HMS Raleigh (1919)

HMS Raleigh was a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was commissioned as part of the British North Atlantic squadron in 1921.

She had a full load displacement of 12000 LT (light, 9700 LT), an overall length of 605 ft, and carried a complement of 700 officers and men. She was the only unit of the Hawkins class to be completed with 70000 shp machinery, and on trials off Isle of Arran from 7–9 September 1920 reached her designed speed of 31 kn at full power of 71350 shp. At half power, 35000 shp, she still managed to make 28 kn. After trials the ship proceeded to Devonport for completion as a flagship.

In April 1922, Sir William Christopher Pakenham was Admiral of the Royal Navy's America and West Indies Station and he designated HMS Raleigh as his flagship. Sir Arthur Bromley was captain of HMS Raleigh. It was through his negligence that the ship was lost. On 8 August 1922, Captain Bromley sped the flagship through a thick fog and ran her aground at L'Anse Amour, Newfoundland and Labrador. Eleven sailors were drowned in the shipwreck.

The cruiser was a total write-off. The ship remained hard-aground and upright for four years. During this period, she was stripped of all salvageable items and was destroyed with explosives in September 1926.

The residents of L'anse Amour conduct an annual re-enactment of the event on the anniversary of the disaster.