TOPIC:

I recently found online a very interesting photograph album offered for sale by The Wayfarers Bookshop, P.O. Box 227, Bowen Island, BC V0N 1G0 Canada for $2,500.00 USD, and described as an “Important Source of the British Defence of Walvis Bay and the Detention of Boer Prisoners-of-War on Saint Helena During the Second Boer War”. Scrutiny of the images immediately revealed the remarkable importance of this photograph album, which sparked my interest in HMS NIOBE. Many of us will have heard of this warship before; I certainly have, having come across the name whilst serving in the Royal Navy myself and through my interest in the Anglo-Boer War had seen Underwood & Underwood stereoview images taken onboard including the famous images of “Cutlass Drill onboard HMS NIOBE” and “Marines of HMS NIOBE cheering news from the front, Cape Town South Africa”. The album includes photographs relating to the warship, Corfu, Walfish Bay, Fort NIOBE, St Helena and General Cronje and is well worth a look. I will post the album images, but first I wanted to share some information about this warship and explain the importance of this photograph album.

HER MAJESTY’S SHIP NIOBE

In Greek mythology, Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and Dione, wife of Amphion son of Zeus, and sister of Pelops and Broteas. The Royal Navy has a long tradition of naming vessels after creatures, gods and protagonists from classical antiquity. For example, at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Lord Nelson’s fleet included Achilles, Agamemnon, Ajax, Bellerophon, Colossus, Euryalus, Mars, Minotaur, Naiad, Neptune, Orion, Polyphemus, Sirius and Spartiate.

There have been four Royal Navy vessels named HMS NIOBE:
1. The first was a 38-gun fifth rate, formerly the French frigate Diane, which was captured in 1800. She was broken up in 1816 (A fifth-rate vessel was the second-smallest class of warship based on size and firepower in a hierarchical system of six ratings).
2. The second was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1849 and sold to the Prussian Navy in 1862.
3. The third was a wooden screw sloop launched in 1856 and wrecked in 1874 (A screw sloop is a propeller driven sloop-of-war, which is a vessel fitted with a single gun deck of up to 18 guns).
4. The fourth and last HMS NIOBE was the seventh of eight Diadem Class protected cruisers designed by naval architect Sir William Henry White and built for the Royal Navy by various shipbuilders. Niobe was the second built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on the 16th of December 1895, launched on the 20th of February 1897 and entered service on the 6th of December 1898. Other warships in this class were Diadem, Amphitrite, Andromeda, Argonaut, Ariadne, Europa and Spartiate.



A protected cruiser was fitted with an armoured deck which offered protection for vital machine spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers resembled armoured cruisers, which benefitted from an additional armoured belt along the waterline.

Niobe was 435 feet long, 462 feet 6 inches overall, with a beam of 69 feet and a draught of 25 feet 5 inches and weighed 11,000 tons. She was powered by two shaft triple expansion engines which created 16,500 hp from its Beleville boilers, which gave her a maximum speed of 20.25 knots (or 23.30 mph). Niobe’s coal bunkers had a 1,900 ton capacity which gave it a range of 2,000 nautical miles (or 2,300 miles) at a speed of 19 knots. She had a compliment of 677.

By comparison a modern Type 45 Destroyer has a maximum speed in excess of 32 knots (or 37 mph and a range in excess of 7,000 nautical miles (or 8.000 miles) at a speed of 18 knots.

Niobe was armed with 16 x single 6-inch QF guns, 14 x single 12-pounder QF guns, 3 x single 3-pounder QF guns, 2 x 18-inch torpedo tubes and 8 x Maxim machine guns. She was fitted with 4.5 inch thick casemates and gun shields and her deck was armoured with between 2.5 and 4 inch steel plate. Her forward Conning Tower had 12 inch protection.



The Diadem Class of warships were the last British built protected cruisers before the armoured cruisers became more favourable. They were considered as large ships, but were criticised for their lack of heavy calibre main armament, unprotected sides, slower average speed and general lack of manoeuvrability. They cost £600,000.00 each to build.

HMS NIOBE would serve in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War from November 1899 to August 1900. She was part of the Channel Squadron when the second Anglo-Boer War broke out and was immediately sent to Gibraltar to escort troopships enroute to South Africa. She was commanded by Captain A.L. Winsloe.

On the 2nd of December 1899, it was HMS NIOBE, together with HMS DORIS and the SS Columbian who rescued survivors from the ill-fated SS Ismore, which had run aground carrying 455 men of the 63rd Field Battery, No. 9 Company of the Royal Army Medical Corps and “A” Squadron and one troop of “B” Squadron of the 10th Hussars.

From Saturday the 10th to Saturday the 17th of February 1900, the Naval Brigade from HMS NIOBE occupied Walfish Bay. The small party consisted of Commander R.E. Wemyss in command, Lieutenants G.E.S. Petelu, G.A.W. Kennedy and C.M.C. Maitland, Midshipmen A.W. Fisher-Hall, A.J. Holden, H.R. Kunhardt, A. Dixon, R.C. Davenport and R.S. MacFarlane, Gunner Mr Whiting with sixty Bluejackets, two Signalmen, one Drummer, one Sick Berth Attendant, one Domestic and the Commander’s Messenger. Captain Tupence R.M.L.I in command of Marines, Lieutenant Stockley R.M.L.I and sixty-six Marines.

They took ashore one 12-pounder 8-cwt field gun, with one hundred shrapnel and one hundred common shells, and one Maxim on travelling carriages. One Maxim on a Tripod with twenty boxes of rifle ammunition and twenty-four boxes of Maxim ammunition.

In amongst the album’s photographs are notes stating that HMS NIOBE arrived at Walfish Bay at about 3:30 pm on Saturday the 10th of February 1900 and the Landing party went ashore at 4:15 pm in various ship’s boats, the first and second units in Launches with the guns, towing the Sailing Pinnace carrying the stores, both boats being towed by the Picket Boat. The third unit with Marines in Barges and Cutters with ammunition were towed by the Steam Pinnace.

The Bluejackets were divided into three units as follows:

No 1 Unit – Twenty men from Q.D (Quarterdeck) and the F.X (Focsle) under Lieutenant Petelu, Midshipmen Fisher-Hall and MacFarlane.
No 2 Unit – Twenty men from M.T under Lieutenant Kennedy, Midshipmen Holden and Davenport.
No 3 Unit – Twenty men from F..J under Lieutenant Maitland, Midshipmen Kunhardt and Dixon. Mr Whiting, Gunner, went in charge of the Commissariat.

Everyone got more or less wet whilst going ashore, as there was a fresh South Easterly wind blowing at the . It was just about 5 pm when they arrived ashore where much to their surprise, they found a pier with a chain at the end.

On Tuesday the 10th of April 1900, the first five hundred and fourteen prisoners arrived on the island of St Helena onboard the Union Castle troopship SS Milwaukee, including General Cronjé and his wife, Colonel Schiel and twenty-one other officers. It was HMS NIOBE who escorted this ship from Cape Town.

Piet Cronjé was a General of the South African Republic of the Transvaal. He had taken command of the force that rounded up Leander Jameson at Doornkop following the failed Jameson Raid in 1896 and had been general commanding in the western theatre of the Boer War, where he had begun the sieges of Kimberley and Mafeking. He had been defeated at the Battle of Paardeberg on the 27th of February 1900, where he surrendered with four thousand one hundred and fifty of his commandos. His wife had accompanied him on campaign, and she too was taken prisoner.

General and Mrs. Cronjé were taken to Kent Cottage in Half Tree Hollow, St Helena, where they were to stay for the duration of their time on the island. The remaining prisoners were marched via Napoleon Street to Deadwood Plain, one of the windiest and most exposed areas of the island, where they were housed at Deadwood Camp, a tented camp of several hundred square metres, surrounded by a barbed wire fence, where they would remain for the duration of the war. Later on Thursday the 26th of April 1900, further prisoners arrived. Further camps were set up at Broad Bottom Camp and High Knoll Fort as their numbers increased.

Some of the album’s photographs relate to the owner’s time onboard HMS Impregnable in 1925, but of Boer War interest is an excellent map of Fort Niobe which was erected by the Naval Brigade on the beach for defence of the settlement from Boer raids and a plan of the Boer Prisoner enclosure and Deadwood Camp, St Helena. At the time that the plan was made the 4th Gloucestershire and 3rd West Indies Regiment’s were in occupation.

Initially the 4th (Militia) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment guarded the Boer prisoners on the island of St, Helena, but in May 1901, the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment were ordered to take their place, which dates the plan of Deadwood Camp to between the 10th of April 1900 and the 11th of July 1901, when the Wiltshire’s arrived.

In March of 1901, HMS NIOBE was one of two cruisers to escort HMS OPHIR, which had been commissioned as the Royal Yacht for the world tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (Later King George V and Queen Mary) from Spithead to Gibraltar, and in September she performed similar duties escorting the Royal couple from St Vincent to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

HMS NIOBE took part in the Fleet Review at Spithead on the 16th of August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII, and the following month visited Souda Bay, Crete for combined manoeuvres with other ships of the Channel and Mediterranean stations. After a brief visit to Gibraltar in early October, she returned to Portsmouth and later went to Devonport to refit. From 1905 to 1909, NIOBE was the flagship of the Rear Admiral Reserve Squadron and was again refitted in 1908. In April 1909, NIOBE was recommissioned into the 4th Division of the Home Fleet at Devonport and was paid off in September 1910.

In 1910, the newly formed Canadian Navy purchased HMS NIOBE for £215,000.00, a third of her original build cost. The Canadians also purchased HMS Rainbow an Apollo-class protected cruiser. NIOBE reached Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 21st of October that year, her entry into the harbour timed to coincide with Trafalgar Day. Formal transfer of the ship only took place on 12 November 1910, once she had been paid for and NIOBE became HMCS NIOBE.

After commissioning, the status of the new Canadian vessels and their ability to operate independently of the Royal Navy arose and prevented the ships from leaving coastal waters until the matter was settled. This initially limited Niobe to training duties in Halifax and prevented her from making a tour of the Caribbean Sea. After departing on a training cruise, Niobe ran aground in fog off Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, on the night of 30–31 July 1911. Damage control saved the ship. The repairs took six months, completing in January 1912, and she had a permanently reduced maximum speed as a result. The resulting court martial found that the navigating officer, Charles White, who had not been on the bridge, should have been present during the navigation of the area due to its difficulty, and also found Captain W. B. MacDonald negligent for not ensuring his officers were performing their duties properly.

During World War 1, HMCS NIOBE was sent with HMS LANCASTER, a Monmouth Class Armoured Cruiser, to patrol the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. From the 11th to the 13th of September 1914, she escorted The Royal Canadian Regiment, aboard the transport Canada, to Bermuda, where they assumed garrison duties.

On 6 October 1914, Niobe joined the Royal Navy's 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. She was engaged in intercepting German ships along the American coast until July 1915. During this period she chased the German raider SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich into Newport News, Virginia. After refuelling, the raider's captain opted for his vessel to be interned by the Americans instead of engaging the NIOBE.

As the patrol work continued Niobe began to wear out. Her final patrol was 4–17 July 1915, after which the cruiser returned to Halifax. Her funnels were found to be rapidly deteriorating, her boilers were worn, and her bulkheads were in poor shape. NIOBE was paid off on the 6th of September 1915 to become a depot ship in Halifax.

On 6 December 1917, the ammunition ship SS Mont-Blanc was rammed by another vessel which caused Mont-Blanc to catch fire. Laden with tons of explosives, the ship was abandoned by her crew and left to drift through the harbour. NIOBE was laid up in harbour at the time and the alarm was raised aboard the ship once the danger was known. Warrant Officer Albert Mattison and six men sailed to Mont-Blanc in NIOBE's pinnace and boarded the ammunition ship in an effort to scuttle her. However, while the group was boarding, Mont-Blanc exploded, killing the seven men instantly. The explosion caused serious damage to NIOBE’s upper works, and the deaths of seven other crew members. She remained in use as a depot ship until disposed of in 1920, and sold for scrap. She was broken up in 1922 at Philadelphia.

HMS NIOBE’s ships logs are held at The National Archives in the ADM 53 series of records. There are five available which span the Boer War period.

06 Dec 1898 to 27 Nov 1899
28 Nov 1899 to 14 Nov 1900
15 Nov 1900 to 21 Oct 1901
22 Oct 1901 to 30 Sep 1902
01 Oct 1902 to 18 Nov 1902

The medal rolls for Naval Party personnel are found in the ADM 171 series. The pages relating to HMS NIOBE are held in ADM-171-53-1 and ADM-171-53-2.

About 660 QSA medals were issued to HMS NIOBE, with 129 earning the medal with 'Cape Colony' clasp for service ashore.



I think that these are Sailors rather than Marines.

What an excellent set of photos, many thanks for this thread.