HMS Titania (pennant number F32) was a Royal Navy submarine depot ship.
[1] Titania was built in Port Glasgow, Scotland,[1] by the Clyde Shipbuilding Co.[2] (Port Glasgow, Scotland) originally as a merchant ship ordered by Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Company "Adria" as Károly Ferencz József.
[3][4] She was launched in March 1915 and commissioned by the Royal Navy as a submarine depot ship in November 1915.
[6] In December 1915, the Eleventh Flotilla became the first directly supporting the submarines of the Grand Fleet.
These three submarines were built by Vickers, Barrow, commissioned on 1 February 1910 and sailed with HMS Rosario[16][unreliable source?]
On 18 February 1920 she and the remaining part of the 4th Submarine Flotilla,[15] consisting of seven L-class submarines (L2, L5, L6, L8, L19, L20 and L33), under the command of Captain Frederick A. Sommerville,[12] set sail for Hong Kong via Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, Aden, Colombo, Penang and Singapore.
The ship's log[19] records that HMS Titania weighed anchor and secured to Storm Signal Buoy at 10.17 a.m. on 14 April 1920.
Gap Rock Light referred to in the Log is in the Wanshan Archipelago, to the south of Hong Kong Island.
The reference to Waglan Light shows that she entered Hong Kong Harbour from the east through Tathong Channel and passed by the fishing village of Lye Mun (Lei Yue Mun) in Kowloon before docking.
It is likely to have been in the Admiralty area of Hong Kong Island, at the shore station HMS Tamar .
The Ship's Log for the period 1919 to 1924[19] shows that Titania was based at Hong Kong on many occasions.
A report in the Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser on 27 July 1929[21] notes that HMS Medway is undergoing trials.
Medway, which has been built by Vickers Armstrongs, Limited, at their Barrow works to fulfil an urgent need for a larger and better-equipped submarine depot and repair ship.
The Medway will take the place of the Maidstone, built in 1912 and employed throughout the late War as parent ship of the flotilla working from Harwich.
Her resources and accommodation are such as to make her probably the most spacious and efficient vessel of her kind in any navy, and it is no exaggeration to call her a floating submarine base.A report in the Straits Times on 3 October 1929[22] mentions HMS Titania and HMS Marazion (1919).
It appears that Marazion was serving with the 4th Flotilla, filling the void left by the departure of HMS Ambrose.
Note: submarines L23 and L27, mentioned in the article, were not present when Ambrose and Titania sailed to Hong Kong in 1920.
Ships on the China station, which have been spending the summer at Weihaiwei and other Northern ports, are returning to Hong Kong, their winter headquarters.
1 buoy, Naval anchorage.A newspaper report in the Straits Times on 11 February 1930 notes the arrival of Titania back in England.
B. Lockhart, D.S.C., which on her arrival home from China with submarines of the Fourth Flotilla, was ordered to relieve H.M.S.
On 16 July 1935 she was the Flagship of the Flag Officer Commanding Submarines at the Silver Jubilee Review at Spithead.
In 1940 HMS Titania was refitted on the Tyne and transferred to Holy Loch for the remainder of the war.
In 1945 she was transferred to Portsmouth Naval Base to serve as a depot hulk for the 5th Flotilla.