HMS Nottingham was a light cruiser built for the Royal Navy just before World War I. She was one of three ships of the Birmingham sub-class and was completed in early 1914. The ship was assigned to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron (LCS) of the Home and Grand Fleets for her entire career. Nottingham participated in most of the early fleet actions, including the battles of Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland, helping to sink several German ships during the battles. The ship was sunk by the German submarine during the Action of 19 August 1916.
Design and description
The Town-class cruisers were intended to protect British merchant shipping from attack by enemy cruisers. The Birminghams were a slightly larger and improved version of the preceding Chatham sub-class with a more powerful armament. The ships were long overall, with a beam of and a mean draught of . Displacement was at normal and at deep load. They were powered by four direct-drive Parsons steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, which produced a total of . The turbines used steam generated by a dozen Yarrow boilers that used both coal and fuel oil which gave them a speed of . During her sea trials, Nottingham reached a speed of from . The Birminghams had a range of at . The ships had a crew of 480 officers and other ranks.
Their main armament consisted of nine BL 6-inch Mk XII guns in single mounts. Two of these were mounted on the forward of the bridge, abreast of each other; six guns were positioned amidships, three on each broadside, and the last gun was fitted on the centreline. During 1915 a QF 20-cwt anti-aircraft gun was added aft of the rear funnel. The Birminghams were also armed with a pair of submerged torpedo tubes, one on each side, for which they carried a total of seven torpedoes. The ships were protected by a waterline belt amidships that ranged in thickness from and a deck. The walls of their conning tower were thick.
Construction and career
Nottingham, the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was named after the eponymous city. She was laid down on 13 June 1912, launched on 18 April 1913 and completed in April 1914. Upon commissioning that same month, the ship was assigned to the 1st LCS, together with both of her sisters. On 24 June, Nottingham was one of seven warships from the Royal Navy present in Kiel, Germany, to celebrate the re-opening of the Kiel Canal.
A few weeks after the start of World War I on 4 August, the Admiralty decided to attack German patrols in the Heligoland Bight on 28 August with the destroyers and cruisers of the Harwich Force and a flotilla of submarines. Despite some confusion at the highest levels of the Admiralty, Admiral John Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet, dispatched the 1st LCS and five of his battlecruisers to reinforce the Harwich Force. During the battle, Nottingham helped to sink the light cruiser and was not damaged herself. Several months later, the Germans bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December and the 1st LCS was escorting Vice-Admiral David Beatty's battlecruisers in response when it encountered a German light cruiser and a half-flotilla of torpedo boats. Nottingham was not in range to engage before the squadron turned away to follow the battlecruisers. During the Battle of Dogger Bank, the ship helped to sink the armoured cruiser on 23 January 1915. After the battle, the squadron helped to escort the crippled battlecruiser home. Shortly after the battle, Nottingham and her sisters were transferred to the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron by 18 March, although the squadron was also assigned to Beatty's battlecruisers. On 18 June 1915, the ship was detached to reinforce the 3rd Cruiser Squadron during a patrol across the North Sea. Nottingham and the other ships were attacked several times by German submarines, and the armoured cruiser was hit in the bow by a single torpedo from on 20 June, but managed to return to Rosyth under her own power.