H.M.S. Gibraltar (1892)

H.M.S. Gibraltar (1892)
Pendant Number:	A7 (1914) N.19 (Sep 1915) N.49 (Jan 1918)
Builder:	Robert Napier & Sons, Glasgow
Laid down:	2 Dec, 1889
Launched:	27 Apr, 1892
Commissioned:	1 Nov, 1894
Sold:	Sep, 1923
Fate:	to Cashmore

H.M.S. Gibraltar was one of nine Edgar class protected cruisers completed between 1893 and 1896.

Service

Four men were killed in a torpedo-handling accident on 9 February, 1897 when Gibraltar was under the command of Captain Harry Francis Hughes-Hallett and was operating out of Zanzibar. Lieutenant Walter Ellerton was directing the quarterly examination of the dry primers for the torpedoes, the work being carried out by Leading Seaman Arthur Moxley and Able Seaman Albert Rock. After the pistols and primers had been examined and returned to their cases, the last one so examined by Ellerton was found by Lieutenant Calthrop to be outside of its case in pieces, with its safety pin removed. The explosion occurred soon afterward, and Moxley, who had been sitting on a box, was "blown to atoms". Three other men were injured so badly that they died that night. A fifth man survived, but could provide no helpful information as to the events leading up to the explosion.

In mid-1913, she was with the Training Squadron in Queenstown.

By the end of 1920, she was housing an anti-submarine training school in Portland.

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

• Captain Andrew K. Bickford, 18 July, 1894  (for Annual Manoeuvres of 1894)
• Captain Angus MacLeod, 1 November, 1894 – 18 June, 1895
• Captain Harry F. Hughes-Hallett, 14 January, 1896
• Captain Harry L. F. Royle, 28 May, 1898 – 15 December, 1899
• Captain Charles E. Kingsmill, 10 July, 1900 – c. September 1900  (for Annual Manoeuvres of 1900)
• Captain Arthur H. Limpus, 6 March, 1901 – 17 June, 1904
• Captain Robert H. Johnston Stewart, 14 December, 1904 – 29 May, 1905
• Commander Algernon E. B. Greville, 14 January, 1908 – 22 July, 1908
• Captain Charles H. Morgan, 25 June, 1908 – 19 December, 1908
• Commander Herbert du C. Luard, 14 April, 1909 – c. May, 1910
• Captain E. Percy F. G. Grant, 25 May, 1910
• Commander Cecil F. L. Watson, 10 March, 1911 – 25 July, 1911  (took command upon reducing)
• Lieutenant & Commander Henry G. Giffard, 21 November, 1911 – 21 November, 1911  (preceded and followed by stints as first officer)
• Captain George B. Powell, 23 October, 1912
• Captain Ronald A. Hopwood, 20 January, 1913 – 28 November, 1914  (and in command of group of training ships)
• Captain Edward H. Moubray, 27 June, 1915 – 29 June, 1916
• Acting Captain Arthur B. F. Dawson, 29 June, 1916 – 1 March, 1917
• Captain Arthur H. Oldham, 16 May, 1917 – 11 February, 1918
• Captain William B. Macdonald, 23 April, 1918 – c. June, 1918  (for passage only)
• Captain (P) Arthur H. Oldham, 18 June, 1918 – February, 1919
• Commander Hugh P. Buckle, 3 August, 1918 – 17 January, 1919
• Captain Humphrey T. Walwyn, 17 January, 1919 – 27 April, 1920  (and as Captain (A.S.) for Anti-Submarine Service)
• Captain Ronald Howard, 27 April, 1920 – 28 April, 1922
• Captain George L. Massey, 28 April, 1922 – 15 March, 1921  (as Captain A/S)
• Commander James R. C. Cavendish, March, 1923 – 6 April, 1923
• Commander Cosmo B. Hastings, 7 April, 1923 – 23 April, 1923

See Also

• Transcribed Ship Logs at naval-history.net
• Chesneau, Robert; Kolesnik, Eugene (editors) (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).