H.M.S. Caledon (1916)

H.M.S. Caledon (1916)
Pendant Number:	69 (Apr 1917) 22 (Jan 1918) 65 (Apr 1918)
Builder:	Cammell Laird
Ordered:	Dec, 1915
Laid down:	17 Mar, 1916
Launched:	25 Nov, 1916
Commissioned:	Mar, 1917
Sold:	Jan, 1948
Fate:	Broken up

H.M.S. Caledon was launched in 1916 — one of four light cruisers of her class.

Service

Caledon was fitted with a director in June, 1917. This alteration required her pole mast to be replaced with a tripod mast for greater rigidity. Following successful tests in Yarmouth that same month, Caledon was one of three other light cruisers to receive a flying-off platform on her forecastle for a Sopwith Pup some few weeks later.

She fought in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 under the command of Walter H. Cowan, leading the First Light Cruiser Squadron. Screening First Battle Cruiser Squadron with her squadron, she chased an assortment of enemy minesweepers and light cruisers through smoke screens. Reaching the enemy's heavy support force, she came under fire of the German battleships Kaiser and Kaiserin. V. B. Ash recorded the result of a 12-in shell, luckily a dud, which hit near his post in the wireless room:

I was in a silent cabinet with the phones on, so what with the fearful noise of No. 4 gun just above, I did not know we had been hit! The Paymaster Commander, in the coding room next door, heard it all right and dashed up on deck to see what had happened. Back down, he saw me still at my post sending and receiving messages, as a result of which I was recommended for a medal or for higher rate 'for remaining on duty under great provocation!'

In May, 1919, Caledon was chosen as the flagship for a new Second Light Cruiser Squadron.

In mid-1920, it was ordered that Caledon should replace her 21-in Mark IV S.L. torpedoes with their Mark IV* version.

Caledon re-commissioned at Chatham on 6 January, 1925.

She paid off on 17 August, 1926.

Caledon was re-commissioned at the Nore on 5 September 1927 for duty with the Third Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean.

She re-commissioned at Devonport on 15 January, 1929 for continued duty with the Third Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean.

The cruiser was re-commissioned at Devonport on 31 July, 1931.

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

• Captain Claud H. Sinclair, February, 1917 – 7 July, 1917
• Commodore, Second Class Walter Henry Cowan, 7 July, 1917  (in command at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight)
• Commander Henry S. M. Harrison-Wallace, 2 September, 1918 – 22 March, 1919
• Captain Geoffrey Mackworth, 22 March, 1919 – May, 1919  (and as Flag Captain to R/A Cowan)
• Commodore, Second Class Arthur A. M. Duff, 14 May, 1919 – 25 May, 1919
• Commodore, Second Class Arthur A. M. Duff, 22 June, 1919 – 1 January, 1920  (and as Senior Naval Officer, Baltic)
• Captain Everard J. Hardman-Jones, 23 November, 1920 – May, 1921  (and as Flag Captain to R/A Duff of Second Light Cruiser Squadron from 31 December)
• Captain Rafe G. Rowley-Conwy, 14 May, 1921 – September, 1921  (and as Captain (D), Fifteenth Destroyer Flotilla)
• Captain Algernon H. C. Candy, 3 January, 1922 – 15 September, 1922
• Captain Dudley B. N. North, 15 September, 1922 – 9 April, 1924
• Captain Fischer B. Watson, 9 April, 1924 – April, 1926
• Captain Miles B. Birkett, 9 April, 1926 – 17 August, 1926
• Captain Claude C. Dobson, 30 June, 1927 – 8 August, 1927  (for trials)
• Captain Egerton W. Isaacson, c. 5 September, 1927^[Inference] – January, 1928  (transferred in from Concord)
• Captain Hubert Ardill, 21 December, 1927
• Captain John U. P. Fitzgerald, 14 December, 1929
• Commander Harry B. Jermain, August, 1931 – 7 January, 1932
• Commander Nelson Clover, 7 January, 1932 – 1933
• Commander Arthur R. Farquhar, 10 July, 1933 – 24 October, 1933
• Captain Cecil N. Reyne, December, 1933 – 2 July, 1934  (and as Senior Officer, Reserve Fleet, Devonport)
• Captain James Powell, 2 July, 1934 – 21 July, 1936  (and as Senior Officer, Reserve Fleet, Devonport)
• Captain Guy L. Warren, 27 November, 1934 – 7 May, 1935
• Captain Ralph Kerr, 20 July, 1936 – 4 November, 1936  (and as Senior Officer, Reserve Fleet, Devonport)
• Commander John D. A. Musters, 4 November, 1936 – 8 July, 1938
• Lieutenant-Commander Lionel V. Lloyd, 8 July, 1938 – 3 November, 1938
• Captain Frederick R. M. Johnson, 21 October, 1938 – 18 June, 1939  (committed suicide ashore near Maidstone)
• Captain George H. Faulkner, 19 June, 1939 – 31 July, 1939  (and as Senior Officer, Reserve Fleet, Nore)
• Captain Charles P. Clarke, 31 July, 1939 – 22 March, 1941  (vice Faulkner)
• Captain Stuart H. Paton, March, 1941 – April, 1941
• Acting Captain Henry J. Haynes, 29 April, 1941  (end date not legible in Service Record)
• Captain Reginald F. Nichols, 10 December, 1943 – November, 1944
• Captain John R. S. Brown, November, 1944 – April, 1945

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J.J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. London: Ian Allan.
• Gray, Randal (editor) (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
• Admiralty, Gunnery Branch (1918). Handbook of Captain F. C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, 1918. C.B. 1456. Copy No. 10 at Admiralty Library, Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
• Admiralty, Technical History Section (1919). The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in H.M. Ships. Vol. 3, Part 23. C.B. 1515 (23) now O.U. 6171/14. At The National Archives. ADM 275/19.