Aiton & Co. War Memorial and H.M.S. Cossack Narvik 1940

A memorial plaque remembering the war dead of Aiton & Co. Limited, a steam pipe manufacturer of Derby.
The plaque was displayed alongside a section of shrapnel damaged steam pipe from H.M.S. Cossack, this damage was sustained during The Second Battle of Narvik on the 13th April 1940.

The COSSACK, hit 7 times, including two 8" ones from the batteries onshore, suffered a fractured steam pipe in her No.2 boiler room, putting her steering gear out of action. She quickly drifted ashore at Hankins Point, where efforts were made to repair the damage to her engines and make her mess decks habitable again.

 

A most fitting memorial.

Aitons of Derby were well known makers of quality power plant high temperature steel for main steam and reheat pipework of steam turbines. Not surprising the company's products were found in use the RN.

They were also prominent in the manufacture of steam evaporators using main steam for central evaporators or bled steam from steam turbines,both on turbo alternators and from ships' steam turbines.

I have never came across a UK manufactured high temperature pipework failure but there have been a number of such failures in China steam plants with Chinese manufactured main steam pipework leading to multiple deaths...usually fail as a split in an axial direction.