Official Number: 135156
Class: Stores Carrier / Armed Boarding Steamer
Builder: Sir Raylton Dixon & Co Ltd, Middlesbrough
Launched: 18 July 1912
Pennant No:
Into Service: 11 August 1914
Out of service: 9 March 1916
Fate: 9 March 1916 mined and sunk
Items of historic interest involving this ship: –
Background Data: One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty in WW1 to augment the ships of the RFA
Career Data:
18 July 1912 launched by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co Ltd, Middlesbrough as Yard Nr: 572 named FAUVETTE for General Steam Navigation Co Ltd, London
November 1912 completed as a passenger / cargo vessel, carrying 106 passengers in one class on her owners’ London – Bordeaux Service
22 December 1912 sailed London for Bordeaux
1914 at the beginning of WW1 she was lying at Bordeaux when War was declared and brought the British Colony there back to England. She was used as a Despatch Vessel at the behest of the French Govt while they remained at Bordeaux
11 August 1914 berthed in London with 123 British passengers having sailed from Bordeaux. The ship was stopped by twice by French warships once when 50 miles off the mouth of the Gironde River and once off Ushant
11 August 1914 requisitioned by the Admiralty for service as an Expeditionary Force Ship until 26 August 1914
18 December 1914 berthed at London from Bordeaux
February 1915 re-deployed as a Stores Carrier until 18 March 1915 and took the Boom defence to the island of Mudros and laid it at the approaches to the harbour
6 March 1915 at the Dardenelles landed 35 ratings for HMS CANOPUS
19 March 1915 re-deployed as an Armed Boarding Steamer as HMS FAUVETTE. Her subsequent exploits included the bombardment of the Dardanelles, trooping to Suvla Bay and Helles, Salonica, Bulgaria and carrying refugee soldiers from Serbia to Corfu
21 March 1915 at Mudros berthed alongside HMS PHAETON and received from the light cruiser the survivors of HMS’s IRRESISTIBLE and OCEAN
HMS PHAETON
3 April 1915 at Mudros received one signal ratings from HMS ALBION
HMS ALBION
17 May 1915 at Mudros received two ratings from HMS MINERVA
24 May 1915 at Mudros secured alongside HMS CARMANIA and received one 6″ QF gun then alongside HMS VENGENANCE and received one 6″ QF gun
25 May 1915 at Mudros berthed alongside HMS CARMANIA and received one 6″ BL gun
3 June 1915 at Mudros received 15 stokers from HMS MINERVA
6 June 1915 at Mudros received 2 Royal Marine Light Infrantry from HMS MINERVA
16 June 1915 at Mudros landed ratings for HMS EUROPA
HMS EUROPA
20 June 1915 at Mudros took on board a Petty Officer from HMS EUROPA
21 June 1915 and 22 June 1915 received a working party from HMS EUROPA
25 June 1915 received a working party from HMS EUROPA
6 August 1915 the 6th & 7th Battalions Royal Dublin Fusiliers boarded HMS Fauvette and three other ships and departed for Suvla Bay in Gallipoli, arriving at 4am the following morning. They disembarked 7 Aug 1915
19 August 1915 arrived at Taranto
13 November 1915 received a working party from HMS EUROPA
1916 Lieutenant Commander J T Wilson RNR in command
9 March 1916 while on her way home from Girgenti to London, she struck two mines in quick succession which had been laid by the German submarine UC-7 (Oberleutnant zur See Georg Haag) off North Foreland and sank in four minutes in position 51.24N 01.29E with the loss of fourteen lives. The wreck remained pointing North and upright on the seabed until after the First World War when it was blown up as it was classed as a maritime shipping hazard with the demolition of the wreck leaving a field of debris on the seabed.
Those lost were
They are remembered with pride on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, the Chatham Naval Memorial and the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. Able Seaman John Trainor was buried in Belfast (Milltown) Roman Catholic Cemetery
In addition Ty/Engineer Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Anderson Blackwood RNR is remembered on the University College Dundee Great War memorial
13 March 1916 the Sunderland Daily Echo newspaper reported –
