Episode 303 - The Fleet - Hobart 1924
There’s a lot of photos in the Beattie’s Studio Collection that I don’t understand. But I don’t know anything at all about this one. Why is a photo of some old grey Navy ships so darn popular? At least the names of the ships are written on the mat, so that gives me something to goon. The original release of this photo had hand drawn calligraphy, but I can’t get that (in bulk and at a price buyers will accept) today, so I had to figure out a way to reproduce the titling with the gear I have.
This shot of one of the fleet ships tied up and Elizabeth Pier was taken at the same time. It’s very popular too. Pop wrote “Hood” on the paper bag the neg is stored in. I think that’s my clue to this mystery.
The great thing about digitising these old photos is that I can zoom in and explore. Photographers call it pixel peeping because they’re often looking for flaws in an image, but I’m after the fine detail. I can’t read the name of the ship because it’s probably on the stern, but the twin anchors, guns and tower confirm that this is HMS Hood. A quick Google search tells me that it was in Hobart in 1924. So what were a fleet of British Royal Navy warships doing in Hobart in 1924? That was between wars. It turns out that Hood is quite famous.
HMS Hood
Named after Sir Horace Hood, a distinguished admiral, who was killed aboard the poorly named Invincible. The HMS Hood was built for the British Royal Navy during World War I. It was the biggest battleship in the world at that time and she was proudly nicknamed the Mighty Hood. There were some flaws discovered during and after construction and her planned 3 identical sister ships were redesigned.
Hood distinguished herself in WWI, got some refits, more armour and became the flag ship for the 1923/24 Empire Cruise, a victory lap around the world visiting the allies of WWI. Showing the world that Britannia ruled the waves.
Over 35 stops, something like 11,000 miles including 8 ports in Australia. Lots of ceremonial duties, like escorting the old HMAS Australia to her final resting place, with full honours. 700,000 visitors went aboard Hood. The fleet came to Hobart and John Watt Beattie made the giant panorama that sells so well for Beattie’s Studio. The trip was a big deal, hence the photo.
It’s a bit sad that the thing the Hood is most famous for is being sunk in 1941 by the pride of the German fleet – The Bismarck. And the sinking was so unexpected, more like unbelievable, akin to the unsinkableTitanic. There were two Naval inquiries because people just didn’t believe the official explanation. I get the feeling it was a conspiracy theory in its day.
The Hood was dispatched to the Denmark Straight, between Greenland and Iceland. It was a supply line for Britain in the early part of the war. Germany wanted to cut it off and starve Britain out. They had battleships hunting British convoys and Hood was sent there to protect supply ships and bring the fight to Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine.
The crew of Hood were as young as 16 and quite inexperienced. She’s at lower in the water, which splashed over the sides and they joked she was the world’s biggest submarine. The constant dampness throughout the ship did impact the health of the crew.
I’m not going to give you the blow by blow of the battle, but once Hood engaged Bismarck, it was only two minutes before Hood exploded and sank. There were only three survivors from the crew of over 1400 souls.
The wreck was located in 2001 and designated a Military Grave Site and strictly protected under international maritime law to prevent removal of artefacts. A second dive was organised and Microsoft founder Paul Allen provided the dive ship. Their mission was to workout why The Mighty Hood sank so fast, and to retrieve (with permission) the ships bell, which they did.
Extensive exploration of the wreck confirmed the conclusions of the initial Navy inquiry; that a lucky shot hit a magazine and the ship exploded from the inside. It seems to me that the armour just wasn’t up to the task. Other British battleships met a similar fate, so perhaps that was a design fault?
You can still buy model kits of HMS Hood today, and they’ve been on the market for decades. Many of the naval wreck experts of today made the models as kids. I bought the 80th anniversary special edition of the model kit including the Bismarck. There was a huge stack of them in the model shop. That’s how fascinated people are with the Hood. I was hoping to have this built for the video, but my model maker (and cinematographer, Brian Dimmick, just couldn’t finish it in the limited time we had available. It’s a very detailed kit.)
The Bismarck
The Bismarck was built to attack supply convoys. It was a new ship, designed and built in WW2, over engineered. Reminiscent of Hitlers later wonder weapons. Built larger than allowed by the WW1 treaty.
Specifications wise, the Hood and the Bismarck are pretty close. Same size, weight, speed, but the Bismarck has double the big 15” guns. Given how tough it would prove to be, the Bismarck’s newer design must have given it the edge.
After she sunk HMS Hood, the British mounted a full-on revenge plan to sink The Bismarck at any cost. Churchill ordered the Royal Navy to go all out. He needed to recover the morale lost from Hood’s sinking. Multiple battleships launched planes which dropped torpedoes and eventually crippled The Bismarck. They pummelled the heck out of it, but despite firing over 2800 times and scoring over 400 hits, Bismarck did not sink. The shelling lasted over 18 hours and still Bismarck did not sink. After the command crew on the bridge were all killed, the highest surviving officer, the XO ordered that the ship be scuttled so the British could not capture it and to give the remaining crew a chance to abandon ship. Out of 2200 crew, only 114 survived.
The wreck of the Bismarck was found by the same team (Robert Ballard) as found the Titanic. She’s in deeper water than Titanic by nearly a kilometre, but more intact. She did not implode as the enormous pressure of deep water pressed down on her, this indicates that she was indeed scuttled and water had filled all the compartments before the pressure rose. James Cameron made a film about Bismarck, although it didn’t have Leonardo DiCaprio in it
The other ship that attacked the Hood was the Prinz Eugen. (I didn’t take German in high school, so my pronunciation in the video is probably terrible, I do apologise.) Despite being damaged in that battle and later torpedoed by a British submarine, she survived the war and was used as a target for nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1946. Amazingly she survived two atomic bombs, whilst other target ships including Japanese, American and British were destroyed. She was left badly radio active and sank near an atoll. The wreck is still there today largely intact. It’s my opinion, from reading the history, that Hood never had a chance against The Bismarck and its good fortune that Hitler’s Nazis didn’t manufacture more of their terrible wonder weapons.
And this is the thing about the Beattie’s Studio Collection, every photo has a story; for some I can find the story, for others I can’t. With this one of the fleet, there’s an amazing story of the Hood, and that’s just one of the ships. The Fleet itself is fascinating and it occurs to me that an influx of thousands of British sailors in 1924 might have left other legacies. It’s probable that there are people alive today descended from those very sailors. If this is you, please comment below.
The photo is big. If you want to see it up close, head to Winnings News agency or Sorell Antiques, both have it in stock and on display. There’s also the photo of The Hood and lots of other Beattie’s photos. The full digitised collection is at www.BeattiesStudio.com.
Winning’s News agency
317 Elizabeth Street
North Hobart
Right in the heart of the restaurant district. My Dad was great mates with Lloyd Winning and my Brother introduced me to the current owner Gary Martin, who loves a chat about history.
Sorell Antiques
15 Somerville Street, Sorell
Turn left off the main street just past Banjos. Sue Ihlow and her husband have a great antique collection and a special military section.
The video version of this article is available here.
References
Fleet photo
https://www.beattiesstudio.com/ships/h70F11E5#h70f11e5
http://www.hmshood.org.uk/hoodtoday/2001expedition/hood/wreckplaque.htm
Photo of HMS Hood 1924
English: Partial restoration (spots removed, but no levels adjustment) of a 1924 photo by Allan C. Green of HMS Hood (pennant number 51), the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. For other versions, see below.
Date: Taken on 17 March 1924
Source: State Library of Victoria
Author:
Photographer: Allan C. Green 1878 - 1954
Restoration: Adam Cuerden
Bismarck photo
By Bundesarchiv, Bild 193-04-1-26 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5438172
U. S. Military, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Prinz Ergen photo
By U.S. Navy - Official U.S. Navy photo 80-G-627445 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2376204
Credits
Uploaded by Public.Resource.Org, Addeddate
2011-03-25 16:41:58, Identifier
gov.archives.arc.40149.1
HMS Hood low in water; J Gilbert, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMS_Hood_HU76079.jpg
Press Agency photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sinking_of_HMS_Hood.jpg
J.C. Schmitz-Westerholt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Citypeek - Own work based upon the map Rheinuebung Karte2.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25610223 Map of Hood location.
References
Fleet Route (http://hmshood.com/history/empirecruise/index.htm) External links: Australian Itinerary from HMS Repulse (https://web.archive.org/web/20070921185937/http:// www.forcez-survivors.org.uk/empirecruise/rnsvisit1924.html)
HMS Hood Empire Cruise (http://hmshood.com/history/empirecruise/index.htm) Photo album from Empire Cruise (http://worldcruise1923.1924.googlepages.com/)
Youtube: "World Cruise" of the Special Service Squadron (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xuFNt7U4fGg/)
Comprehensive website including scans of the official cruise book (https://sites.google.com/ site/worldcruise19231924/home/empire-cruise-o-connor/)
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Cruise_of_the_Special_Service_Squadron&oldid=1082121967
Ballard, R. (1990). The Discovery of the Bismarck. New York, NY. Warner Books Inc. ISBN 978-0-446-51386-9
Ballard, Robert D. (November 1989). "The Bismarck Found". National Geographic. Vol. 176, no. 5. pp. 622–637. ISSN 0027-9358 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0027-9358).
OCLC 643483454 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/643483454).
Garzke, William H.; Dulin, Robert O. & Jurens, William (2019). Battleship Bismarck: A Design and Operational History. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-569-1.
Junack, Gerhard (1967). "The Last Hours of the Bismarck" (http://www.kbismarck.com/bism arck-last-hours.html). Retrieved 11 June 2019.
Koop, Gerhard; Schmolke, Klaus-Peter (2014). Battleships Of The Bismarck Class. UK.
ISBN 978-1-84832-197-7
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=German_battleship_Bismarck&oldid=1080693163
HMS Hood Association (http://www.hmshood.com/)
HMS Hood Today – Wreck Overview (http://www.hmshood.com/hoodtoday/2001expedition/index.htm) Description of the wreck state, and many annotated photographs. Books and Magazines (http://www.hmshood.com/reference/written/books1.htm)
Official Records Pertaining to HMS Hood (http://www.hmshood.com/reference/records.htm)
Battle of the Denmark Strait Documentation Resource (http://www.hmshood.com/history/denmarkstrait/index.htm)
Hunt for the Hood (https://www.pbs.org/hood/) Includes colour photographs and a log of the expedition.
HMS Hood 1920 (https://archive.today/20131018060342/ http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/sitec ore/content/home/about-the-royal-navy/organisation/life-in-the-royal-navy/history/historic-ships/hms-hood-1920) Official Royal Navy page.
Battle of Denmark Strait (http://www.thesongoftheday.com/index.cgi?_d=083007) A song tribute to the Hood.
Obituary of Ted Briggs – last survivor (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3140770 /Ted-Briggs.html).
Imperial War Museum Interview with survivor Robert Tilburn (http://www.iwm.org.uk/collectio ns/item/object/80011489)
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Hood&oldid=1077654241