HMS Derwent

HMS Derwent firing a torpedo

"After inspection, I was taken forward to the crew's quarters in the narrow sleek bow and descended to the mess-deck, which accommodated about thirty men, the majority of whom were ‘old salts’.  I was informed, by my mess caterer that I must pull my weight, or else."  From  Smudge's Story p. 51.

At this time 100 years ago in 1914 Fred was in the North Sea aboard either Derwent or her sister ship, HMS Kale. Luckily for Fred, and for us, he left the ship before 1917...

"On 2 May 1917 HMS Derwent struck a contact mine laid by German submarine UC-26 off Le Havre, France. She sank two cables north of the Whistle Buoy with the loss of 58 officers and men." :UBoat.net

 HMS Derwent

Ordered:                       1901 – 1902

Laid down:                    12 June 1902

Launched:                     14 February 1903

Commissioned:             June 1904

Fate: Mined,                 2 May 1917 

Class & type: Hawthorn Leslie Type River Class destroyer

Displacement:              550 t

625 t full load

Length:                          226 ft 6 in

Beam:                             23 ft 9 in

Draught:                        7 ft 9 in

Installed power:           7,000 shp

Propulsion:  

4 × Yarrow type water tube boilers

2 × vertical triple-expansion steam engines driving 2 shafts

Speed:                           25.5 kn

Range:                            140 tons coal

1,870 nmi at 11 kn

Complement:                70 officers and men

Armament:   

1 × QF 12-pounder 12 cwt Mark I, mounting P Mark I

3 × QF 12-pounder 8 cwt, mounting G Mark I (added in 1906)

5 × QF 6-pdr naval gun (removed in 1906)

2 × single tubes for 18-inch torpedoes