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HMS Caledon (D53)
HMS Caledon
Career Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom
Class and type: C-class light cruiser
Name: HMS Caledon
Builder: Cammell Laird
Laid down: 17 March 1916
Launched: 25 November 1916
Commissioned: 6 March 1917
Decommissioned: April 1945
Reclassified: Converted to Anti-Aircraft cruiser at Chatham Dockyard between 14 September 1942 and 7 December 1943
Fate: Sold to be broken up for scrap on 22 January 1948
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 4,190 tons
Length: 450 ft (140 m)
Beam: 43.6 ft (13.3 m)
Draught: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion: Two Brown-Curtis geared turbines
Six Yarrow boilers
Two screws
40,000 shp
Speed: 29 knots
Range: carried 300 tons (950 tons maximum) of fuel oil
Complement: 327
Armament:

5 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) Mk XII guns
2 × QF 3 inch 20 cwt AA guns
2 × QF 2 pounder guns

8 × 21 inch torpedo tubes
Armour: 3 inch side (amidships)
2¼-1½ inch side (bows)
2 inch side (stern)
1 inch upper decks (amidships)
1 inch deck over rudder

HMS Caledon was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was the nameship of the Caledon group of the C-class of cruisers.

She was built by Cammell Laird and laid down on 17 March 1916, launched on 25 November 1916 and commissioned into the Navy on 6 March 1917. She was commissioned in time to see action in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. During the battle Ordinary Seaman John Henry Carless, although mortally wounded in the abdomen, still went on serving his gun and helping to clear away the casualties. He collapsed once, but got up again and cheered on the new gun's crew. He then fell and died. He not only set a very inspiring example, but while mortally wounded continued to do effective work against the enemy. He was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross. HMS Caledon survived the First World War and went on to see action in the Second World War.

Caledon spent the early part of the war with the Home Fleet, where she escorted convoys and was involved in the pursuit of the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau after the sinking of HMS Rawalpindi. She was reassigned to the Eastern Fleet between August 1940 and September 1942. She then rejoined the Home Fleet. Upon her arrival in the UK, she underwent conversion into an Anti-Aircraft cruiser at Chatham Dockyard between 14 September 1942 and 7 December 1943.

Obsolete by the end of the war, she was disarmed in April 1945, and subsequently sold to be broken up for scrap on 22 January 1948. Caledon arrived at the yards of Dover Industries, Dover on 14 February 1948 to be scrapped.

References[]


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