HMS Vindex (1915)

Side view of HMS Vindex, showing the prominent seaplane hangar aft
History
United Kingdom
NameVindex
NamesakeLatin vindex ("defender, vindicator, protector")[1][2]
BuilderArmstrong Whitworth, Elswick
Laid down1904
Launched7 March 1905
Completed26 June 1905
Acquired26 March 1915 (chartered)
Commissioned11 October 1915
FateScrapped, 1954
General characteristics
TypeAircraft/Seaplane carrier
Displacement2,950 long tons (3,000 t)
Length361 ft 6 in (110.2 m)
Beam42 ft (12.8 m)
Draught13 ft 8 in (4.2 m)
Installed power
Propulsion3 × shafts; 3 × steam turbines
Speed23 kn (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range995 nmi (1,843 km; 1,145 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement218
Armament
Aircraft carried7
Aviation facilities1 × Flying-off deck forward

HMS Vindex was a Royal Navy seaplane carrier during the First World War, converted from the fast passenger ship SS Viking. The ship spent the bulk of her career operating the North Sea, where she twice unsuccessfully attacked the German Zeppelin base at Tondern and conducted anti-Zeppelin patrols. One of her Bristol Scout aircraft made the first take-off from an aircraft carrier in late 1915. Another made the first interception of an airship by a carrier-based aircraft on 2 August 1916, when it unsuccessfully attacked the Zeppelin LZ 53 (L 17).[3] Vindex was transferred to the Mediterranean in 1918 and was sold back to her original owners in 1920. She was requisitioned again in 1939 and served through the Second World War as a troopship under a different name. After the end of the war, the ship was returned to her owners and was sold for scrapping in 1954.

  1. ^ "A History of H.M.S. VINDEX". www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk.
  2. ^ A phraseological Latin-English dictionary
  3. ^ Warship International 2013, p. 340.