HMS Cumberland (57)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 18 October 1924 |
| Launched: | 16 March 1926 |
| Commissioned: | 23 February 1928 |
| Decommissioned: | 1946 |
| Recommissioned: | 1951 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap 1959 |
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| Draught: | 16.4 ft (5.0 m) |
| Propulsion: | Parsons geared or Brown Curtis steam turbines, 4 shafts, 8 boilers, 80,000 shp (60 MN) |
| Speed: | |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | |
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HMS Cumberland, the fifteenth ship of that name was a County class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy that saw action during the Second World War. At 31 years she holds the record for the longest-commissioned ship in the Royal Navy, after HMS Victory.
[edit] Overview
Cumberland served on the China Station with the 5th Cruiser Squadron until 1938.
At the start of the Second World War in 1939, Cumberland was assigned to Force G, the South American Division. At the start of December she was forced to self-refit in the Falkland Islands, thus depriving the force of their strongest unit. Without her, HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles engaged the German raider Admiral Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December. Cumberland received a garbled indication that a contact was being made and moved north to reinforce, arriving at the River Plate at 22:00 14 December, after steaming for 34 hours. The Graf Spee had put into neutral Montevideo and was trapped there, as Cumberland along with Ajax and Achilles (Exeter having been heavily damaged) patrolled the estuary, resulting in the Graf Spee being scuttled by her crew on 17 December.
Cumberland won battle honours in North Africa 1942.
In October 1941 Cumberland joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron Home Fleet escorting the Russian Convoys until January 1944, winning the battle honour Arctic 1942-1943.
She was then transferred to the Far East, as part of 4th Cruiser Squadron Eastern Fleet, and won the battle honours Sabang 1944 and Burma 1945.
She returned to the United Kingdom on 12 November 1945 and transported troops until June 1946, when she was placed in reserve until 1949. She was then refitted at Devonport (1949-1951) as a trials cruiser, and used from 1951 to 1959 for the testing of new equipment. By the late 1950s, with almost every other pre-war ship scrapped, she was the oldest active warship in the Navy.
For the 1956 film The Battle of the River Plate, Cumberland played herself (being partly disarmed).
Cumberland was laid up for a second time in January 1959 and was broken up by Cashmore, Newport, arriving there on 3 November 1959.
| County-class cruiser |
| Royal Navy |
| Kent class - Berwick | Cumberland | Cornwall | Kent | Suffolk |
| London class - Devonshire | London | Shropshire | Sussex |
| Dorsetshire class - Dorsetshire | Norfolk |
| Royal Australian Navy |
| Kent class - Australia | Canberra |
| London class - Shropshire (transferred) |
List of cruiser classes of the Royal Navy List of major warship classes of the Royal Australian Navy |
