A fascinating Zanzibar anti-slave patrol, Boer War and later Great War Battle of Falkland Islands veteran Long Service group awarded to Petty Officer 1st Class C. Yarram, H.M.S. Gibraltar, Royal Navy who was serving aboard H.M.S. Griffon when the ship’s Stream Cutter captured a slave dhow off the coast of Zanzibar on 17th October 1888, successfully releasing 74 slaves but at the cost of the life of Lieutenant Myles H. Cooper killed. He would later serve during the Boer War being 1 of 617 men of his ship to receive the Queen’s South Africa Medal and would also receive the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal whilst serving aboard Gibraltar in 1905. Having been transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve on 20th October 1910, he would rejoin the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the Great War serving aboard H.M.S. Kent and taking part in the Battle of the Falkland Islands where Kent would sink the Nurnberg. Later in the Battle of Mas a Tierra, H.M.S. Kent would attack the Dresden the only ship that had escaped from the British at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the Dresden would be scuttled, and her crew interned, including Lieutenant Wilhelm Canaris. Canaris later escaped back to Germany, his route home including a short stop in Plymouth, England. As a result of his successful escape he would be recruited by German Military Intelligence and later served as head of the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) during the Second World War before being executed just before the German surrender as a result of his implication in the 20th July bomb plot against Hitler.
Group of 5: Queen’s South Africa Medal 1899-1902, no clasp; (C. YARRAM. P.O. 1. CL. H.M.S. GIBRALTAR.) 1914-1915 Star; (138741 C. YARRAM. P.O.1. R.N.) British War Medal and Victory Medal; (138741 C. YARRAM. P.O.1. R.N.) Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, EVII,; (CHAS. YARRAM. P.O. 1 CL. H.M.S. GIBRALTAR.) Court-mounted for wear.
Condition: Court-mounted for wear, Nearly Extremely Fine
Charles Yarram was born near Southampton on 4th September 1886 and giving his trade as a glazier joined H.M.S. St. Vincent as a Boy 2nd Class on 16th September 1886, before being advanced to Boy 1st Class on 19th October 1887 and Ordinary Seaman 4th September 1888 whilst serving aboard H.M.S. Boadicea.
Transferring to H.M.S. Griffon on 11th September 1888 he would be aboard when the Ship’s Steam Cutter captured a slave dhow off the coast of Zanzibar on 17th October 1888 freeing 74 slaves but at the cost of the life of Lieutenant Myles H. Cooper killed and suffering two others wounded.
Promoted to Able Seaman he was posted to H.M.S. Royal Arthur the flagship of the Pacific Station on 2nd March 1893 remaining aboard until 25th September 1896. then advanced to Petty Officer 2nd Class on 4th May 1899 whilst aboard H.M.S. St. George, he would then be advanced to Petty Officer 1st Class aboard H.M.S. St. George on 1st April 1900.
Yarram would see service during the Boer War aboard H.M.S. Gibraltar being 1 of 617 men to receive the medal without clasp. After a short period of time aboard H.M.S. Firequeen he would return to H.M.S. Gibraltar from 9th May 1905 until 14th March 1907 during which time he would receive the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
He would join the Royal Fleet Reserve on 20th October 1910, before joining the Royal Navy on the outbreak of war. He would see service aboard H.M.S. Kent from 3rd October 1914 until 20th January 1917
In October 1914. Kent, was diverted to hunt for the German light cruiser Karlsruhe in the Cape Verde – Canary Islands area. When the news of the disastrous Battle of Coronel reached the Admiralty in early November, she was at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and was ordered to resume her original mission. She reached the Abrolhos Archipelago where she was to rendezvous with Rear-Admiral Archibald Stoddart's force. While awaiting them, she patrolled the coast down to Montevideo, Uruguay, and fired her six-inch guns at targets for the first time after her refit. During this time the ship evidenced the results of a too-hastily completed refit with condenser problems and engine defects that sometimes left her unable to steam faster than 10 knots. Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee's battlecruisers arrived on the 26th and he took Stoddart's ships under his command and then proceeded to the Falkland Islands two days later,
Upon arrival at Port Stanley on 7 December, Sturdee ordered Kent to anchor in the outer harbour and be prepared to relieve the armed merchant cruiser Macedonia as the harbour guardship the following morning. He planned to recoal the entire squadron the following day from the two available colliers and to begin the search for the East Asia Squadron the day after. Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the German squadron, had other plans and intended to destroy the radio station at Port Stanley on the morning of 8 December. The appearance of two German ships at 07:30 caught Sturdee's ships by surprise although they were driven off by 12-inch (305 mm) shells fired by the predreadnought battleship Canopus when they came within range around 09:20. Kent, though, had been ordered out of the harbour at 08:10 to protect Macedonia and keep the Germans under observation. This gave time for the squadron to raise steam, although the cruisers had not yet begun to recoal. The squadron cleared the harbour by 10:30 and Sturdee ordered, "general chase". His two battlecruisers were the fastest ships present and inexorably began to close on the German cruisers. They opened fire at 12:55 and began to straddle the light cruiser Leipzig, the rear ship in the German formation. It was clear to Spee that his ships could not outrun the battlecruisers and that the only hope for any of his ships to survive was to scatter. So he turned his two armoured cruisers around to buy time by engaging the battlecruisers and ordered his three light cruisers to disperse at 13:20.
In accordance with Sturdee's plans, Kent, her sister ship, Cornwall, and the light cruiser Glasgow immediately set off in pursuit while the battlecruisers and the slow armoured cruiser Carnarvon dealt with the German armoured cruisers. At 14:45 Glasgow, the fastest of the British cruisers, was close enough to Leipzig to open fire and the two ships exchanged salvos, scoring the occasional hit. An hour later, the Germans scattered in different directions; Cornwall and Glasgow pursued Leipzig while Kent went after Nürnberg. Short on coal, her crew threw in everything burnable, and she reached 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) in her pursuit; she closed to within 11,000 yards (10,000 m) when the German cruiser opened fire at 17:00. Kent replied nine minutes later with her forward guns; neither ship hit anything at that time. At 17:35 two of Nürnberg's worn-out boilers burst, which reduced her speed to 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). As Kent continued to close, the German ship turned about for a fight when the range was down to 4,000 yards (3,700 m).
Most of the German 105-millimetre (4.1 in) shells failed to damage the British ship, but one did burst inside a gun position, killing or wounding most of its crew, and another burst inside the wireless compartment and knocked out her radio transmitter. The British shells battered Nürnberg severely; she was dead in the water by 18:25 with only two guns able to fire. Ten minutes later not a gun could shoot and the cruiser was aflame. She did not strike her colours until 18:57 and then lowered a boat filled with some of her wounded men. It promptly sank and Kent had to repair the splinter holes in her own boats before they could be launched. Nürnberg capsized half an hour later and Kent continued to search until 21:00, but only rescued a dozen men, five of whom later died. She had been hit 38 times, but none of them penetrated her armour. One shell passed through the radio office without detonating and disabled Kent's transmitter. Another shell burst outside a midships casemate and ignited several bags of cordite. The flash fire travelled down the ammunition hoist, but quick action by a Royal Marine in the ammunition party in removing the cordite charge ready to be hoisted, closing the door to the magazine and promptly using a fire hose prevented a catastrophe. The ship suffered six crewmen were killed and eight seriously wounded during the battle; ten of these were in the casemate where the cordite ignited. Kent was critically short of coal and had to steam slowly enough that she did not arrive at Port Stanley until the following afternoon.
Battle of Mas a Tierra.
Sturdee's ships continued to search for Dresden even after he returned to England. The German cruiser successfully evaded the searching British for months by hiding in the maze of bays and channels surrounding Tierra del Fuego. She began moving up the Chilean coast in February 1915 until she was unexpectedly spotted by Kent at a range of 11,000 yards on 8 March when a fog burned off. The British cruiser tried to close the distance, but Dresden managed to break contact after a five-hour chase. Kent, however, intercepted a message during the pursuit from Dresden to one of her colliers to meet her at Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernández Islands. Dresden arrived there the next day, virtually out of coal.
International law allowed the German ship a stay of 24 hours before she would have to leave or be interned and her captain claimed that his engines were disabled which extended the deadline to eight days. In the meantime, Kent had summoned Glasgow and the two ships entered Cumberland Bay in the island on the morning of 14 March and found Dresden at anchor. The German ship trained her guns on the British ships and Glasgow opened fire, Captain John Luce justifying his action by deeming it an unfriendly act by an interned ship that had frequently violated Chilean neutrality. Dresden hoisted a white flag four minutes later as she was already on fire and holed at her waterline. A boat brought Lieutenant Wilhelm Canaris to Glasgow to complain that his ship was under Chilean protection. Luce told him that the question of neutrality could be settled by diplomats and that he would destroy the German ship unless she surrendered. By the time that Canaris returned to Dresden, her crew had finished preparations for scuttling and abandoned ship after opening her Kingston valves. It took 20 minutes before the cruiser capsized to port and sank. The British shells had killed one midshipman and eight sailors and wounded three officers and twelve ratings.
Kent patrolled the Chilean coast for the next several months, searching for German colliers. The ship was refitted at Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard in British Columbia from 25 May to 9 July. She resumed patrolling the Pacific coast of South America until she arrived at the Falklands on 7 March 1916 and departed on 6 April to unsuccessfully search for Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition on South Georgia Island and then Simon's Town, South Africa, where they arrived on the 23rd. Refitting until 29 May, Kent was running trials and working up until 15 June. She then began escorting convoys between South Africa and West African ports, or the Cape Verde Islands.
Yarram left Kent on 20th January 1917, and after a period ashore, joined H.M.S. Dolphin, the Submarine Depot Ship on 1st April 1917 where he remained until 8th February 1919, the date of his discharge.
Wilhelm Canaris from the Dresden would escape internment and return to Germany, his route home including a short stopover in Plymouth, England. His successful escape would result in his recruitment by German Military Intelligence and he would subsequently act as head of the Abwehr during the Second World War before being arrested and later executed as a result of his alleged involvement in the 20th July 1944 bomb plot against Hitler.
