ENGAGING SEA PLANE CARRIER

Before the carriers were the seaplane tenders. We've all ready accounts of Jutland and the brief appearance of the Engadine. But how many of us now here history outside the brief moment in the spotlight of history?  Her origins and her fate...

Engadine's overall length was  323 feet (98.5 m), with a beam of 41 feet (12.5 m), and a mean draught of 13 feet 8 inches (4.2 m). Her displacement was 2,550 long tons (2,590 t) at deep load and her rated gross register tons was 1,676. She carried three sets of direct drive steam turbines driving one propeller shaft. The ship's six boilers produced steam for 13,800 shaft horsepower (10,300 kW) from the turbines, which allowed a designed speed of 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph). Engadine's bunkers  held 400 tonnes (390 long tons) of coal, which gave her a range of 1,250 nautical miles (2,320 km) at 15 knots

The S.S Engadine was ordered as a 'fast packet' for the South East and Chatham Railway to work on the  Folkestone-Boulogne run. Her keel was laid down in 1910 at the William Denny and Brothers shipyard in their Dumbarton, Scotland shipyard.  She was launched on 23rd September 1911 being completed later that year. With the outbreak of war, the Admiralty requisitioned her for service on 11 August 1914 and after conversion by the Chatham dockyard  she was commissioned in the the Royal Navy  on 1 September.  Her captain was Squadron Commander Cecil J. L'Estrange-Malone, (11 August, 1914– mid 1915). The dockyard had installed three canvas hangars, one forward and two aft, the aft one enclosing the promenade deck. Her seaplanes were lowered onto the sea for takeoff and recovery by newly installed derricks, and her crew, post further modifications in 1918 numbered 197 officers and enlisted men, including 53 aviation personnel.

Following her commissioning on 1 September, Engadine was assigned to the Harwich Force in company with the seaplane tenders Empress and Riviera. Her first taste of action was to be on  on Christmas Day 1914, when nine aircraft from the three ships took part in the Cuxhaven Raid on hangars housing Germany's  Zeppelin airships. The Zeppelin sheds at the Nordholz Airfield near Cuxhaven were out of range of land based aircraft from England, so a plan was developed for the three seaplane tenders (HMS Engadine, (Squadron-commander C. L'E. Malone, who was also to be the air commander for the raid) Riviera (Lieutenant E. D. M. Robertson) and Empress (Lieutenant Frederick Bowhill), with  supported from the Harwich Force, to launch three seaplanes from each tender, off Helgoland in the German Bight. The aim was to reconnoitre the military installations in the area and, should it prove possible, bomb the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. Lieutenant Erskine Childers RNVR, a yachtsman and the author of Riddle of the Sands, who had sailed the area before the war, provided the navigational briefing and accompanied Flight Commander Cecil Francis Kilner as navigator and observer.
On Christmas Day, 1914 with an air temperature of just above 0 °C the nine seaplanes were lowered into the water, but only seven (three Short Improved Type 74 "Folders", two Short Type 81 Folders and two Short Type 135 Folders, all carrying three 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs) were able to start their engines and manage to take off. Those unable to take part in the raid, a Short Type 81 (serial no. 122) and a Short "Improved Type 74" (serial no. 812), were winched back on board their respective mother ships.

Fog, low cloud and anti-aircraft fire was to prevent the raid from being a complete success, even though several sites were attacked. But despite that, the raid demonstrated the that ship borne aircraft were a potential new weapon of strategic importance. According to a telegram dated 7 January 1915, the "Admiralty Chief Censor intercepted message from Hartvig, Kjobenhaven to the Daily Mail, reporting that the British aerial raid on Cuxhaven had forced the German Admiralty to remove the greater part of the High Seas Fleet from Cuxhaven to various places on the Kiel Canal."

The crews of all seven aircraft were to survive the raid, having been in the air for over three hours. Three aircraft, a Short 'Improved Type 74' (RNAS serial no. 811, flown by Flt. Lt. Charles Edmonds), a Short Admiralty Type 81 (RNAS serial no. 119, Flt. Cdr. R. P. Ross), and a Short Admiralty Type 135 (RNAS serial no. 136, Flt. Cdr. C. F. Kilner with Lt. Erskine Childers as his observer), safely reached their tenders and lifted back on board. Three others (one "Admiralty Type 81", RNAS serial no. 120, Flt. Lt. A. J. Miley, and two Short 'Improved Type 74' folders, RNAS serial nos. 814 (Flt. Sub-Lt. V. Gaskell-Blackburn) and 815 (Flt. Cdr. D. A. Oliver)) landed off the East Friesian island of Norderney and their crews were recovered by the submarine E11, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Martin Nasmith (the aircraft being scuttled to prevent them from falling into enemy hands). But the seventh aircraft, a Short Admiralty Type 135 (RNAS serial no. 135) piloted by Flt. Lt. Francis E.T. Hewlett, suffered engine problems and was last seen ditching into the sea some 8 miles off Helgoland. Hewlett was posted as missing, but a Dutch trawler,  the Marta van Hattem, took him on board and returned him to the port of IJmuiden in the Netherlands, where he disembarked on 2 January 1915. He managed to make his way back to Britain.

After the raid there was no reaction from the German High Seas Fleet, but the Marine-Fliegerabteilung (German naval arm) launched seaplanes and airships to discover the position of the attacking force's ships. One reconnaissance seaplane, a Friedrichshafen FF.19 (No. 85) stayed airborne for five hours 52 minutes, a remarkable achievement for the time. Another seaplane from Heligoland did spot the British, but with  no having radio, it  had to return to the island to report. A sighting was also made by the Zeppelin airship L6, but due to a generator failure reporting was not made in time for action to be taken, But the  L6 did attack with both bombs and machine gun fire. The crew of the Empress attempted to drive the Zeppelin away, at first by with rifle fire as their 12 pounder in the stern was blanked by the superstructure. No damage was suffered by ship, seaplanes or airship.

The British force had been sailing in formation at 20 knots, but due to boiler problems, the speed could not be matched HMS Empress, which slowly dropped astern of the formation. The the first combat was as a result, against this vessel. Two Friedrichshafen seaplanes attacked her with bombs, and one small bomb exploded only 20 feet off the bow, but no damage was caused to the ship or crew.
Additional attacks on the retiring ships were attempted by -20, U-22 and U-30, but without any sucsess.The British force returned to home waters without suffering any losses or damage.

In February 1915 the Admiralty purchased the Engadine  and she was given a more permanent  conversion by Cunard at Liverpool between the 10 February to 23 March 1915. She now had a permanent hangar in the rear superstructure that could house up to four seaplane. Two cranes were mounted at the rear of the hangar in order to hoist the seaplanes in and out of the sea. Four quick-firing (QF) 12-pounder 12 cwt guns, each with 130 rounds, and two Vickers QF 3-pounder anti-aircraft guns, each with 65 rounds, were added for her own defence. She also had a pigeon loft fitted that housed carrier pigeons to be used by her aircraft if their wireless was out of service. On completion of her conversion, she was to rejoined the Harwich Force. On the 3rd July, Engadine and Riviera attempted to launch aircraft to reconnoitre the River Ems and lure out a Zeppelin so that it could be attacked. Of Engadine's three Sopwith Schneider floatplanes that she attempted to launch, two were wrecked on take off and the third was badly damaged.

In October 1915 she was transferred to Vice Admiral Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet (BCF), based at Rosyth. Later that month Engadine was to carry out trials towing a kite balloons at high speed for the purposes of gunnery observations, but her day to day role within the squadron was to although serve as a base ship for the fleet's seaplanes.

The 30th May 1916 was to see Engadine attached to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron, (Rear Admiral Trevylyan Napier),  with two Short Type 184 and two Sopwith Baby floatplanes onboard. The two seater 184s were intended for observation and were fitted with a low-power wireless while the Babys were on board to shoot down any Zeppelins. Engadine accompanied the squadron when the Battlecruiser Fleet sortied from Rosyth that evening to intercept the German High Seas Fleet, and as Beatty's ships steamed out across the North Sea, the little seaplane carrier lead the way with all the mighty battlecruisers trotting along in her wake. She may even  have been one of the first ships to spot the oncoming Germans. Her choice of position in the vanguard was simply dictated by the requirement for smooth waters if she was  to successfully launch her aircraft. The turbulent water from the other ships' wakes would ruin any chance of a successful take off attempt. She would also need to hove too in order to hoist her aircraft over the side and prepare it for launch, a process that would take at least 20 minutes at anchor. Once her plane was aloft,  she would then fall back among the main body of the fleet.

Beatty ordered Engadine's captain to make undertake a search to the north-northeast at 14:40 and the seaplane tender sailed through the BCF before turning north-east to seek calmer water. At 15:07 Lieutenant Frederick Rutland and his observer  took off in a Type 184  in to a cloud ceiling of 300 feet. At 15:30 she signalled Engadine that they had spotted three German cruisers and five destroyers.  These were ships from the II Scouting Group, leading the  German battlecruisers of Vice Admiral Hipper. This signal was to mark the first time that a aircraft had carried out a reconnaissance of an enemy fleet in action. After a few more reports were transmitted, at around 15:36 the aircraft's fuel line ruptured and Rutland was forced to put his aircraft down on the sea. Rutland managed to repair the fuel line and signalled that he was ready to take off once more. But he was ordered to taxi to back to Engadine on the surface. The seaplane reached the ship at 15:47 and it was hoisted back aboard by 16:04. By this stage Beatty had ordered the destroyers, Moresby and Onslow, to protect the Engadine while she was stationary, and they had reached her. Engadine attempted to forward the sighting  reports to Beatty's flagship and the flagship of the 5th Battle Squadron, but both cases were to be unsuccessful. Engadine trailed Beatty's force during the "Run to the South", during which time her two escorts were detached and again when they reversed course during the "Run to the North".

The 14,000 ton armoured cruiser HMS Warrior had been crippled by numerous hits by German battleships around 18:30 and at 18:40 fell in to company with Engadine. Warrior's rudder had been jammed full over and she continued to turn in tight circles until her steam was exhausted. At 19:45 Engadine under took an attempted to tow the crippled cruiser, but the jammed rudder prevented that until it could be trained amidships. By 21:30 she was finally able to manage 8 knots while her turbines were making revolutions for 19 knots. Early on the morning of the 1st June Warrior's progressive flooding had grown worse and she was close to sinking. Captain Vincent Molteno ordered his crew to abandoned ship after  Engadine had came alongside to take them off at 08:00. One of Warrior's guns punctured Engadine's hull below her waterline as the ship rolled in the moderate seas, but this was to be quickly patched. About 675 officers and enlisted men successfully made it to the much smaller Engadine which then had to disperse remaining the escorting ship's in order to prevent her from capsizing. Among those 675 were around  30  wounded men who had to transferred across on their stretchers, with one man falling off his stretcher between the ships. Rutland rescued the man against orders. For his act of bravery he was awarded the First Class Albert Medal for Lifesaving in gold and was for a brief while the only living recipient. The transfer was finally completed before 09:00 and the mauled Warrior sank soon afterwards. Following the battle Rutland was  widely given the nickname of 'Rutland of Jutland'.

Engadine was to remain with the BCF until early 1918 after which  she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet. From there she was based at Malta, conducting anti-submarine patrols, for the remaining few months of the war.
With the war over she was sold back to the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, in December 1919 and she  resumed her former role as a cross-Channel ferry. In 1923 Engadine was transferred to the Southern Railway in when the British railroads were consolidated. Dover-Calais service, later Folkestone-Boulogne. The year 1925 was to see her undertake only summer excursions, and 1932 she was chartered for the summer by Instone Lines for a daily excursion between the Pool of London and the Nore Light Vessel. The following year (1933) a ship broker sold the Engadine to  Fernandez Hermanos Inc based in the Philippines  and she was renamed SS Corregidor.

In the 16th December 1941, Corregidor at 22:00 left port in Manila stealing out in the total darkness, loaded to overcapacity with Filipino civilians who wanted to escape to the southern Philippines after the start of the war. It's  been estimated that she had squeezed between 1,200 and 1,500 people on board, including around 150 Philippine soldiers, 7 Americans, 5 Philippine legislators, and hundreds of college students who were traveling home after their schools had been closed. She also had on board military supplies as well the entire artillery complement of the Visayan-Mindanao Force of the Philippine Army. The owners of the ship neglected to inform the Navy's Inshore Patrol of the ship's plan to depart from Manila Bay.

Apolinar Calvo, captain of the Corregidor had previous experience navigating though the  mined entrance to Manila Bay (the mines had been in place since July). But the USN had altered  its procedures earlier in the the day and rather than post a gunboat near the safe channel as they had in days previous, lighted buoys were being to guide ships through. At 01:00 the Corregidor passed close to the island of Corregidor in order to pass through the channel.  The ship was seen turning toward the electrically controlled minefield and some officers at the Army's Seaward Defense Command headquarters on the island suggested  that the mines be temporarily disarmed so that the ship could pass safely through the minefield. Some accounts claim  that Seaward Defense Commander Colonel Paul Bunker ordered that the mines should be kept active.

Captain George Steiger was to write in his 'A POW Diary';  "The Army and the Filipino skippers had long been butting heads. All the channels out of Manila Bay had been mined for many months. At this time, the mining was strictly up to date and operational. At 1 AM on 16 December, the SS Corregidor, carrying 760 refugees, attempted to go thru the minefield without asking clearance. This request would have been granted. The Lieutenant who was on watch in the mine casement, on sighting the SS Corregidor called his superior, who in turn, called the seaward defense commander, Col. Bunker, requesting information as to whether he should de-activate the contact mines in the channel. With a lifetime of experience with the Filipino, going back to the '98 Insurrection, Col. Bunker said 'No!' My first knowledge of this affair came when my duty watch called me at 12:55 AM. The Corregidor had struck one of our mines and in the four or five minutes it took to reach my battery command post, the vessel had sunk. ... Thereafter, we had no trouble with unauthorized Filipino boats attempting to traverse the channel"
As the Corregidor entered the minefield, there was a large explosion on the starboard side of the vessel. The ship which was crowded beyond capacity, quickly began to sink, with many people trapped below deck. Some survivors reported  that the ship sank so quickly that there was no time even for panic. Searchlights from Corregidor Island were used to illuminated the scene which helped with the rescue effort, and sailors from the  MTB Squadron 3 posted at Sisiman Cove heard the explosion and sailed over to the disaster on three PT boats (PT-32, PT-34 and PT-35) to investigate. When the three PT boats arrived they found survivors in the water and were able to retrieve 282 survivors of which  seven of later died from their injuries.

The incident was never to be investigated with  the Japanese invasion. Post war, some Army officers reported that the remote-controllable mines were set to the safety position immediately after the explosion occurred. The total number of victims is unknown but estimates place it between  900 and 1,200 lost their lives, including the captain and most of his crew, two of the legislators, and one of the American passengers. At the time, the sinking of the Corregidor was the worst maritime disaster in Philippine history, and one of the greatest maritime disasters in the world that did not occur as a result of military or naval action.
ENGADINE'S CAPTAINS
Dates of appointment are provided when known.

Squadron Commander in Command Cecil J. L'Estrange-Malone, 11 August, 1914 – mid 1915
Lieutenant-Commander Charles G. Robinson, 19 August, 1915 – 4 December, 1916  (in command at Battle of Jutland)
Commander Philip H. Waterer, 28 November, 1916– 22 June, 1918 (sick)
The above is the property of Andy South c/o Andy South's Naval Post or Facebook group The Great War at Sea 1914 to 1919