H.M.S. Firefly (1915)

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H.M.S. Firefly (1915)
Builder: Yarrow & Company[1]
Ordered: 2 1915[2]
Launched: 23 Oct, 1915[3]
Commissioned: Nov, 1915[4]
Sunk: 14 Jun, 1924[5]
Fate: on Euphrates
H.M.S. Firefly was one of 16 gunboats of the Fly class.

Service

Launched at Abadan.

On 1 December, 1915, Firefly was exchanging fire with Turkish shore batteries on the Tigris when she received a hit in her boiler and lost power. She had to be abandoned, and the Turks took her and used her in their own efforts in the war. Firefly, in enemy hands, "made some good shooting" at a variety of R.N. vessels pressing up the river in February, 1917. On 26 February, 1917, the Turks accidentally ran her aground near where they had captured her. She was, in turn, abandoned by them and re-captured by the gunboat Tarantula. She was placed under the temporary command of Lieutenant John P. Bradley, R.N.R. of H.M.S. Proserpine, and later Lieutenant Eddis resumed command of (or at least visited – his Service Record does not indicate he commanded her again) his former gunboat, finding most of his books and papers still in his cabin![6][7]

She was paid off 16 March, 1918.[8]

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 106.
  2. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 106.
  3. [http://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-50-HMS_Alert.htm Ship's log of Alert.
  4. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 106.
  5. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 106.
  6. Hepper. British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era: 1860-1919. p. 47.
  7. "Supplement To The London Gazette, Sept. 21." The Times (London, England), Saturday, Sep 22, 1917; pg. 4; Issue 41590.
  8. The Navy List. (January, 1921). p. 774.
  9. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  10. Hepper. British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era: 1860-1919. p. 47.
  11. The Navy List. (November, 1917). p. 393u.
  12. Taylor Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/117/163. f. 163.

Bibliography


Fly Class Gunboat
First Order
Butterfly Cranefly Dragonfly Firefly Gadfly
Grayfly Greenfly Mayfly Sawfly Snakefly
  Stonefly Waterfly  
Second Order
  Blackfly Caddisfly Hoverfly Sedgefly  
<– H.M.S. Kinsha Small Fry (UK) Insect Class –>
<– H.M.S. Kinsha Gunboats (UK) Insect Class –>