Name HMS Attentive Commissioned October 1905 Construction started January 1904 Weight 2,682 tons Draft 4.11 m | Laid down January 1904 Decommissioned December 1918 Launched 24 November 1904 Displacement 2.395 million kg Builder Armstrong Whitworth | |
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Fate Sold for scrap, 12 April 1920 Class and type Adventure-class scout cruiser | ||
HMS Attentive was an Adventure-class scout cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Armstrong Whitworth at their yards at Elswick, Tyne and Wear and launched on 24 November 1904. She served before and during the First World War.
Career
Attentive joined the Nore Division of the Home Fleet in March 1907. On 7 August 1907 (one source states it occurred on 6 August) she collided with the destroyer HMS Quail, badly damaging Quail′s bow. The following year, on 27 April 1908, Attentive was involved in a series of accidents during a live firing exercise at night with the Eastern Destroyer Flotilla. She collided with the destroyer Gala in the engine room and sliced the smaller ship in two. The forward part of the ship sank immediately, with the crew clinging on to the wreckage of her stern. This part sank as well during an attempt to tow it to shallow water. Gala went down with the loss of Engineer Lieutenant Fletcher. The hapless Attentive then collided with the destroyer Ribble, damaging her enough to force her to return to port in Sheerness.
After repairs she was recommissioned at Chatham in July 1909 and became leader of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, then joined the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla in 1910. She spent most of the First World War as part of the Dover Patrol. On 7 September 1915 she became an early victim of air power. While supporting a naval bombardment of German positions at Ostend, Attentive was bombed, suffering two killed and seven wounded. The air attack forced the squadron to briefly disperse, before returning to carry out the bombardment. She took part in the famous Zeebrugge Raid on 25 April 1918 before escorting convoys to Gibraltar. She spent a few months off Murmansk, North Russia, supporting British forces in the Russian Civil War. Attentive was paid off in December 1918, after hostilities ended, and was sold for scrapping on 12 April 1920.