HMS Grampus

See also USS Grampus and CSS Grampus.

An early HMS Grampus, 50, was commissioned at Portsmouth by Captain T. Gordon Caulfield in March 1803 and was ordered to the Downs on May 7. As soon as her complement of men was completed and her bounty paid she sailed to join Admiral Thornborough's squadron off Goree[?]. She returned to Portsmouth from Guernsey on June 20 to fit out for the East Indies and sailed with a convoy under her protection on June 29. She carried UK£100,000 being shipped by the British East India Company to Bengal. She spent 1805 in the East Indies.

In March 1806 Captain James Haldane Tait took command of Grampus, leaving Sir Francis Drake[?] while she was employed in India. Later she was stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, and returned home in the summer of 1809, escorting a large convoy of East India Company ships which Captain Tait had taken under his protection at St. Helena. He was presented by the Court of directors with a sum of money for the purchase of a piece of plate. Grampus was paid off because of her poor condition.

On April 28, 1811, under the command of Captain William Hanwell, Grampus joined an East India convoy to see them through to the coast of Africa. On September 30, back at Portsmouth, a court martial was convened on board Raisonable[?] in Sheerness[?] harbour to try Lieutenant John Cheshire of Grampus. Captain Hanwell accused him of insolence, contempt, and disrespect on April 11 and similar conduct, coupled with neglect of duty, on April 15. The court found the charges unfounded and acquitted Lieutenant Cheshire.

In November 1811 Captain Cockburn hoisted a broad pendant on board Grampus, preparatory to proceeding as one of three commissioners (the others were Messrs. Sydenham and Morier) nominated by the Prince Regent to mediate between Spain and her colonies. They received final instructions on April 2, 1812, and arrived in Cadiz on April 21 to find the Spanish government and the majority of the Cortes resolved to retain absolute control over their South American possessions instead of taking a liberal view as proposed by the British government. He returned from his unsuccessful mission on August 4.

In 1816 Grampus was taken out of commission at Woolwich, where she was converted to a troopship and then used as a hospital ship at Deptford from 1820 until being lent to the Society for Destitute Seamen[?] at Deptford in 1824. She served as a hospital ship until 1831.

Another HMS Grampus was a Beagle-class destroyer[?] originally named Nautilus[?] when she was commissioned on March 30, 1910. She was renamed to Grampus on December 16, 1912.

During World War I, Grampus participated in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns against Turkey.

On April 17, 1915, in an attempt to break through the Dardanelles, British submarine E-15 ran aground under Kephaz Point[?]. She was fired on and disabled, and her captain, Lieutenant Commander T.S. Brodie, and her crew were killed. To prevent her capture, the Royal Navy tried over the next two days to destroy the submarine. Grampus was involved in one of the many failed attempts; she was simply unable to locate the submarine. For an account of the other attempts, see the article on the submarine.

On August 6, Grampus landed 11th Battalion, Manchester Regiment of 11th Division inside Suvla Bay[?], but on the wrong part of the beach. The troops were ill-supplied and ran critically short of drinking water in the actions that followed; on August 8, Grampus cut one of its own water tanks loose and floated it ashore, which allowed the men who recovered it about a pint each.

Grampus was sold for scrapping in September 1920.

Another HMS Grampus was a submarine of the Royal Navy built at Chatham Dockyard[?] and launched February 25, 1936. She served off China before moving to the Mediterranean Sea.

On June 16, 1940, under the command of Lieutenant commander C.A. Rowe, Grampus was laying mines in the Syracuse and Augusta, Sicily[?] area. She was seen by the Italian torpedo boat Circe[?], which was on anti-submarine patrol with Clio[?], Calliope[?], and Polluce[?]. Within a very short time Grampus was destroyed. Wreckage came to the surface along with air bubbles and oil. Polluce was credited with the kill. There were no survivors. Some sources give the date of this action as June 24, 1940.

General Characteristics

• Displacement: 1520 tons
• Compliment: 59
• Speed: 15.75 knots surfaced, 8.75 knots submerged
• Armament: six 21-inch torpedo tubes, 12 torpedoes, one four-inch quick-firing MkXII gun
• 50 mines

Another HMS Grampus (S-04) was a Porpoise-class submarine[?]. Her keel was laid down in 1955 by Cammell Laird[?] at Birkenhead. She was commissioned in 1958.

On April 1, 1963, Grampus returned to Gosport[?] after spending three weeks under the polar icecap looking for holes in the ice. During the patrol it superficially damaged its hull on the ice.

On January 11, 1968, the French trawler[?] Fomalhaut caught Grampus in its nets in the English Channel. Grampus surfaced and both crews spent over three hours disentangling the nets.

Grampus operating with USS Tigrone (SS-419)[?] in a joint American-British oceanographic operation in the eastern Atlantic in 1972.

General Characteristics

• Displacement: 2080 tons surfaced, 2450 tons dived
• Length: 88.4 meters (290 feet)
• Beam: 8.1 meters (26.5 feet)
• Draught: 5.5 meters (18 feet)
• Complement: 64 officers and men
• Armament: six 21-inch bow torpedo tubes, two 21-inch stern torpedo tubes; 30 torpedos could be carried (usually Mk8 or Mk23) or mines
• Powerplant: Two ASR 16VVS AS21 diesel generators totalling 3680bhp, two English Electric main motors totalling 12000hp driving two shafts, two 880v batteries each of 224 cells
• Speed: 12 knots surfaced, 17 knots dived