SU N DAY, 14 DECEMBER 2025
HMS Mars (1896) Service history HMS Mars was laid down at the Laird Brothers shipyard in Birkenhead on 2 June 1894. She was launched on 30 March 1896. [2] She commissioned on 8 June 1897 for service with the Channel Fleet, where she served in the Portsmouth division. She was present at the Fleet Review at Spithead for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 26 June 1897. [3] Captain Henry John May was appointed in command on 5 January 1899, and succeeded by Captain Henry Deacon Barry who was appointed in command in September 1900. She took part in the Coronation Fleet Review for King Edward VII on 16 August 1902, [4][3] and the following two months she was part of a squadron visiting Nauplia and Souda Bay at Crete for combined manoeuvres between the Channel and Mediterranean fleets. [5] On 16 August 1904, Mars began a refit at Portsmouth. During her refit, the Channel Fleet became the Atlantic Fleet in a reorganization on 1 January 1905, and she remained in the renamed unit. Her refit was completed in March 1905. Her Atlantic Fleet service ended on 31 March 1906, when she commissioned into the Reserve at Portsmouth. [3] Mars recommissioned at Portsmouth for service in the new Channel Fleet on 31 October 1906. This service ended when she paid off at Portsmouth on 4 March 1907. Mars recommissioned on 5 March 1907 for service in the Devonport Division of the new Home Fleet which had been organized in January 1907, and was based at Devonport. During this service, she underwent refits in 1908–1909 and 1911–1912. By July 1914, she was in the 4th Division, Home Fleet. With war appearing to be imminent, the Royal Navy undertook a precautionary mobilisation on 27 July 1914. As part of this, Mars and her sister ships Hannibal , Magnificent , and Victorious formed the 9th Battle Squadron, which was based in the Humber under the Admiral of Patrols. Mars was serving as a guard ship at the Humber when World War I began in August 1914, and continued in that duty after the 9th Battle Squadron was dissolved on 7 August 1914. [6][7] Mars was transferred to the Dover Patrol on 9 December 1914, and was based at Dover briefly before moving to Portland on 11 December 1914. She was based at Portland until February 1915. [8] The Majestic - class ships were by then the oldest and least effective battleships in service in the Royal Navy. In February 1915, Mars transferred to Belfast, where she paid off on 15 February 1915. In March and April 1915 she was disarmed there by Harland and Wolff, retaining only four of her 6-inch (152-mm) guns and some lighter guns; her 12-inch (305-mm) guns were taken to arm the new Lord Clive -class monitors Earl of Peterborough and Sir Thomas Picton . [7] After that, she was laid up in Loch Goil in April 1915. [8] In September 1915, Mars recommissioned to serve as a troopship in the Dardanelles campaign. Mars and her similarly disarmed sister ships Hannibal and Magnificent , also acting as troopships, arrived at Mudros on 5 October 1915. At the Dardanelles, Mars took part in the evacuation of Allied troops from Anzac Cove on 8 and 9 December 1915 and from West Beach at Cape Helles on 8 and 9 January 1916. During the West Beach evacuation, Mars was covered by what had once been her 12-inch (305-mm) guns, now mounted on Sir Thomas Picton . Mars returned to Devonport in February 1916, then paid off at Chatham, where she underwent a refit for conversion to a harbor depot ship. She recommissioned as a harbor depot ship on 1 September 1916, and served in this capacity at Invergordon until July 1920. Mars was placed on the sale list at Invergordon on 7 July 1920. She was sold for scrapping on 9 May 1921 and left Invergordon for scrapping at Briton Ferry in November 1921. [9] The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force included the initial naval operation to force the straits of the Dardanelles. Its headquarters was formed in March 1915. [1] The MEF was originally commanded by General Sir Ian Hamilton until he was dismissed due to the failure of the 29th Division at Gallipoli. Command briefly passed to Lieutenant General Sir William Birdwood, commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, but for the duration of the Gallipoli campaign it was General Sir Charles Monro, who had served on the Western Front as a division, corps, and army commander, who led the MEF.
Maggie Marriott's nom de guerre
Maggie Marriott
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