HMS Acasta was originally going to be called HMS King. One account of her action at Jutland is below :
« Acasta was very badly mauled in her encounter with German light cruisers and was finally so damaged that she lay drifting close to the course of the German battleships. She had a list to starboard, two large holes just abaft the third funnel, one large hold forward on the port side, and sat very low in the water, her guns and torpedo tubes still trained aneam and they had been during the action. As the fleet flagship, HMS Iron Duke, came rushing by, firing her guns and leading her division, the men of the plucky little destroyer rushed out, forming a lime from the forecastle head to right aft and gave their Commander-in-Chief three heary cheers. Acasta was afterwards take in tow by Nonsuch and brought safe to port (Aberdeen).»
She had suffered some heavy casulaties :
- Engineer Lieutenant James Forrest
- Chief Petty Officer Stoker Richard Massey who is buried at Anns Hill, Gosport (from whence many of my family came)
- Chief Stoker George Howe who lies buried in Milton Cemetery, so either he died of wounds or his body was recovered.
- Engine Room Artificer James Bailey, buried Horsham
- Herbert James Bailey who was taken to Horesham for hospitalisation by train
I think John Barron, her thirty three year old commander was unhurt.
SOME MORE STORIES :
Imperial War Museum HMS Acasta community :
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/community/2561