HMS Princess Royal (1911) - Service - World War I - Post-Jutland Career

Post-Jutland Career

As the German High Seas Fleet was forbidden from taking any unnecessary risks, the majority of Princess Royal's post-Jutland activities consisted of uneventful patrols of the North Sea. On the evening of 18 August, the Grand Fleet put to sea in response to a deciphered message that the High Seas Fleet, minus the II Squadron, would be leaving harbour that night. The Germans planned to bombard the port of Sunderland on the 19th, with extensive reconnaissance provided by airships and submarines. The Grand Fleet sailed with 29 dreadnought battleships and 6 battlecruisers to their anticipated rendezvous in the North Sea; for fear that they had entered a minefield after HMS Nottingham was torpedoed, they turned north before turning south again. Scheer steered south-eastward pursuing a lone British battle squadron reported by an airship, which was in fact the Harwich Force under Commodore Tyrwhitt. Realising their mistake, the Germans then set course for home. The only contact came in the evening when Tyrwhitt sighted the High Seas Fleet but was unable to achieve an advantageous attack position before dark, and broke off. Both the British and German fleets returned home; two British light cruisers, HMS Nottingham and Falmouth had been sunk by submarines, and the German dreadnought Westfalen had been damaged by a torpedo.

Princess Royal provided support for British light forces involved in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight on 17 November 1917, but never came within range of any German ships. She sailed with the 1st BCS on 12 December after German destroyers sank a Norway-bound convoy earlier that day, but the British were unable to intercept and returned to base the following day. Princess Royal, along with the rest of the Grand Fleet, sortied on the afternoon of 23 March 1918 after radio transmissions revealed that the High Seas Fleet was at sea after a failed attempt to intercept the regular British convoy to Norway. However, the Germans were too far ahead of the British, and no shots were fired. Starting in July 1918, the Grand Fleet was affected by the 1918 flu pandemic; at one point, Princess Royal lacked sufficient healthy crewmen to sail.

Following the surrender of the High Seas Fleet at the end of the war, Princess Royal and the 1st BCS made up part of the guard force in Scapa Flow. Princess Royal was reassigned to the Atlantic Fleet in April 1919. The battlecruiser was placed in reserve in 1920, and an attempt to sell her to Chile later that year was unsuccessful. She became the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief of the Scottish Coast on 22 February 1922. She was sold for scrap in December 1922 to meet the tonnage limitations set on the Royal Navy by the Washington Naval Treaty, and arrived at the breakers on 13 August 1923.