HMS Skate (1895)
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HMS Skate was a Script error: No such module "WPSHIPS utilities". which served with the Royal Navy. Built by Vickers, she was launched on 13 March 1895 and sold on 9 April 1907.
Construction and design
On 8 November 1893, the British Admiralty placed an order with the Naval Construction and Armament Company of Barrow-in-Furness (later to become part of Vickers) for three "Twenty-Seven Knotter" destroyers as part of the 1893–1894 construction programme for the Royal Navy,[1] with in total, 36 destroyers being ordered from various shipbuilders for this programme.[2]
The Admiralty only laid down a series of broad requirements for the destroyers, leaving detailed design to the ships' builders. The requirements included a trial speed of Script error: No such module "convert"., a "turtleback" forecastle and a standard armament of a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt (Script error: No such module "convert". calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's conning tower (in practice the platform was also used as the ship's bridge), with a secondary armament of five 6-pounder guns, and two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.[3][4][5]
The Naval Construction and Armament Company produced a design with a length of Script error: No such module "convert". overall and Script error: No such module "convert". between perpendiculars, with a beam of Script error: No such module "convert". and a draught of Script error: No such module "convert".. Displacement was 300 long tons light and 340 long tons deep load.[1] Three funnels were fitted, with the foremast between the ship's bridge and the first funnel.[6][7] Four Blechyndnen water-tube boilers fed steam at Script error: No such module "convert". to two three-cylinder triple expansion steam engines rated at Script error: No such module "convert"..[1][8] 60 tons of coal were carried,[9] giving a range of Script error: No such module "convert". at a speed of Script error: No such module "convert"..[10] The ship's crew was 53 officers and men.[10]
Skate was laid down on 20 March 1894 as Yard number 235, was launched on 13 March 1895 and completed in January 1896.[1]
Service history
Skate was in reserve at Devonport in 1897.[11] She was commissioned to serve at the Mediterranean station in April 1900,[12] and was ordered to return home in early 1902.[1][13] She left Gibraltar on 9 May,[14] convoyed by the cruiser Script error: No such module "WPSHIPS utilities"., and arrived in Plymouth on 14 May.[15] She paid off at Devonport on 20 May, and was placed in the A Division of the Fleet Reserve.[16] She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII.[17] On 28 August she was attached to the Devonport instructional flotilla.[18] During a cruise with the flotilla the following November, a heavy sea swept the upper deck and partially carried away the fore-bridge and twisted other fittings, leading skate to abort the cruise and return to dock for repairs.[19]
In 1906 Skate was used as a target in firing trials of the effectiveness of various guns against destroyers. 3-pounder (47 mm) guns proved ineffective, having difficulty penetrating the ship's plating in end-on engagements, and while 12-pounder (3-in (76 mm)) guns caused more damage, it was concluded that a single hit could not be guaranteed to disable a destroyer. 4-inch (102 mm) guns proved much more effective, particularly when Lyddite-filled shells were used, and this led to a change in destroyer armament to 4-inch guns.[20][21] Sold in 1907 to Cox & Co. of Falmouth, Cornwall for £305,[22] she was the first destroyer of this type to go to the breakers.
References
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- ↑ a b c d e Lyon 2001, p. 69
- ↑ Lyon 2001, p. 19
- ↑ Lyon 2001, p. 20
- ↑ Lyon 2001, pp. 98–99
- ↑ Friedman 2009, p. 40
- ↑ Friedman 2009, p. 50
- ↑ Manning 1961, p. 38
- ↑ The Engineer 11 October 1895, p. 365
- ↑ Brassey 1902, p. 274
- ↑ a b Friedman 2009, p. 291
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Brown 2003, pp. 178, 187.
- ↑ Friedman 2009, p. 108.
- ↑ Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers May 1907, p. 562.
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Bibliography
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