Devonport Naval Heritage Centre. DNHC.

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Jutland 110th Anniversary.Devonport Losses.With the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland this weekend, on 31st May...
29/05/2026

Jutland 110th Anniversary.
Devonport Losses.

With the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland this weekend, on 31st May,
I thought it would be good to highlight the 4 Devonport Division ships lost in that great battle.

This post will cover the 2 lesser known ships, who, although both were lost, the majority of their crews survived. These ships were the cruiser Warrior and the destroyer Nomad:

HMS Warrior:
Armoured cruiser, commissioned in 1906.
Warrior was part of the first cruiser squadron which had detached to engage a German cruiser. Unfortunately, this action took her within 8,000 yds of 5 German capital ships. She was hit by at least 15 x 11” shells, causing fires and flooding.
She was saved when the German ships shifted their target to the battleship Warspite, which was going around in circles, owing to a steering gear breakdown.
After limping clear of the action, Warrior was taken in tow but eventually had to be abandoned in a rising sea on 1st June 1916.
100 out of her crew of 712 were casualties of the action.

HMS Nomad:
M Class destroyer,
as part of the 13th Flotilla, she carried out a torpedo attack against German battlecruisers.
German destroyers counter attacked and Nomad was disabled by a hit in the engine room.
Later in the day, she was engaged by the secondary armament of German Battleships, and the crew was forced to abandon her.
8 of her crew were killed, while 72 survivors were picked up by German vessels and became Prisoners of War.

The Jutland display at the DNHC has now been refurbished for the 110th anniversary of the Battle,
including Volunteer Ray O'Donnell's new painting, showing "Warspite at Windy Corner".
Do come and see it,

The Next Post will cover the devastating losses of the Battlecruiser Indefatigable and the Cruiser Defence.

Pictures:
1. HMS Warrior
2. Painting by volunteer Ray O'Donnell showing Warspite attracting the fire of the German Fleet while the badly damaged Warrior limped away.
3. M Class destroyer HMS Marmion, sister ship of Nomad.



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110 YEARS AGO. With the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May 1916, just 2 weeks away. We will soon be t...
18/05/2026

110 YEARS AGO.

With the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May 1916, just 2 weeks away. We will soon be telling the stories of the 4 Devonport Division ships lost as a result of that battle.

Before then, I want to highlight a lesser known ship lost almost exactly 110 years ago, on the 13th May 1916, during a little known operation against the Ottoman Turks in the Gulf of Smyrna (now Izmir), on the Aegean Sea.

The ship was the M29 Class monitor, M30, displacing 540 tons with a crew of 52 and armed with 2x 6” guns.

While on blockade duty, she was struck by a shell from a shore battery, which passed through a fuel tank into the engine room, resulting in a serious fire.
The ship was beached on Long (Uzanada) island, where she burnt out.
There is no record of any casualties but the guns were later salvaged.

M30 is remembered on the 1914-18 Devonport Division Memorial Board now located in the Senior Rates Mess, HMS Drake.
M30 has a surviving sister, M33 (later named Minerva), now restored and open to the public at Portsmouth’s historic dockyard.

We have refreshed the Jutland Story at the DNHC for “Jutland 110”.
Do pay us a visit on one of our Open Days and see for yourself.

Photos.
1 HMS Drake memorial board.
2 M30.
3 M33 at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

18/05/2026

Another milestone for our new page.
🙂
We now have 300 followers.
Many thanks for your support 👍

However our old page had a lot more followers, so lots of people are missing out.
This year we've been working very hard to research and post some interesting stories.

Please share our new page with anyone who you think might be interested.

We hope to see you at an Open Day or Outreach event soon.
Open Days are every Wednesday and the second Saturday of every month.

Heritage Centre Success Story.The outcome of a recent visit by the "Divers" from volunteer Adrian Sutton.Steve Roue (I t...
13/05/2026

Heritage Centre Success Story.

The outcome of a recent visit by the "Divers" from volunteer Adrian Sutton.

Steve Roue (I think it was), showed me a photo of a jug he had acquired from the mud shelf outside Mashford’s -
a very handsome piece of porcelain, with the base of the handle in the shape of a dolphin’s head, and a monogram “WR”… which Steve assumed stood for ‘Ward Room’.

I thought that unlikely as all the Officers Mess china that I have seen simply has a royal cipher, not ‘OM’ or anything like that.

As we were looking at our impressive display of artefacts from the Royal Yachts; there in the cabinet were items with exactly the same “WR” monogram.

Steve was most pleased, and was probably going home to give the jug an extra (very careful) polish !

3 photos of Heritage Centre "WR" crockery.

For those who yearn to be back at sea and feel the deck moving under their feet;here are some photos I took from the bri...
04/05/2026

For those who yearn to be back at sea and feel the deck moving under their feet;
here are some photos I took from the bridge of HMS Fearless in January of 1982.

She was the Dartmouth Training Ship, and was heading across the Atlantic for the West Indies, with RM mess decks crammed with Officers Under Training (OUTs as they were then known) and artificer apprentices.

In mid Atlantic, Fearless encountered an un-forecast hurricane, which from memory, lasted about 3 days, and meant very little sleep, and once sea legs were gained, living on "potmess" from a plastic mug, if you could face it, while sitting on the deck in the JR dining Hall, with one arm hanging on to a lashed table leg.

I remember one Mid suffered so badly from seasickness, he really did go a shade of green,
and when finally we arrived on the other side of the Pond, decided this life was not for him and promptly went off to buy a plane ticket home.

Strange to think that in a few months, Fearless would be in the thick of the Falklands War.

Don't forget our May Saturday open day, will be next Saturday, 9th May, please pass it on.

02/05/2026

Next Saturday 9th May, it will be our 2nd Open Saturday of the year, 10am-3pm.
We very much look forward to seeing you.

Of course we are open every Wednesday until October, same times.
No need to book, open to all members of the public.

On the Saturday 9th May we will also have a stand at Plymouth's Local Studies Day at the Sherwell Centre.
9.30am - 4.45pm.

During the day there will be 6 history talks on various subjects under this year's theme of;
Spies, Lies and Secret Lives.

We will have a new Navy/Dockyard related display board on the same theme.
Hope to see you there, or at the DNHC.

Rinaldo not Ronaldo.In the “Age of Sail” gallery of the DNHC, there has resided for many years the figurehead of a “Scre...
26/04/2026

Rinaldo not Ronaldo.

In the “Age of Sail” gallery of the DNHC, there has resided for many years the figurehead of a “Screw Sloop” called HMS Rinaldo.

It is a fine figurehead, but apart from a painted board giving the ship’s name and years in commission,
we knew very little about her,
apart from the fact she had nothing to do with the footballer with a similar name.

While one of our volunteers, an ex Wren, pointed out that the very same figurehead used to be on display at HMS Dauntless, the WRNS training establishment near Reading, which closed in 1981.

Then, a month or so ago we received an email from a Malaysian historian, Junean Tham, who was writing a book telling the story of HMS Rinaldo and particularly her role in “The Senlagor Incident” of 1871.

Junean’s research had led him to discover that the DNHC held the figurehead of the subject of his book,
and he would be grateful for a photograph.
This was duly sent,
and a few weeks later Junean dispatched to us a copy of his completed book:
“HMS Rinaldo & the Selangor Incident: Gunboat Diplomacy in Malaysia”.

This is a part of the Royal Navy’s history that we knew very little about and so Junean’s book has opened up a whole new episode.

The book not only tells the story behind this interesting example of “gun boat diplomacy” concerning the then independent Malay States,
but also tells Rinaldo’s full story,
as well as giving much detail of day to day Royal Navy operations in the area during the 1870s.

I found the book most enlightening and highly commend it to anyone with an interest in the subject.

Details are at this
website:
https://arecabooks.com/product/hms-rinaldo-selangor-incident/

Here is a summary of what I learned from the book:
A 950 ton,
150ft long Screw Sloop, of the Camelion class,
Rinaldo was built at Portsmouth Dockyard (not Woolwich as stated on the board) and completed in 1861.
She was named after the famous (at the time) fictional Italian bandit Rinaldo Rinaldini.
She was originally armed with 12x 32 pounder muzzle loaders
and 5x 40 pounder breach loading Armstrong guns,
but was rearmed after a refit in 1866, to mount 1x 7” pivot gun
and 6x 64 pounder rifled muzzle loaders.

She had a maximum speed of 11knots under steam
and a crew of 180.

From 1861-65 she was on the North America and West Indies station, mainly monitoring the American Civil War.

After a major refit (1865-66), she moved to the China station.
In 1871 she moved to the Straits Settlements/Singapore.

While there, she was sent, in company with HMS Pluto, to the Malay State of Selangor, which was in a state of civil war, after pirates had seized a junk with a valuable cargo.

Pluto found and seized the junk, but her crew were fired upon when they tried to retrieve the cargo.
As retribution, Rinaldo, was sent to bombard the forts at Kuala Selangor, which were neutralised.

This act of “Gunboat Diplomacy” became known as “The Selangor Incident”.

Rinaldo returned to Portsmouth in 1874 and was sold and broken up in 1884.

A couple of you asked about the Wren Officer poster produced by Alex Storr, mentioned in the Monty's Footsteps Post belo...
22/04/2026

A couple of you asked about the Wren Officer poster produced by Alex Storr, mentioned in the Monty's Footsteps Post below.

So here it is attached as a photo.
It's about Nina Wilkin.

"IN MONTY'S FOOTSTEPS"On Tuesday 14th April, we were honoured to be visited by Henry Montgomery, the grandson of Field M...
17/04/2026

"IN MONTY'S FOOTSTEPS"

On Tuesday 14th April, we were honoured to be visited by Henry Montgomery, the grandson of Field Marshal Montgomery or "Monty".

Henry is on a very special mission to follow his grandfather's travels in the South West during the build up to D Day.

His aim is to uncover and share the human stories behind that moment in history, while supporting the educational work of the British Normandy Memorial.

‘In Monty’s Footsteps’ will reflect on the national and individual collective effort, sacrifices and personal stories, that shaped and ultimately ensured the remarkable success of D-Day and the Normandy Campaign.

He also hopes to raise funds to uncover the individual stories of the 22,000 British troops whose names are recorded on the British Normandy Memorial.

The Memorial has developed a new immersive experience called ‘Operation Remembrance’ to engage young people and bring to life why the story of Normandy matters today.

While with us, Henry saw photos of his grandfather visiting Devonport 82 years ago, he also spoke with Alex Storr, a Plymouth University anthropology student who is using DNHC resources and documents in her research.
Henry was particularly impressed with a poster Alex produced using personal documents to tell the wartime story of a Wren Officer who was closely involved with the staff planning D-Day.

If you want to know more, see the link: In Monty’s Footsteps – British Normandy Memorial

https://www.britishnormandymemorial.org/monty/

The first photo is Henry and Alex.
The second photo is "Monty" visiting Devonport.

What's Missing in this Picture??Enjoy this photo of legendary tour guide and marine artist, Ray O'Donnell, enjoying the ...
14/04/2026

What's Missing in this Picture??

Enjoy this photo of legendary tour guide and marine artist, Ray O'Donnell,
enjoying the sunshine, outside the Santillo Model Ships Gallery, part of the old fire station.

If this photo had been taken a week earlier, Ray would have been standing on top of a diesel generator, which has been powering the DNHC for quite a while now.

Well last week, thanks to much planning and work by MoD estates project teams, we were connected back to the mains,
while "Mr Speedy" came to remove the generator.

Result - more space in front of the Old Fire Station, less noise and pollution and the opportunity to enjoy the architecture of this 1851 listed building in its entirety.

Don't forget, we are open to all, every Wednesday and the second Saturday of the month until the end of October.
10am-3pm .

Hope to see you soon.

Address

Devonport Naval Heritage Centre, Vivid Approach, Devonport
Plymouth

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