HMS Thistle was a Bramble-class gunboat of the Royal Navy, launched in 1899 and broken up in 1926. She was the last classic Victorian gunboat, and the last British warship to retain a practical sailing rig.
Design
HMS Thistle was the last of four Bramble-class vessels, built in the 1890s to patrol the remote outposts of the British Empire in the era of gunboat diplomacy.
In most respects, she resembled a scaled-down protected cruiser, a steel warship with a modern design and up-to-date armament, and very comfortable quarters for her crew. However, in order to navigate on uncharted coasts and tropical rivers, she was given a very compact shallow-draught hull, and this meant she only had a very limited coal supply. In addition, low technology was used to minimize construction cost and logistical requirements. As a result, the Thistle was given a two-masted sailing rig as a supplementary means of propulsion, along with a number of other anachronistic features such as a manual capstan to raise the anchor, and candles rather than light bulbs.
Policy changes shortly after the Thistle's launch meant that no further gunboats would be built for the Royal Navy, and the use of sail propulsion was strongly discouraged. Nonetheless, problems with using Thistle's engines for long-range cruising would prompt the restoration of her sailing rig in 1919, while her usefulness on colonial stations meant that she was refitted to maintain her capabilities in the 1920s, acquiring an anti-aircraft armament.
Service history
The Thistle was laid down at the London & Glasgow shipyards in Govan in December 1897. She was the last ship of her class to be launched, on 22 June 1899, and would not complete her fitting-out until 1901. On her sea-trials, she performed well, reaching her design speed of 13.5 knots under engine power.
North Atlantic and West Africa, 1902-1905
HMS Thistle was initially deployed to the North America and West Indies Station under the command of Lieutenant and Commander Edward Stafford Houseman. During Spring 1902 she toured the North Atlantic Ocean, visiting São Vicente, Cape Verde, Barbados, Bermuda, and New York. After arrival at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in early May, she was fitted out for Newfoundland fishery protection service. In August she visited Horta, Azores, Sao Vicente, Sierra Leone and Gabon River, before she arrived at Saint Helena in October 1902.
In June 1904 she was posted in West Africa, when her crew provided teams for the first competitive games of cricket and football in Nigeria, being convincingly beaten in both matches by local teams from Hope Waddell Training Institution. In 1905, she was at Simon's Bay to witness the arrival of Admiral Rozhestvensky's fleet on their long, laborious voyage from the Baltic Sea to the Battle of Tsushima. The fact that only Thistle and the cruiser HMS Crescent were available to deter an entire fleet of battleships caused considerable local alarm.
Far East, 1906-1914
The Thistle was subsequently transferred to the China Station, where she was assigned to protect British imperial interests in the treaty ports along the Yangtze river, and was deployed 600 miles inland at Hankou (now part of the Wuhan conurbation). The early years of this assignment were relatively leisurely, and the Thistle's surgeon, Walter Perceval Yetts, acquired a deep admiration for Chinese civilization, which would lead him to become an important sinologist.
In 1911, however, the Thistle found herself in the front line of the crisis which developed into the Chinese Revolution. She was subsequently withdrawn to Hong Kong, spending increasingly long stretches in harbour, and making occasional voyages across the South China Sea to coastal anchorages in mainland China. She now relied exclusively on her engines, and when the Great War broke out, Thistle and the other gunboats on the China Station were decommissioned to provide a crew for the old battleship HMS Triumph, which was now regarded as a more important military asset.
East Africa, 1915-1918
In 1915, it was decided to reactivate HMS Thistle and transfer her to East Africa. The initial intention was to send her into the Rufiji Delta to fight the German cruiser SMS Königsberg, but the Admiralty modified its plans by also sending the monitors HMS Mersey and HMS Severn through the Suez Canal, and they subsequently destroyed the Königsberg before the Thistle even set sail.
