HMS Dauntless (D45)

History
Name	HMS Dauntless
Ordered	September 1916
Builder	Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company
Laid down	3 January 1917
Launched	10 April 1918
Commissioned	22 November, 1918
Fate	Broken up April 1946
General characteristics
Displacement	4,650 tons
Length	471 ft (144 m)
Beam	46 ft (14 m)
Draught	14.5 ft (4.4 m)
Propulsion	Six Yarrow-type water-tube boilers Parsons geared steam turbines Two shafts 40,000 shp
Speed	29 knots (54 km/h)
Range	2,300 nm
Complement	350
Armament	1918: six BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) L/45 Mark XII guns on single mountings CP Mark XIV two QF 3 inch (76.2 mm) Mk II AA guns two 40 mm QF 2 pdr "Pom-pom" AA guns twelve 21 in (533 mm) torpedoes (4 triple launchers)
Armour	3 inch side (amidships) 2, 1¾, 1½ side (bow and stern) 1 inch upper decks (amidships) 1 inch deck over rudder

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Dauntless.

HMS Dauntless was a Danae-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was launched from the yards of Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company on 10 April 1918 and commissioned on 22 November, 1918.

Design

The Danae class mounted an extra 6 inch gun and a heavier torpedo armament, compared to their predecessors, the C class cruiser. The class also had larger low revolution propellers for greater efficiency. Dauntless herself was completed with a large hangar under her bridge, which was eventually removed in 1920.

Interwar service

Headstone of Able Seaman William John Harrhy at Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane. Harrhy drowned in the Brisbane River when the HMS Dauntless was moored there as part of the Cruise of the Special Service Squadron.

Completed too late to see action in the First World War, in 1919 she was assigned to operate in the Baltic Sea against the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia. She was then on detached service in the West Indies. Following this assignment she was attached to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet for the following five years. Dauntless was a member of the Cruise of the Special Service Squadron, also known as the 'Empire Cruise', of 1923/24. Following this tour, she went with the squadron to the Mediterranean for the next few years.

In May 1928 Dauntless was recommisioned and assigned to the America and West Indies Station. She ran aground in July off Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was badly damaged, suffering the breach of her engine room and of her one boiler rooms. Subsequently all of her guns, torpedo tubes and much of her other equipment had to be removed to lighten the ship. She was finally refloated and towed off by her sister, HMS Despatch, and a number of tugs. She was repaired throughout 1929 and was reduced to the reserve.

In 1930 she was transferred back to the America and West Indies Station. During 1931-1933 she served with the South American Division, and in 1934 she relieved HMS Curlew in the Mediterranean and was reassigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron. In 1935 she returned to Britain to be paid off into the reserve.

Wartime career

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Dauntless was recommissioned and joined the 9th Cruiser Squadron with the South Atlantic Command. In December, the squadron, including HMS Dauntless, was transferred to the China Station, and in March 1940 Dauntless operated as a unit of the British Malaya Force while in the Indian Ocean. She operated mainly off Batavia, keeping watch on German merchant ships in the Dutch East Indies harbours. On 15 June 1941 she collided with HMS Emerald off Malacca and had to put into Singapore for repairs, that were eventually completed on 15 August.

In February 1942 Dauntless returned to Britain, and underwent a refit at Portsmouth. Following this, she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet, and in November was docked in the Selborne dry dock at Simonstown, South Africa, until January 1943. She was then used as a training ship, and in February 1945 was again reduced to the reserve.

She was sold to be broken up for scrap on 13 February 1946, and in April that year was broken up at the yards of T.W. Ward, of Inverkeithing.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
• HMS Dauntless at U-boat.net
• Ships of the Danae-class
• HMS Dauntless 1930 - 1932 at www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk