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HMS ''Saxifrage'' was launched in 1918 as a Flower-class anti-submarine Q-ship. She was renamed HMS ''President'' in 1922 and moored permanently on the Thames as a Royal Navy Reserve drill ship. In 1982 she was sold to private owners, and having changed hands twice, now serves as a venue for conferences and functions, and serves as the offices for a number of media companies. Technically, she is now called HMS ''President'' (1918) to distinguish her from HMS ''President'', the Royal Naval Reserve base in St Katharine Docks. She is one of the last three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War.〔The other two are in Belfast, and the 1915 monitor in Portsmouth dockyard〕 ==Design and construction== The original Flower-class sloops (the ''Acacia'', ''Azalea'' and ''Arabis'' classes) were all built in 1915 as fleet minesweeping vessels, with triple hulls at the bow to give extra protection against loss from mine damage. When submarine attacks on British merchant ships became a serious menace after 1916, the existing Flowers were transferred to convoy escort duty, and fitted with depth charges as well as 4.7-inch naval guns. The later Flowers (the ''Aubretia'' and ''Anchusa'' classes) were built between 1916 and 1918 as submarine hunters disguised to look like merchant ships, while carrying concealed 4-inch and 12-pounder naval guns. U-boats would dive at the sight of a naval warship, and the success of the Q-ships, or 'mystery-ships' - converted merchantmen with hidden guns - led to the building of these specialised naval vessels for the same purpose. It was intended that a U-boat captain, unwilling to expend a precious torpedo on a small coastal merchantman, would surface to sink it by gunfire. As the submarine closed for the kill, the Q-ship would reveal her hidden guns and counter-attack while the U-boat was at its most vulnerable on the surface. By the time the "warship-Qs" were constructed, the Germans were well aware of this tactic, and with the introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare these sloops became active - rather than passive - submarine chasers. In the case of the warship-Qs the individual builders were asked to use their existing designs for merchantmen, based on the standard Flower-type warship hull. This included a dummy merchant-ship sternpost rudder, mounted above the waterline over a much more manoeuvrable balanced rudder which allowed the ship to make a fast turn to bring her guns or depth charges to bear on a U-boat, or even to ram it before it could escape. The class were also given a wide variety of spectacular dazzle camouflage schemes to confuse the primitive range-finders of WW1 submarines. Altogether, 120 Flowers were built, of which eighteen were sunk in action during the war. ''Saxifrage'' was built at the shipyard of Lobnitz & Company, Renfrew, Scotland, as yard number 827〔 and launched on 29 January 1918. She was named ''Saxifrage'' after the flower also known as ''London Pride''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS President (1918)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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