HMS Mars

HMS Mars

IWM Q39518 HMS Mars 1901
History
Builder	Laird, Birkenhead
Launched	30 Mar 1896
Completed	June 1897
In service	8 June 1897
Out of service	9 May 1921
Fate	sold for scrapping
General characteristics
Type	pre-dreadnought battleship
Tonnage	14,900 tons
Length	120m
Beam	23m
Depth	8.2m
Speed	13 knots (18.5 km/h)
Capacity	crew 675

Remarks

HMS Mars was a Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleship of the Majestic class, the seventh member of a class of nine ships. The ship was laid down in the Laird Brothers shipyard in June 1894, she was launched in March 1896, and she was commissioned into the fleet in June 1897. She was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and a secondary battery of twelve 6-inch (152 mm) guns. On 16 August 1904, Mars began a refit at Portsmouth which was completed in March 1905. Mars was serving as a guard ship at the Humber when World War I began in August 1914.

Mars was transferred to the Dover Patrol on 9 December 1914, and was based at Dover briefly before moving to Portland on 11 December 1914. She was based at Portland until February 1915. In September 1915, Mars recommissioned to serve as a troopship in the Dardanelles campaign. Mars and her similarly disarmed sister ships Hannibal and Magnificent, also acting as troopships, arrived at Mudros on 5 October 1915. At the Dardanelles, Mars took part in the evacuation of Allied troops from Anzac Cove. Mars returned to Devonport in February 1916, then paid off at Chatham, where she underwent a refit for conversion to a harbor depot ship.

She recommissioned as a harbor depot ship on 1 September 1916, and served in this capacity at Invergordon until July 1920. She was sold for scrapping on 9 May 1921 and left Invergordon for scrapping at Briton Ferry in November 1921

Soldiers carried

Anzac Cove to Mudros harbour 20 - 21 December 1915

• 16th Battalion
• † Ernest Edward Lockhart