The fifth HMS Nottingham was launched

Ship naming and launching

The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...

 in 1913 and commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 in 1914. A light Town class

Town class cruiser (1910)

The Town class was a group of twenty-one light cruisers built for the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy . These vessels were long-range cruisers, suitable for patrolling the vast expanse covered by the British Empire...

 light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 of 5440 LT (5,527.3 t), 430 ft (131.1 m) in length and a complement of 401 men, she had 2 in (5.1 cm) thick armour plating and was armed with nine 6 in (152.4 mm) guns, one 13-pounder anti-aircraft gun

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

 and two 21 in (533.4 mm) torpedo tube

Torpedo tube

A torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels...

s. Seeing action for the first time off Heligoland on 28 August 1914 as one of eight British light cruisers supported by destroyers and submarines, she entered the Heligoland Bight

Heligoland Bight

The Heligoland Bight, also known as Helgoland Bight, is a bay which forms the southern part of the German Bight, itself a bay of the North Sea, located at the mouth of the Elbe river...

 to intercept German vessels employed on coastal protection duties, an action that developed into the Battle of Heligoland Bight.

The ship then saw action in the Yorkshire Raid on 16 December and shortly after that at the Battle of Dogger Bank

Battle of Dogger Bank (1915)

The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval battle fought near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea on 24 January 1915, during the First World War, between squadrons of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet....

 on 23 January 1915. On 31 May came the Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...

, where Nottingham was attached to the Second Light Cruiser Squadron. On 19 August 1916, she was engaged in a sweep of the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 in thick mist 120 mi (193.1 km) south-east of the Firth of Forth

Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...

 when, at 06:00, she was hit by two torpedoes from U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 U-52

SM U-52

|SM U-52 was one of the 329 submarines serving in the Imperial German Navy in World War I.U-52 was engaged in the naval warfare and took part in the First Battle of the Atlantic....

, and another just 25 minutes later. At 07:10, she eventually sank with the loss of only a few hands.

In December 1993, during a ceremony at Emden

Emden

Emden is a city and seaport in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia; in 2006, the city had a total population of 51,692.-History:...

, Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 Otto H Ciliax of the Federal German Navy presented the Commanding Officer of the sixth and current HMS Nottingham

HMS Nottingham (D91)

HMS Nottingham was a batch two Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy, named after the city of Nottingham, England. She was launched on 18 February 1980, and commissioned on 8 April 1983 as the sixth ship to bear the name....

 with a Plaque, Cap Ribbon and the Ensign from the fifth Nottingham as a gesture of goodwill and reconciliation. Admiral Ciliax's grandfather, Otto Ciliax

Otto Ciliax

Otto Ciliax was an admiral in the German Navy. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

, was the watch-officer of U-52; he recovered these items off a boat from the ship while picking up survivors and they currently reside in the Captain's Cabin Flat.