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The Visit of HMS Hood and the Special Services Squadron to Vancouver BC.

by John MacFarlane 2019

HMS Hood

HMS Hood (Photo by Cyril Tweedale.)

Cyril Tweedale, took photographs and saved them in family albums which were recently sent to me in digital form. They each tell short stories of the British Columbia coast. The series of naval images are shared here and remind us of the sad ending of the two biggest vessels in the Squadron.

The Special Services Squadron was a group of Royal Navy vessels that included HMS Hood, HMS Repulse, HMS Danae, HMS Dauntless, HMS Delhi, HMS Dragon and HMS Dunedin. In 1923–1924, HMS Hood and the Special Service Squadron sailed around the world on "The Empire Cruise", making ports of call in the countries which had fought with the Allies during the First World War. During the tour HMAS Adelaide joined the group sailing on to Vancouver BC.

HMS Hood was named for a famous Royal Navy family that produced several generations of Admirals and Captains. The tompions in the muzzles of the guns carry the crest of the Hood Family – a crow carrying an anchor in one of its feet. The tompions kept seawater and debris out of the barrels when they were not in use for firing. HMS Hood was sunk during the Second World War in a famous surface action with the German battleship Bismark when was she was struck by several German shells, exploded, and sank within 3 minutes, with the loss of all but three of her crew.

HMS Hood

HMS Repulse at anchor in Vancouver Harbour. (Photo by Cyril Tweedale.)

The battlecruiser HMS Repulse lost an anchor which is said to still be located on the bottom of Vancouver harbour. She was later was sunk in company with HMS Prince of Wales in a naval engagement during the Second World War in the Pacific, off the east coast of present-day Malaysia. They were sunk by land–based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 10 December 1941.

Admiral's Pinnace

The Flag Officer’s steam pinnace from HMS Hood (Photo by Cyril Tweedale.)

Capital ships carried a steam pinnace which was lifted in and out of the water with a crane. It was for the use of the Admiral and his guests to travel to shore or to other ships.

HMAS Adelaide

HMAS Adelaide (Photo by Cyril Tweedale.)

HMAS Adelaide joined the squadron in Australia.

RN Destroyer

RCN Destroyer HMCS Patrician. (Photo by Cyril Tweedale.)

Several destroyers – HMS Danae, HMS Dauntless, HMS Delhi, HMS Dragon and HMS Dunedin escorted the capital ships. However Christopher Cole identified this image as HMCS Patrician which had led the squadron into Vancouver Harbour.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2019) The Visit of HMS Hood and the Special Services Squadron to Vancouver BC. Nauticapedia.ca 2019. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Hood_HMS.php

Nauticapedia

Site News: December 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

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