Requisitioned Auxiliary – Lyons

 Lyons

 Lyons

SS LYONS –  STANDING BY A GROUNDED SHIP ON CHESIL BEACH

 

Official Number:                     79177

Laid down:

Builder:                                 John Elder & Co, Govan

Launched:                             10 January 1885

Into Service:                           5 August 1914

Out of service:                        December 1915

Fate:                                     1974 reported broken up

 

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

 

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW1 to augment the ships of the RFA

Career Data:

10 January 1885 launched by John Elder & Co, Govan as Yard Nr 290 named LYONS for the London Brighton South Coast
Railway Co.

January 1885 completed

1887 transferred to Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de L’Ouest, Paris (LBSCRC, Mngrs) and renamed LYON

20 August 1895 in a fog bank she collided with and sank her running mate SEAFORD and brought the survivors into
Newhaven
 
1910 purchased by the National Salvage Association Ltd (C.A.P. Gardiner, Manager) Glasgow and converted into a
salvage ship

1911 conversion completed and renamed LYONS

1914 re-engined by her builders with C 6 cyl (2) 22” & (4) 32” – 24” . 256 nhp. Speed: 14  knots. Twin screws.
 
5 August 1914  requisitioned by the Admiralty for service as a Salvage Vessel, name unchanged. Commissioned as HMS Lyons. Lieutenant C A P Gardiner RNR in command and Engineer W Syme RNR as the Chief Engineer Officer. Other railway steamers requisitioned around the same time were BARALONG  and PRINCESS ENA and all three finally patrolled off Ushant as Q-ships
 
10 October 1914 Third Mate W Buley MMR discharged dead. He is buried in Cromarty Cemetery in grave K North East 20
 
 
Buley W
 
Courtesy and © of The War Graves Photographic Project

24 November 1914 Engineer Charles S C Steen RNR appointed as Chief Engineer Officer

7 March 1915 Stoker William Henry Davies RNR discharged dead. He is buried in Douglas Cemetery, Isle of Man in grave B158
 
Davies W
Courtesy and © of The War Graves Photographic Project
 

May 1915 became a Decoy Ship, name unchanged

3 July 1915 Stoker 1st Class Henry Thomas RN discharged dead. He is buried in Grimsby (Scartho Road) Cemetery in grave 41 D 25

Thomas H

Courtesy and © of The War Graves Photographic Project

November 1915 decoy Ship service ended

December 1915 returned to owners, name unchanged

1917 purchased by Henry M Grayson, Liverpool and renamed LA NINA

1917 owners became Ocean Salvage Co Ltd, London, name unchanged

1930 purchased by Philip C.C. Vail, Istanbul and renamed HORA

1930 owners became Turk Gemi Turtarma Anon Sirketi, Istanbul name unchanged

25 March 1932 asssited in the salving of the French passenger steamer PROVIDENCE which had run aground in a snow storm off CapeNiger near Imroz in the Aegean.

1935 owners became T.C. Munakalat Vekaleti Devlet Denizyollari Isletme Umum  Mudurlugu, Istanbul, name unchanged

1938 owners became Deniz Vank Turk Gemi Kurtarma, Istanbul, name unchanged

1944 owners became Devlet Denizyollari ve Limanlari Turk gemi Kurtarma, Istanbul, name unchanged

1950 laid up at Istanbul.

1958 owners became DB Istanbul Limanlari Isletmesi, Istanbul and was hulked and became a floating office.

1974  reported broken up at Istanbul