H.M.S. GLATTON’S SACRIFICE

Hokitika Guardian, 31 May 1930, Page 3

H.M.S. GLATTON’S SACRIFICE

GRIM AVAR TRAGEDY RECALLED

LONDON, March 20

A poignant tragedy of the war is recalled by the report that the remains of one officer and lifty-seven men who mst their’lives in an explosion in .1.A1.5. Glatton in Dover Harbour in 918 have arrived-at'Chatham Naval Hospital, and are being prepared for burial with full naval honours at'Gillingham Cemetery on April 3. The Glat lan, a monitor, was sacrificed to avert widespread disaster.- 'She had caught fire, and to prevent her magazine exploding the . vessel was torpedoed.

A portion'of the ship remained out of water, and for years was a familiar object in tin* harbour. The vessel was then raised in order to be broken up and it was during these operation that the skeleton remains were found and banded over to the naval authorities.

It was on September IG, 1918, when 'be World War was within eight weeks •if its cessation, that the Glatton be -■ame a total casualty under remarkable circumstances. She lay in Dover ' T nr’our, the nerve centre of the Chan ■ml defences,..when fire broke out on board.

Y There was no chance of saving her 'Hie risk that she would blow up, and ’u so doing, create widespread havoc, was immense. She was deliberately torpedoed, therefore, and over 100 men were sacriced in the cause of human itv. *

Some six years later it was decided that the Glatton should, if possible ’ e raised ,nnd the task was carried though at at a cost of between £IO.OOO ? nd £12,000. The work, began in 1825. was planned by the Dover Harbour Master, Captain John Iron, and after preliminary operations, which occupied nearly a year, the monitor was not only brought to the surface in 1926, bur was carried 1400 ft inshore. The Glutton’s two S-inch and four 6-in guns, and all here equipment were raised with her, intact and with one exception—an Italian battleship—she was the heaviest vessel ever lifted. The Glatton Was a vessel of 570 b tons, and at the time of her sinking hi' had a complement of 303 officer and men, most of whom were saved. A sister vessel, Gorgon, is still on the Navv List.