RN Monitors: Humber Class 1914

[jbryce1437]

Monitors were relatively small warships, not built for speed, but had disproportionately large guns which could be used for shore bombardment and gunfire support. The first monitors used by the Royal Navy were actually ordered by Brazil in 1912 and built by Vickers. When Brazil could not pay for them, they were purchased by the Admiralty and commissioned as the Humber Class. The three in the class were named Humber (ex Javry), Severn (ex Solimoes) and Mersey (ex Madeira).

HMS Humber

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HMS Severn

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HMS Mersey

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[Brian James]

Three Humber Class Monitors, HMS Severn, (Ex Solimoes), HMS Humber (Ex Javery), and HMS Mersey (Ex Madeira), pictured fitting out at Vickers Ltd Shipyard's Devonshire Dock at Barrow-in-Furness 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, 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 on August 4th 1914 for £155,000 each in order to prevent them being bought by a neutral navy and then sold on to Germany. During early 1915 Mersey and Severn were dispatched to German East Africa, where the German Cruiser Königsberg was hidden in the Rufiji Delta. Only the long-range 6 inch 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.