Humber class monitor

The "Humber" class monitors were three large gunboats under construction for the Brazilian Navy in Britain in 1913. Designed for service on the Amazon River, the ships were of shallow draft and heavy armament and were ideally suited to inshore, riverine and coastal work but flawed for service at sea, where their weight and light draft reduced their speed from a projected twelve knots to under four. All three were taken over by the Royal Navy shortly before the outbreak of the First World War and were commissioned as small monitors. All three saw extensive service during the war and were sold in 1919.

Construction

The three "Humber" class monitors were originally ordered for the Brazilian Navy as the "Javary" class gunboats intended for inshore work on the River Amazon and its tributaries. Ordered from the Vickers Limited shipyard at High Walker on the River Tyne, the three ships were launched by 1913 and were undergoing sea trials when the Brazilian government informed Vickers that they would not be able to pay for the warships. Vickers attempted to find a foreign buyer for the boats and the British government stepped in to purchase the gunboats for ₤155,000 each in order to prevent them being bought by a neutral navy and then sold onto Germany.

War service

The British government rearmed the monitors, using 6" guns stripped from the wreck of the HMS "Montagu", a battleship which was wrecked on the Isle of Lundy in 1906. The ships were then stationed at Dover for service in the English Channel, attached to the Dover Monitor Squadron. During the Battle of the Frontiers and subsequent operations in 1914, the "Humber" class monitors were all employed in bombarding German batteries and positions under the command of Rear-Admiral Horace Hood.

During early 1915 HMS "Mersey" and HMS "Severn" were dispatched to German East Africa, where the cruiser SMS "Konigsberg" was hidden in the Rufiji Delta. Only the long range guns of the shallow draft monitors could reach the hidden cruiser and although the journey to East Africa took nearly six months under tow from Malta, the monitors were ultimately successful in destroying the German ship, their shells directed by two seaplane observers.

For the remainder of the war, all three ships participated in further attacks on German-held territory, "Humber" and "Mersey" operating with the rest of the ships in the Dover Monitor Squadron in numerous bombardments on the Belgian Coast whilst "Severn" remained in East Africa and operated against German positions in the colony. At the war's conclusion all three ships were sold for scrap in 1920 and 1921. "Humber" was ultimately saved from the breaker's yard, and was used as a floating dockyard crane for many years.

"Humber"-class monitors

*HMS "Humber" (ex "Javary"); commissioned 1914, served in Dover Monitor Squadron, sold 1921.
*HMS "Mersey" (ex "Madeira"); commissioned 1914, served in Dover Monitor Squadron and off the Rufiji Delta, scrapped 1920.
*HMS "Severn" (ex "Solimoes"); commissioned 1914, served in Dover Monitor Squadron and off the Rufiji Delta, scrapped 1921.

Reference

* Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919", (Ian Allen, London, 1972), ISBN 0-7110-0380-7
* Gray, Randal (ed), "Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5