HMS Hope or HMS Moon

A number of Royal Navy service records for ratings administered by the Depot ship identified in the table below show two (sometimes three) destroyer names across the dates of the Battle of Jutland. Further research is to be conducted relating to the history and programmes of the relevant destroyers in order to seek to understand whether each man was serving in a Jutland ship. Ships shown with links were at Jutland. Ratings impacted by these ships have been given a status of B (blue) on the Battle of Jutland Crew Lists project.

Original research conducted by Gerry Costello In general what seems to have happened is that the older Acorn-class destroyers were progressively replaced by the new M-class destroyers as they emerged from build. The Acorns had formed the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla (DF), while the new Ms became the 11th DF but both flotillas used HMS Blake as depot ship. Once the Acorns had reached Devonport, they stayed there for a variable time before deploying to the Mediterranean, typically joining the 5th DF based on HMS Blenheim, although some are indicated as joining ‘the Adriatic squadron’. Records indicate that the 2nd and 11th flotillas were with the Grand Fleet, so presumably HMS Blake was based at Scapa Flow. In each case, sailors’ records show continuity of the depot ship, so it is deduced from this that men changed from old to new destroyers at Scapa, and spent little or no time at Devonport.

HMS Hope was an Acorn-class destroyer. HMS Moon was an M-class destroyer completed in June 1915 and becoming one of the founder members of the 11th Destroyer Flotilla in September 1915. In the same month, HMS Hope is listed as still belonging to 2nd Destroyer Flotilla (which shared the depot ship HMS Blake with 11th DF) but now a tender to HMS Vivid (Devonport). By October, she was no longer listed under 2nd DF. It seems likely therefore that crew transfer from Hope to Moon took place during September 1915.