Skip to main content
BFI logo

Home

Film

Television

People

History

Education

Tours

Help

  search

Search

Screenonline banner
Topical Budget 11-2: H.M.S. 'Chatham' Launched (1911)
 

BFI

Main image of Topical Budget 11-2: H.M.S. 'Chatham' Launched (1911)
 
New Type of Cruiser: H.M.S. 'Chatham' Launched by Marchioness Camden at Chatham Dockyard
11/11/1911
35mm, black and white, silent, 29 feet
 
Production CompanyTopical Film Company

Joan Pratt, 4th Marchioness Camden launches the HMS Chatham at Chatham dockyard.

Show full synopsis

In this earliest surviving item from the Topical Budget newsreel (1911-31), HMS Chatham is launched from the Chatham dockyard on 9th November 1911 by society beauty Joan Pratt, the Marchioness Camden. Ship launches were important national and local public events with a natural immediacy and drama well suited to short film stories.

The ship was one of the new 'Town' class light cruisers built in response to a new class of similar ships developed in Germany, all of which were named after German towns. This class of cruiser was built for speed and manoeuvrability to support the main battle fleet. HMS Chatham would see action in the First World War and was ultimately lent to the New Zealand Navy. The film follows the format of other ship launch films, with views of the crowds, the dignitaries on the launching platform and of the ship moving down the slips into the river.

Bryony Dixon

Click titles to see or read more

Video Clips
Complete film (0:28)
GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO
SEE ALSO
King Edward VII Launches H.M.S. Dreadnought (1906)
Topical Budget 903-2: H.M.S. Norfolk (1928)
A Year in Film: 1911
Shipbuilding on Film - The Early Years