H.M.S. M.24 (1915)

H.M.S. M.24 (1915)
Pendant Number:	M.24^[1]
Builder:	Raylton Dixon, Tees^[2]
Ordered:	Feb, 1915
Laid down:	1915^[3]
Launched:	9 Aug, 1915^[4]
Commissioned:	4 Oct, 1915
Sunk:	29 Sep, 1936
Fate:	as target ship

H.M.S. M.24, later the M.V. Satoe, was a coastal monitor of the M Class. Built in 1915 in answer to the growing need for heavily armed, shallow-draft vessels, she was equipped with guns salvaged from vessels paying off. Built by Raylton Dixon of Middlesbrough, she completed with 4 unique paraffin engines but without her 9.2 inch gun which was sent to France. Earmarked for the Dover Patrol, she was sent to the Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth for a new 7.5 inch gun and mounting and thence began patrol work with the larger monitors.

At the end of 1918 M.24 refitted at Portsmouth and was sent to join the White Sea Squadron at Archangel. As the Allied position there deteriorated throughout 1919, along with others of her class she stood by to give assistance where necessary. She left for Britain under tow in September, 1919. She was promptly put on the sale list and the following year sold to a subisidiary of Royal Dutch Shell for conversion to an oil tanker. Having served in the Dutch Antilles, she was sunk as target ship in 1936.

Construction

Captains

(Acting) Commander Claude P.C. de Crespigny

Footnotes

↑ Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 104.
↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 47.
↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 47.
↑ Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 104.

Bibliography

Buxton, Ian L. (1978). Big Gun Monitors: The History of the Design, Construction and Operation of the Royal Navy's Monitors. Tynemouth: World Ship Society. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).