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HMY Kethailes

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Yacht of the British Royal Navy

History
United Kingdom
NameKethailes
NamesakeKathleen, Ethel, Aileen and Estele Johnston
OwnerWilliam Johnston
BuilderRichardson, Duck & Co
Yard number535
Launched11 April 1903
CompletedMay 1903
Commissioned1914
United Kingdom
NameHMY Kethailes
Commissioned24 September 1914
Out of service11 October 1917
FateSunk by collision
General characteristics
TypeSteam yacht
Tonnage625 GRT
Propulsiontriple expansion engine

HMY Kethailes was a steam yacht that was launched in 1903 as a private pleasure craft and commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1914. She was sunk in a collision in 1917 with the loss of 17 of her crew.

Private yacht

St Clare John Byrne designed the yacht for William Johnston of Liverpool. Richardson, Duck and Company built her at Thornaby-on-Tees, County Durham, England. She was launched on 11 April 1903. Johnston invented her name by concatenating letters from the names of his four daughters: Kathleen, Ethel, Aileen and Estele.

Naval service

When World War I began in 1914 the Royal Navy needed more ships. On 24 September 1914 Johnston voluntarily handed over the yacht (later receiving financial compensation) to the Admiralty, for use as an Armed Naval Auxiliary. She was commissioned as Armed Yacht No. 118032 in the Yacht Patrol. She patrolled the North Sea, then was transferred to the Irish Sea.

On 28 September 1917 Kethailes was first-on-scene and assisted the cargo ship William Middleton, which had hit a mine laid by SM UC-75. Two ratings were killed. The Commanding Officer, Lt Comdr Lane RNR and his crew were commended for preventing William Middleton from sinking.

Loss

On 11 October 1917 the troop ship Leicestershire accidentally rammed Kethailes in the Irish Sea near the Blackwater Lightship, which marks the Blackwater Bank off the east coast of County Wexford in Ireland. 17 of Kethailes's crew were killed.

Leicestershire and the P-class sloop P.44 rescued survivors, including her commander, and they were landed at Liverpool. The dead were lost at sea. Several bodies were subsequently washed ashore on the Welsh coast and were buried in local churchyards. In July 2022 CWGC accepted identification research of Able Seaman Frederick Dyer, previously buried as an unknown sailor in a communal grave in the Churchyard of St Matthew Borth, Dyfed.

References

  1. "Kethailes". Tees Built Ships. North East Maritime Forum. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  2. Lettens, Jan; Racey, Karl. "HMY Kethailes [+1917]". Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  3. "Ship Kethailes, official number: 118032. When built: 1903. Registry closed: 1917". The National Archives. 1911–1920.
  4. "Vessels Lost in WW1: Whorlton to Wimmera". Benjidog Historical Research Resources: Tower Hill.
  5. "ADM 137/678 Auxilliary [sic] Patrol. Weekly Reports, Area XV, Milford, 1917, September-December". The National Archives.
  6. ^ "Subject: Collision between SS 'Leicestershire' and HM patrol boat 'Kethailes' and subsequent loss of latter at Milford Haven on 11 October 1917". The National Archives.
  7. "Lightships off the Irish Coast". SailCork.com.
  8. "Sidney Reginald Lane". The Dreadnought Project. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  9. "Patrol Boat No. 44". The National Archives. 1917.
  10. Lettens, Jan (25 August 2019). "HMY Kethailes [+1917]". Wrecksite.eu.
  11. "Able Seaman Frederick Dyer | War Casualty Details 3043466".
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1917
Shipwrecks
Other incidents
1916 1917 1918
September 1917 November 1917


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