Of canvas, ramps, and brass balls
Following in the heels of yesterday’s Warship Wednesday of the hardworking 9th HMS Aurora during WWII (“We were in action a Tremendous Amount of Times”), how about this great circa 1915 photo essay on the 8th HMS Aurora, a light cruiser (C1), complete with a Deperdussin Monoplane (No.1378) on her deck during early flight trials from a 38-foot (!) ramp.
Her aircraft trials came when she was the leader of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla of the Harwich Force, with the thought that the aeros could be used to ward off German naval Zeppelins that were harassing the tin cans.
HMS Aurora, Deperdussin Monoplane at the ready. Note the platform is on her No. 1 BL 6″/45 Mk XII gunhouse. Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 112869
Same as above, NH 112871
As noted by the RMG, “The Deperdussin was successfully flown from Aurora on 4 November 1915 by Flight Lieutenant R J J Hope-Vere. According to her ship’s log, Aurora carried out aeroplane experiments in the morning of 4 November 1915.”
Flight Sub. Lieut. Ralph James Hope-Vere, R.N.A.S
However, it was found the aircraft were too underpowered to be of use against the roaming Teutonic dirigibles and the flying platform was removed.
Commissioned in September 1914, Aurora was a “war baby” and was the leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla at the Dogger Bank in early 1915, earning a battle honor for the engagement that left the cruiser SMS Blücher on the bottom. She later helped catch the German commerce raider SMS Meteor, captured two of the Kaiser’s naval trawlers, and sowed nearly 300 mines in Jerry’s waters. She was on hand at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918.
The 3,600-ton German Hilfskreuzer SMS Meteor on fire, shortly before she sank on her second raiding voyage, 9 August 1915, by Surgeon Oscar Parkes, IWM SP 1087
Paid off by the RN in 1920, Aurora was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and was eventually scrapped in 1927.
HMCS Aurora, Courtesy of the CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum CTB043473
As for the aviator who flew that tiny plane off that ridiculously small platform, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Jean James Hope-Vere, O.B.E., A.F.C., Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Aero Pilot Certificate No. 900, ended the war flying seaplanes in No. 66 Wing, Adriatic Group, against the Austrians, then moved to the retired list in the RAF in 1934. After Home Guard service in WWII, as one would expect, he passed in 1959, aged 71.