One of the Great War’s last three warships to be scrapped
HMS Saxifrage, one of only three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War, is to be broken up this month.
The vessel – known for most of the past century as HMS President – has lain at Chatham Docks on the Medway since 2016. On 9 July the site operator, ArcelorMittal Kent Wire, confirmed she must leave, and that an independent survey had found her in very poor condition. She is to be towed to a facility at Erith and dismantled by the end of July, with the consent of her absentee owner.
The decision ends a long effort by the Q-Ship Society, whose chairman, Daniel Broom, had sought a permanent Medway berth and a future for the ship as a museum. National Historic Ships UK, which lists her among the National Historic Fleet, has said it will record her fittings before any disposal.
Saxifrage was launched on 29 January 1918 at the yard of Lobnitz & Co. at Renfrew, and commissioned that March. She was an Anchusa-class sloop, one of a group built with the lines of a merchant ship so that they could work as decoys – the so-called ‘Q-ships’. Armed with concealed 4-inch and 12-pounder guns, the plan was to invite a U-boat to surface and attack, then open fire. By 1918 the tactic was largely spent, and Saxifrage passed her war escorting convoys in home waters. She came into contact with nine U-boats but sank none.
Her significance lies elsewhere. She is the sole survivor of the first class of purpose-built anti-submarine escorts – the ancestor of the convoy sloops of the Second World War and, in turn, of the modern frigate.
Her service did not end in 1918. Renamed HMS President in 1922, she was moored at Blackfriars as a Royal Naval Reserve drill ship for more than 60 years, and in the Second World War was fitted with anti-aircraft guns to help defend London. She moved to Chatham in 2016 to make way for the Thames Tideway Tunnel, and carried the suffix ‘(1918)’ to distinguish her from the reserve establishment of the same name.
Her loss leaves two Great War warships afloat: the cruiser HMS Caroline at Belfast and the monitor HMS M33 at Portsmouth.
