This recognition drawing of the one from each bow with them Nassau was prepared by the streaming out on each quarter. Royal Navy to aid gunners in The idea was if a submarine was identifying the German ship. contacted by the towing wire, the EPV would be drawn on to it and explode on the submarine. A few of the other “Boats” were fitted with kite balloons towed from a special winch and manned by a Lieutenant RNVR as an observer looking for submarines on the After tangling with the German battleship Nassau during the Battle of Jutland, surface at a distance. Spitfire’s complement was the K-class destroyer HMS Spitfire returned to the River Tyne with 20-feet of 77 officers, petty officers, and men. Now to return to the Battle of Jutland where the battleship’s hull in her side! — BY CAPTAIN FRANCIS POOLE she was one of the twelve units of the 4th Flotilla based with the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow PITFIRE: What a fitting name for a Torpedo Spitfire was a K-class and under command of Capt. Wintour, the Boat Destroyer — and she proved true to destroyer built in 1913 by Swan, Hunter, Capt. “D” in the flotilla leader Tipperary, a S her name on the night of 31 May 1916 at the Wigham and Richardson of Newcastle-On- larger type of destroyer built specially for Battle of Jutland. Hers was a classic case of a Tyne on the northeast coast of England, a that duty. destroyer colliding with a German battleship, the shipyard which built so many of Britain’s On the night of 31 May 1916, SMS Nassau, and coming back home alive. fighting ships over the years. the flotilla was steaming in Line Ahead I did not serve in her at Jutland but joined her in Of 935-tons displacement, 260-ft in with Spitfire immediately following Tipperary. April 1937 as a Midshipman RNR (Royal Naval length, a beam of 27-ft and a draft of An hour or so before midnight, what Reserve). She was then based on Devonport, the 12-ft 6-in, her 24,000-hp turbines appeared to be three cruisers loomed up in the naval base adjoining Plymouth in the southwest of could drive her twin screws for a black darkness, fairly close abaft their England, where she was still a unit of the 4th speed of just over 30-kts. starboard beam and steaming at high speed on Destroyer Flotilla. The flotilla had been relieved in The K-class were the first de- a converging course. Under the impression they the Grand Fleet by larger and more heavily armed stroyers to be armed with three were British light cruisers, Tipperary new destroyers. By then the flotilla had been 4-in guns. They also had two challenged by flashlight but got a nasty shock increased to 40 units of older destroyers all single 21-in torpedo tubes when at a distance of only 800-yds all three employed on anti-submarine patrols. When convoys whose torpedoes could be switched their searchlights on Tipperary and came into being in May 1917 they were also adjusted for Deep Circling. In opened up a devastating fire on her, wrecking employed as convoy escorts. As her engineer officer, other words, they could be the bridge and putting her engines out of action I had remained in Spitfire after Jutland and what I fired at a submarine in a and killing and wounding nearly everyone am about to relate consists of first-hand reports. shallow downward spiral — amidships and forward of it. It also set her on Prior to the beginning of WWII, her name was hoping to hit it. A little fire in several places. resurrected and passed on to those remarkable later on she was fitted Now helpless, she was a prime target fighter planes — the Spitfires — and very worthy with Explosive as she blazed and she eventually sank a of it they were. I was proud to have them as my Paravanes few hours later. escorts on East Coast Convoy (North Sea between (EPV), Lieutenant Commander Trelawney of the Thames and the Firth of Forth) in 1941. towing Spitfire fired two torpedoes Moment of impact — this dramatic painting captures the near-fatal collision between the ships. 38 SEA CLASSICS/July 2017 seaclassicsnow.com 39.