HMS Clan Macnaughton was a British cargo steamship. She was built in Glasgow for Clan Line in 1911. Early in the First World War, the Admiralty requisitioned her and had her converted into an armed merchant cruiser (AMC). She disappeared in the North Atlantic in February 1915, with the loss of all 284 men aboard.
She was the first of two Clan Line ships to be named after Clan Macnaghten. The second was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1921, and sunk by a U-boat in 1942.
A class of nine sisters Between 1911 and 1913, Cayzer, Irvine & Co (Clan Line) took delivery of a class of nine flush deck cargo ships from a total of six shipbuilders. The first was Clan Macphee, launched in April 1911 by Irvine's Ship Building and Dry Dock Co in West Hartlepool, County Durham. The final member of the class to be built was Clan Macquarrie, launched by Alexander Stephen and Sons in Linthouse, Glasgow in September 1913. Three members of the class, Clan Macrae, Clan Davidson, and Clan Macewen, were refrigerated cargo ships, for trade with Australia.
Building and registration A Stephen & Sons also built Clan MacNaughton. She was laid down as yard number 443, launched on 28 June 1911, and completed that August. She cost £66,750. Her registered length was , her beam was , and her depth was . She had three decks, and her tonnages were and . She had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple expansion engine, which was rated at 497 NHP or 4,000 ihp, and gave her a speed of .
Cayzer, Irvine registered her at Glasgow. Her UK official number was 129592, and her code letters were HTGD. Throughout her civilian career, her Master was Captain JA Macpherson.
Armed merchant cruiser On 19 November 1914, the Admiralty requisitioned Clan Macnaughton for conversion into an AMC. She was armed and fitted out as such in London. She was assigned to the 10th Cruiser Squadron, with the pennant number M81.
The 10th Cruiser Squadron was assigned to the Northern Patrol, whose main task was the blockade of Germany. Clan MacNaughton was the slowest ship in the squadron, and one of the smaller ones. Admiral Dudley de Chair assigned her to Patrol "D", which was a flotilla of six ships spread along a line running north-northwest of the island of St Kilda. She was commissioned under the command of Commander Robert Jeffreys, who had previously commanded .
Loss Early on 3 February 1915, Clan Macnaughton reported by wireless telegraph that her position was . No further signal was ever received from her. On 9 February HMS Hildebrand, which was a converted Booth Line steamship, reported having seen wreckage: a hatchway cover, a griping spar, a door, battens, and lifebelts. On 15 February, another AMC, , was patrolling northwest of the Hebrides when she found a ship's grey-painted lifeboat. The boat bore no ship's name, but it was deemed likely to have been from Clan MacNaughton.
Clan MacNaughtons wreck has yet to be found, and the cause of her loss has not been established. She could have simply foundered in a gale and heavy sea. However, in October 1914, the German auxiliary cruiser Berlin had laid a field of 200 mines off Tory Island off the northwest coast of County Donegal. Some of those mines had broken loose in heavy seas, and drifted northeast. On 13 January another AMC, HMS Viknor, had been lost with all hands, also suspected to be caused by one of Berlins mines drifting north.
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