance, that sustained use of aircraft at sea was possible and that handling aircraft aboard ship and on the sea imposed their own set of requirements that could not be met by converted land-based aircraft. The ship was paid off on 30 December, It is uncertain if the flying-off platform was reinstalled. On 30 October she arrived at
Dunkirk with one load of seaplanes. The next morning,
Hermes set out on the return journey but was recalled because a German submarine was reported in the area. Despite zigzagging at a speed of , she was torpedoed by at a range of .
Hermes sank off
Ruylingen Bank in the Straits of Dover with the loss of 21 of her crew. Her wreck lies upside down in approximately of water at coordinates . In January 2017, two English
divers were charged with failing to declare items removed from the wreck of
Hermes, in contravention of the
Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. ==Notes==