A painting depicting Prize shelling U-93
| |
History | |
---|---|
Imperial Germany | |
Name | Else |
Builder | E.V. Smit & Zoon |
Launched | 1901 |
Fate | Captured by Royal Navy, 4 August 1914 |
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Prize |
Namesake | Prize |
Commissioned | 25 April 1917 |
Refit | February–March 1917 (conversion to Q ship) |
Fate | Sunk, 13 August 1917 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Q ship |
Displacement | 277 long tons (281 t) |
Length | 122 ft 6 in (37.3 m) |
Beam | 24 ft 0 in (7.3 m) |
Draught | 10 ft 5 in (3.2 m) |
Propulsion |
|
Complement | 27 |
Armament |
|
HMS Prize was a schooner converted to a Q ship during the First World War and commanded by Lieutenant William Sanders of the Royal Naval Reserve.
Originally a German vessel called Else, she was captured by the Royal Navy in the first days of the First World War. In April 1917 she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as a Q ship with the name HMS First Prize, later to be shortened to HMS Prize. During her first patrol, Prize was involved in an engagement with a U-boat, U-93 for which Sanders received the Victoria Cross while the rest of the crew were also awarded various medals. Prize was destroyed by a torpedo on 13 August 1917, with all crew lost.