ARMADALE CASTLE AND ARMED MERCHANT CRUISERS.




Union Castle Line


ARMADALE CASTLE


With Thanks to Captain John Bax

From The Union Castle and the War 1914-19 by E.F.Knight.

The following text is taken from a book published after The Great War as a memorial to the 338 Officers and Men who lost their lives in the conflict.

Each of the great shipping companies fitted out some half dozen of their vessels as Armed Merchant Cruisers. These sailed under the White Ensign; they were commanded by Naval Officers; as a rule, in one of these ships some of the other Officers, the gunners, and a few Petty Officers were of the Navy; but the remaining Officers were of the Merchant Service, generally of the Company to which the ship belonged; they were given temporary commissions as acting Commanders, Navigation Lieutenants, and so forth, while the Purser became the Paymaster. The Company's Engineer Officers were also kept on, as were the Stokers, Carpenters, Boatswains, and many of the Deck hands. In short, the bulk of the ship's company were of the Merchant Service. These vessels were used for patrolling, conveying, and for the performance of various duties which form part of the Navy's work, and they were ever keenly on the look-out for enemy raiders to be attacked and neutral blockade runners to be captured. They used to carry on their work on every sea. Some of our Armed Merchant Cruisers fought historic actions with the German commercial raiders, defeated and sank them.

A brief sketch of the fitting out and of the doings of the Armed Merchant Cruiser Armadale Castle in the early days of the war will serve as an illustration. She was a 13, 000 ton ship of the Union-Castle Line. She was taken over by the Admiralty on August 4th, the first day of the war. A great deal of work had to be carried through in order to prepare her for her new duties. Parties of Carpenters were set to pull down fittings and get rid of all inflammable material below. Dining and Smoking Rooms were cleared out; all State Rooms on the Main Deck were removed; the first-Class cabins on the upper deck were gutted; the Third-Class accommodation was adapted for Naval Ratings quarters, and shell magazines were erected in the Third Class. Surplus lifeboats, all derricks, deck seats, and skylights were removed in order to render the ship less vulnerable. The decks were pierced, chocked, plated, and provided with strong supports below in order to accommodate eight 4.7 inch guns, two of which were fitted on the forecastle, two on the poop, and four in the forward and aft wells. Rails, ventilators, mooring bits, and other obstructions were taken away in order to prevent any impediments to the free working of the guns in all directions. Portable stanchions and chains were provided to replace bulwarks.

In order to protect the Engine and Boiler Rooms the ship's sides on the main and lower deck levels were heavily padded by stacking mattresses on the inside, secured to the ship's frames, and the Navigation Bridge was also protected by canvas-covered mattresses. The Steering-gear house on the poop was stiffened and pillared, and protected on the top by additional steel plates bolted on; and in order to prevent splinters falling into the machinery, protective netting of steel wire was spread across the Engine -room over the tops of the cylinders, and also on the lower end of engine and stokehold ventilators.

On top of the poop deckhouse a gun-control station was built, and fitted with telephones and other essential appliances. Magazines were built in some of the holds, and lifting beams were fitted on the upper deck provided with the necessary lifting tackle for hoisting the ammunition. The steamer was ballasted to make her seaworthy in the absence of her usual cargo.



And there was much else to be done. Searchlights had to be fitted; ammunition stores and provisions had to be embarked; the ship had to be coaled; and a large crew had to be detailed and organised. The men were being diligently trained both before and after sailing. The bulk of them, being of the Merchant service, when they joined knew little or nothing of naval routine or discipline, but they were all very keen, and took to their unaccustomed duties as a duck takes to water. On land and sea things were done with extraordinary rapidity in the critical first weeks of war. The Armadale Castle left the quay at Southampton at 4 p.m. on August 11th fully armed, equipped, and manned, having been converted from a peaceful passenger steamer into a formidable fighting ship in under a week!

She was first despatched to the Cape, and a few days later was followed by the Kinfauns Castle, another Union-Castle ship that had been converted into an Armed Cruiser; for their services were needed in South Africa, our Fleet having been ordered to sail from Simons Town to seek out the German men-of-war that were known to be crossing from the Pacific.


Armadale Castle by E.G.Fuller

The Armadale Castle was sent to patrol the coast of German South-West Africa with the object of intercepting German supply ships and destroying wireless stations. She reached Swakopmund on September 14th, destroying the wireless station there with her gunfire, but did not shell the town. The inhabitants and the German soldiers crowded the square that faces the sea and watched the bombardment of the wireless station, apparently feeling secure. For though the Huns, had the case been reversed, would not have hesitated to open fire on so tempting a target as a crowd of their enemies, they always seemed to place a touching confidence in the magnanimity of the British. Shortly afterwards the Armadale Castle carried the Kimberley Rifles and the Kaffrarian Rifles to Ludenberg, which place we had recently captured, and landed them there on October 2nd. Fighting was in progress at the time a few miles to the aback of the town. Here she took on board some German prisoners and three hundred German refugees, men, women, and children, presumably for their own safety; for the German troops were being driven back, and it would have been bad for these people had they been left to the mercy of the natives, who had many wrongs to avenge. But these Germans did not realise the situation in the least, and they asked angrily, "Why do you take us away? You know that you will have to bring us all back here in a month." For the Windhoek papers had published wireless messages that purported to have come from Berlin, announcing that the German armies were in Paris and would be in London in a fortnight, and then there would be a German peace with all its blessings within a month.

Next, the Armadale castle was sent to Cape Cross to discover and destroy a wireless station that was reported to be there. A large building with a tall flagstaff was seen on a hill near the sea. A few shells were dropped upon it, when a huge volume of flames and smoke rose in the sky. It was clear that the gunfire had destroyed an enormous store of petrol. She was also employed in convoying ships from Sierra Leone to the Cape. She brought to the Cape at least one captured neutral vessel carrying coals to the Hun; but she had not the luck at any rate during the period of which I am speaking, to have a brush with the enemy.



In conclusion: I had read in previous Merchant Navy books on Armed Merchant Cruisers that they were poorly armed and had no extra steel bulkheads or armour plating fitted for protection but until reading this fitting out account I really had no idea just how abysmal the situation was. I also knew that ships of this type carried out convoy duties but on numerous occasions found themselves facing not only Raiders and U-boats but enemy ships of the line. How on earth the powers that be expected the ships to protect the unarmed Merchantmen in their care is beyond belief but they did so, to the best of their ability and unfortunate loss. I pay tribute to their undoubted courage, but also condemn the Government of the day for their sheer ineptitude (Lions lead by Donkeys). Actually on reflection not a lot has changed.