Service
During her sea trials in November 1916 off the River Tyne, Courageous sustained structural damage while running at full speed in a rough head sea. The forecastle deck was deeply buckled in three places between the breakwater and the forward turret. In addition, the side plating was visibly buckled between the forecastle and upper decks. Water had entered the submerged torpedo room and rivets had sheared in the vertical flange of the angle iron securing the deck armour in place. The exact cause remains uncertain, but Courageous received 130 long tons (132 t) of stiffening in response; Glorious did not receive her stiffening until 1918. Courageous also was temporarily fitted as a minelayer in April 1917, but never actually laid any mines. In mid-1917 both ships received a dozen torpedo tubes in pairs: one mount on each side of the mainmast on the upper deck and two mounts on each side of the rear turret on the quarterdeck. Courageous and Glorious served together throughout the war. Both ships were initially assigned to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron and later reconstituted the 1st Cruiser Squadron (CS).
Even as she was being built, Furious was modified with a large hangar capable of housing ten aircraft on her forecastle replacing the forward turret. A 160-foot (49 m) flight deck was built along its roof. Aircraft were flown off and, less successfully, landed on this deck. Although the aft turret was fitted and the gun trialled, it was not long before Furious returned to her builders for further modifications. In November 1917 the rear turret was replaced by a 300-foot (91 m) deck for landing aircraft over another hangar. Her funnel and superstructure remained intact, with a narrow strip of decking around them to connect the fore and aft flight decks. Turbulence from the funnel and superstructure was severe enough that only three landing attempts were successful before further attempts were forbidden. Her 18-inch guns were reused on the Lord Clive-class monitors General Wolfe and Lord Clive during the war.
All three ships were in the 1st CS of which Courageous was flagship when the Admiralty received word of German ship movements on 16 October 1917, possibly indicating some sort of raid. Admiral Beatty, commander of the Grand Fleet, ordered most of his light cruisers and destroyers to sea in an effort to locate the enemy ships. Furious was detached from the 1st CS and ordered to sweep along the 56th parallel as far as 4° East and to return before dark. The other two ships were not initially ordered to sea, but were sent to reinforce the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron patrolling the central part of the North Sea later that day. Two German Brummer-class light cruisers managed to slip through the gaps in the British patrols and destroyed a convoy headed to Scandinavia during the morning of 17 October, but no word was received of the engagement until that afternoon. The 1st CS was ordered to attempt to intercept the German ships, but they proved to be too fast and the British ships were unsuccessful.
Read more about this topic: Courageous Class Battlecruiser
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“The service a man renders his friend is trivial and selfish, compared with the service he knows his friend stood in readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my power to render him seems small.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?”
—Public Service Announcement.
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—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)