Sad end for WW1 anti-submarine ship HMS President as historic vessel faces scrapyard
HMS President, one of only three Royal Navy vessels still afloat that served in the First World War, is facing the scrapyard.
The historic Q-ship has been towed to a breakers yard at Erith, on the River Thames, after years of attempts to save her from falling into disrepair.
Unlike the other two surviving First World War Royal Navy vessels – HMS Caroline in Belfast and HMS M33 in Portsmouth are carefully protected by Royal Navy Museums – HMS President has no museum or naval organisation protecting her.
Now, with her future hanging in the balance, campaigners are making a last-ditch attempt to save the ship, otherwise, it looks like being a sad end for a vessel which served its nation in both world wars.
Fight to save her
Some people, including the Q-ship society, are still fighting to save her.
Daniel Broom is Chairman of the Q-ship Society and told BFBS Forces News: "She's important because she is the prototype of the convoy ships from the Second World War and escort vessels.
"They were originally designed as submarine hunters as well, so she's the prototype or the groundwork.
"She's the great-grandmother, if you want to think of it that way, of the submarine chasers."
Decades of service
The ship started off life in 1918 as HMS Saxifrage, an Anchusa-type flower-class sloop. Also known as Q-ships – or mystery ships – they were designed to look like civilian vessels.
The thought was that German submarines wouldn't use a precious torpedo on a small merchant ship but would in fact surface and try to sink the vessel with gunfire.
At that point, the Q-ship would reveal her hidden guns and counterattack, while the U-boat was vulnerable on the surface.
Daniel explained: "On one of her convoys, she actually had contact with three German submarines, she didn't sink any, but she had contact, so she was a busy girl on that convoy."
During the Second World War, HMS President returned to duty, operating as an anti-aircraft battery, protecting St Paul's Cathedral.
From 1922 until 2016, HMS President was moored on the Thames, first as a naval reserve facility and then as a corporate venue.
In 2014, the ship was painted in a modern representation of her original 'dazzle' camouflage, to honour the First World War.
Beginning of the end
But then it all started to go wrong for the vessel.
HMS President left the Thames in 2016 and moved to Chatham.
Attempts were made to raise money to refurbish her, but all failed and she was apparently abandoned by her owners in 2022.
A recent survey reportedly found the ship to be in very poor condition, and she was towed to the breakers yard at Erith.
But Toni Jones, the secretary of the Q-ship Society says her story cannot end there.
"It's heartbreaking to see her the way that she is, I think she should become a museum for the Q-ships, because the story's never been told," she said.
"She's had such a rich history in London that she shouldn't go out like this."
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