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| HMS President / Saxifrage, 2014 |
By James Patton
News flash from the BBC: the retired Q-ship HMS President [formerly HMS Saxifrage during the Great War] which, along with the cruiser HMS Caroline in Belfast and the monitor HMS M33 at Portsmouth, are the only remaining Royal Navy (RN) ships that served in World War I. This seems bound to change, as the onetime HMS Saxifrage is going to be scrapped. It has been moored out of the public’s view at Arcelor Mittal Kent Wire's (AMKW) site at Chatham in Kent. AMKW says that they don’t own the ship, and they announced last December that their Chatham dock facility is closing.
AMKW says that in 2016 they "agreed with the owner of the ship to berth it," but since then the owner has "ignored requests" to "take responsibility for their ship." AMKW has "therefore borne the ongoing costs of maintaining the vessel [at the dock], including the installation and continuous operation of bilge pumps to ensure it remains safely afloat."
AMKW said it "has explored a range of options for the vessel", including berthing elsewhere, but was "unable to identify a viable location or plan for relocation". AMKW says that it is closing the Chatham docks due to "the severity and scale of the challenges facing the business”. Additionally, a recent marine survey prepared for AMKW found the vessel to be "in very poor condition with extensive deterioration and asbestos", and that restoration would be "highly complex and prohibitively costly"." Therefore, AMKW says that she will be "dismantled in accordance with all relevant safety and environmental regulations, and with the owner's consent". It should be pointed out here that the steel is valuable because it was made before 1945.
AMKW’s spokesperson said this is "an outcome we regret" and that "it is with great sadness that we have reached the conclusion that this is the only responsible course of action within our control".
A last-minute effort to preserve the ship has been mounted by The Q-Ship Society (QSS). Its Chairman, Daniel Broom, speaking for the society said the loss "would be disastrous" since it is the last surviving warship of its kind. He told the BBC that QSS has been searching for an alternative berth. "We've had so much public interest but the people that can help are not stepping up to assist," he said.
With her future now in peril, the QSS is still hoping to save her, embarking on a campaign to raise the funds needed to tow the ship to another, hopefully permanent, berth. QSS is also trying to raise funds for restoration, with the goal of turning her into a museum focused on the history of the Q-ships and the U-Boat war during 1914-18, but the Heritage Lottery turned them down. On 17 July 2026, tugs GPS Iberia and GPS Arcadia began the ship’s final voyage, towing her from Chatham, along the River Medway and out onto the River Thames. She passed Gravesend for the final time before continuing towards Erith, her final destination, where she is due to be broken up for scrap.
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| HMS Saxifrage, 1918 |
For those who are unfamiliar with the Q-Ships, here’s a brief introduction. They were warships disguised as unarmed merchantmen. Most were originally civilian vessels and were modified. Many even got the “dazzle paint’ camouflage of a cargo ship. Purpose-built examples had unnecessary masts and booms and even fake rudder housings. The concept originated in 1914 correpondance between The Hon. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, and the Master of the Queenstown dockyard, so the resulting craft was code-named a “Q-Ship”.
They were armed with concealed 4-inch naval guns and 3-inch Quick Firers, seriously outgunning their intended foe. The U-Boats of 1914 often had only six torpedoes, which the commanders preferred to use against warships or high-value targets. Common sense dictated that small merchantmen should be sunk by gunfire or placed explosives. Thus, when the U-Boat surfaced the Q-ship crew would appear to be abandoning ship in haste (called the ‘panic party). However, the gun crews would stay aboard, uncover and prep the artillery and open fire on the U-Boat when it was at close range.
Statistics on WWI RN Q-Ships vary. The BBC says there were 193; the QSS says it was 366. Reported Q-Ships lost are BBC 44 vs. QSS 61. BBC says that the Q-Ships destroyed 15 U-Boats. After the implementation of the convoy system in May 1917, U-Boat commanders grew wary of any ship traveling solo, and so the Q-Ships that came into service after that time were mostly used instead as escorts for coastal convoys.
"Saxifrage" is the popular name for a family of flowering bushes, many native to Asia, but some, known as the purple saxifrages, live in the far north or at high elevations, even in the UK. All of the 28 purpose-built ships of the Anchusa Class were named after flowers, leading to the preferred label ‘Flower Class’, which is wholly distinct from the WWII Flower Class of 294 ‘corvettes’.
The WWI Flower ships were 282 ft. long, displaced 1,290 lt., drew 11 ½ ft. and had a maximum speed of 16 kts. They were bigger than the WWII corvettes, and were coal-fired. HMS Saxifrage was the 24th in the class, built on the Clyde by Lobnitz & Co. and commissioned early in 1918. Though she engaged with nine U-Boats, she didn’t destroy any. She survived the war; six other Flower ships didn't.
In 1921, HMS Saxifrage was saved from the scrap yard because her sister Flower ship, HMS Marjoram, was wrecked near Flimston Head in Wales while under tow. She had been selected to be a Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve (RNVR) drill ship. HMS Saxifrage was selected as her replacement and was renamed HMS President in 1922.
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| HMS President, c. 2000 |
For decades, HMS President was moored on the Thames Embankment, and during WWII she was used first as a gunnery training ship and later as office space, even housing the operations of the French Resistance. When she was the only RN ship in London, all navy personnel working at the Admiralty were nominally on her strength. Off and on for many years she served as a cadet training ship for the RNVR, until it was disbanded in 1958. She was the last RN warship to wear the Victorian battleship livery—with black hull, white superstructure and buff yellow funnel and masts.
In 1987 the Admiralty sold the ship, and the name HMS President was passed to a shore installation (known in RN vernacular as a ‘stone frigate’). Under a succession of private owners, the ship was used for private office space, an event venue and even a recording studio. Some owners unsuccessfully attempted to get public grants for restorative maintenance. In 2014 she was repainted with a dazzle-like pattern as a part of a centennial arts campaign. This paint job [top photo] wasn’t Cubist like the 1918 Dazzle; it’s a tromp l’oeil spoof on Cubism. In 2016, after 94 years next to Blackfriarts Bridge, she was evicted due to the construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel. She was towed downriver to Chatham Working Docks, where she’s been ever since, a derelict since 2022.
Not all derelict WWI ships have been broken up. Check out the inspiring story of the Austro- Hungarian river monitor SMS Bodrog, a.k.a. in Yugoslav service the Sava, which has been fully restored by Serbia (although in Yugoslav livery). LINK
Sources include: Maritime Executive and the BBC
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