There have been three warships that have borne the name Argyll, each serving her nation as fiercely as her crew. Her motto is Ne Obliviscaris (Lest We Forget), indeed the British people and all that were, and continue to be served by the British armed forces, shall not forget the sacrifices they have made.
The ship was originally named Bonaventure and was launched at Chatham in 1711. She was a Fourth-rate frigate, with an armament of 50-guns. In 1715, prior to the Jacobite Rebellion, her name was changed to Argyll. Argyll was rebuilt in 1722-23 and would see much service in home and Atlantic waters. As usual, diplomatic incidents were flaring up with the Spanish, but war would not yet come till 1739, when Argyll was employed in blockade duties. In 1741 she captured five Spanish coasters, and also, with the assistance of two other warships, cut free five captured British warships, that were docked in north-western Spain. In 1745 she returned to Britain by way of escorting a convoy, and was paid off in 1746. Once peace had been declared between Britain and Spain in 1749 HMS Argyll was towed to Harwich and scuttled as part of a breakwater.
The second HMS Argyll was launched in 1904 after an absence of an Argyll presence of over 160 years. She was a Devonshire-class armoured cruiser, with an armament of 4 x 7.5-inch guns and 6 x 6-inch guns and a displacement of 10,850 tons, and a complement of 655 crew, and with a length of 473 feet was only slightly larger than the Type 23 frigate and Type 42 destroyer, though not as large as the Type 22 frigate. In 1906 she was allocated to the 1st Cruiser squadron, which was part of the Channel Fleet, and in 1909 joined the UK Atlantic Fleet as part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron. In 1911 she was detached from the squadron to escort the Royal Yacht SS Medina. The following year she joined the 3rd Cruiser Squadron but was damaged at Plymouth Sound, where she was ran aground. At the outbreak of WWI in 1914 she made her mark quite quickly, when she captured a German merchant ship on the 6th of August. From late 1914 to late 1915 she was employed in many night-time patrols, and during the course of one, ran aground once again, this time on the Bell Rock near Dundee, the damage was unrepairable. She suffered no fatalities, and her 6-inch guns were salvaged for further use.
There were six warships in total of the Devonshire Class, with HMS Argyll and HMS Hampshire being the only ones lost during WWI, the latter being mined. The rest of the class were - Antrim, Carnavon and Roxburgh.HMS Argyll (1711-1749)
HMS Argyll (1904-1915)
Type 23 Statistics
- Displacement: 4,900 tonnes
- Length: 133 metres/436 feet
- Beam: 16.1 metres/52.9 feet
- Complement: 185 metres
- Armament
- 2 x Quad Harpoon missile launchers
- Vertical Launch Sea Wolf anti-missile system
- 4.5in (114mm) MK 8 gun
- 2 x 30mm Close range guns
- 2 x Magazine launched anti submarine torpedo tubes
- NATO Seagnat and DLF3 Decoy Launchers
