HMT Night Hawk
{{Short description|Royal Navy armed trawler}}
{{for|the airbase|HMS Nighthawk}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2024}}
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{{Infobox ship image | Ship image= | Ship image size= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Kingdom of Great Britain|naval}} |Ship name=Night Hawk |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship designer= |Ship original cost= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= |Ship christened= |Ship completed=1911 |Ship acquired=1914 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship out of service= |Ship homeport= |Ship motto= |Ship honours= |Ship fate=Sunk 25 December 1914 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= |Ship builder=Cook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverley }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship tons burthen=287 |Ship length= |Ship beam= |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship propulsion=1 × 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine |Ship speed= |Ship range= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship notes= }} |
Night Hawk was an armed trawler of the Royal Navy that served in the First World War. She was built in 1911 as a fishing trawler but was requisitioned by the Navy at the start of the war. While working to clear a minefield laid by the Germans during the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby Night Hawk struck a mine and sank on Christmas Day 1914, with the loss of six of her crew.
Early career
Night Hawk was built by Cook, Welton & Gemmell at Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1911. She had a steel hull and was driven by a 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine and a single boiler. Night Hawk had a tonnage of 287 and was used as a fishing trawler based in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. At the outbreak of the First World War she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for the Royal Navy to serve as a mine trawler with the Auxiliary Patrol.{{cite book |last1=Chatterton |first1=Edward Keble |title=The Auxiliary Patrol |date=1923 |publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson |pages=55–56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bR82AAAAMAAJ |language=en}} In this role she became His Majesty's Trawler Night Hawk and had pendant number FY 57.
Scarborough minefield and sinking
File:French cruiser Colmar.jpg
On 16 December 1914 a German force of battlecruisers and an armoured cruiser had bombarded the English east coast towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby. The light cruiser Kolberg had accompanied this force, carrying 100 mines. As the other vessels bombarded the towns Kolberg laid her mines off Flamborough Head, creating the densest minefield seen in naval warfare to that time. One explanation of the German strategy is that the bombardment served as a distraction for the minelaying, which was intended to damage any elements of the British fleet sent to respond to the German force. In any case the mines laid that day proved more destructive than the bombardment. Three British merchant ships were sunk the day the mines were laid, with the loss of 31 lives, and they claimed dozens more ships and hundreds of men killed.
Night Hawk and a group of other mine trawlers were dispatched to the scene, arriving 19 December.{{cite book |last1=Hudson |first1=John |title=Christmas 1914: The First World War at Home and Abroad |date=6 October 2014 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7509-6038-0 |pages=162–167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyabBAAAQBAJ |language=en}} Night Hawk trawled for mines between Whitby and Flamborough Head on Christmas Eve, before returning to port at Whitby. The method involved dragging a cable through the sea to snag the mines which sometimes exploded and sometimes were brought to the surface where they were detonated by rifle fire.{{cite web |title=Night Hawk, Eli, Gem, Therese Haymann - 25 December 1914 |url=https://smhc.hqtdevelopment.co.uk/article.php?article=812 |website=Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre |access-date=25 November 2024}}
Night Hawk left Whitby at 07:00 the next morning to continue trawling. She was trawling some {{convert|3.5|-|4|nmi}} off Scarborough when she struck a mine. The bottom of the ship broke away from the rest of the vessel and she sank within ten seconds. All five men below decks – an engineman, two trimmers, a deckhand and a cook – were drowned. The senior engineman, Alfred Chapple, was above deck and was thrown into the sea with the other seven crew members.{{cite web |title=Search Results "Night Hawk" |url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/search-results/?Surname=&Forename=&Initials=&ServiceNum=&Regiment=&WarSelect=1&Unit=%22night+hawk%22&CountryCommemoratedIn=null&Cemetery=&Rank=&SecondaryRegiment=&SecondaryUnit=&AgeOfDeath=0&DateDeathFromDay=1&DateDeathFromMonth=January&DateDeathFromYear=&DateDeathToDay=1&DateDeathToMonth=January&DateDeathToYear=&DateOfDeath=&Honours=null&AdditionalInfo= |website=Commonwealth War Graves Commission |access-date=25 November 2024}} The vessel's commander, Sub-Lieutenant William Senior of the Royal Naval Reserve managed to reach a life raft and paddled around, pulling the survivors onto it.{{cite web |title=Hms Night Hawk |url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=984036&resourceID=19191 |website=Heritage Gateway |publisher=Historic England |access-date=25 November 2024}} It was judged unsafe to send large vessels to their rescue so the men were taken aboard small boats. They had been in the cold water and in high winds for around 30 minutes. Chapple died from shock and exhaustion while being taken to shore; only one other survivor was injured, the skipper Harry Evans who had a slight wound on his head.
Aftermath
Later in the day the same minefield sank the merchant vessels Gem and Eli. The steamer Gallier was also struck but survived and was assisted by Auxiliary Patrol vessels to return to Scarborough. A safe channel through the Scarborough minefield was achieved by Boxing Day but it was not fully cleared until April 1915. Three other trawlers were sunk during the mine clearing work. Chapple was buried at Cleethorpes Cemetery; the other crewmen have no known grave and are remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial.{{cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=Julian Stafford |title=Naval Operations ... |date=1921 |publisher=Longmans, Green and Company |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QtJmAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
In 1973 part of Night Hawk{{'s}} bow was recovered after having been caught in the net of a fishing trawler; it was placed in a museum at Scalby Mills, Scarborough. Her wreck was dived upon by the Filey Sub-Aqua Association who found a boiler on the seabed and part of the bow section as the only significant remains. Another Night Hawk trawler was built in 1915 and also went on to serve in the Royal Navy, in the Second World War from 1940 to 1946.{{cite book |last1=Warlow |first1=Ben |last2=Bush |first2=Steve |title=Pendant Numbers of the Royal Navy: A Complete History of the Allocation of Pendant Numbers to Royal Navy Warships and Auxiliaries |date=31 July 2021 |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |isbn=978-1-5267-9379-9 |page=1781 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyhCEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}