H.M.S. TERROR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21994, 20 June 1941, Page 2

H.M.S. TERROR

Last Of Monitors Slow Hard Hitters The loss of the monitor Terror off the coast of Libya removes from the British Navy the last of this curious class of ship. The term monitor, which derives from a ship of that name that figured in the American Civil War, meaiis roughly a ship of shallow draught, well armoured and protected against underwater attack, and carrying heavy guns, and designed not for fighting at sea but for operations against shore positions. Monitors were adopted in the last war on the initiative of Lord Fisher in 1914, to carry out certain strategical plans which he had in view but which ‘were not actually carried out. Emergency Construction The first were three 1260-ton ships, with three 6in and two 4.7 in guns, and drawing less than six feet of water. At the end of 1914, four 6000-ton ships carrying two 141 n and two Sin guns, were begun, and these were quickly followed by a group of eight of 5900 tons, with two 12in and two 6in guns. The guns were old and inefficient, having been taken out of old battleships, and the ships were frankly makeshifts, to provide floating gun-platforms at the earliest possible date. Then came two more, somewhat larger, each carrying two 15in guns diverted from battleships under construction. All these ships were very slow—they could steam only 7 or 8 knots. Erebus and Terror One of the last pair had her armament reduced, and her 15in guns were transferred to Terror, and a sister ship, Erebus, was built. This pair of 8000 tons, carried four 61n guns as well as two 15in, and they had a speed of 12 knots and drew 11 feet of water. In addition to these vessels with their big guns, there were 14 monitors with 9.21 n guns and five with 6in guns, the guns being obtained from pre-war ships written off the strength. The whole monitor fleet was built with the greatest possible speed and the 6in gun ships, of 680 tons, were completed within three months. Erebus and Terror were both struck by torpedoes in 1917, and survived, thanks to the "bulges” and other precautions, for they were especially liable to such attack. ' Fleet Discarded The monitor fleet, numbering 37, did not last long; immediately after the war they were all removed from the active list, but three of them, Including Erebus and Terror, were retained as gunnery firing tenders. The latest navy lists show Terror as the sole survivor. Her armament, except the 15in guns, had been changed, evidently for protection against air attack, and comprised 16 guns of 4in and smaller size. The operations on the Mediterranean coast are the sort of work for which the original monitor fleet was designed, and Terror fully justified her survival of the interwar years; she took a prominent share in the bombardments of enemy positions in Libya,