HMS Myrmidon (1900)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Myrmidon.

HMS Myrmidon was one of two Myrmidon-class destroyers which served with the Royal Navy.

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Myrmidon
Namesake	Myrmidons
Builder	Palmers, Jarrow
Launched	26 May 1900
Fate	Lost after collision, 26 March 1917
General characteristics
Class and type	Myrmidon-class destroyer
Displacement	350 long tons (356 t)
Length	210 ft (64 m)
Propulsion	2 × Triple expansion steam engines 4 × Coal-fired Reed water tube boilers 6,200 hp (4,623 kW)
Speed	30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement	63
Armament	1 × QF 12-pounder gun 2 × 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes

Design and construction

In April 1899, the British Admiralty placed an order with the Jarrow shipbuilder Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited for three torpedo boat destroyers, Peterel (which had been laid down "on-spec", in advance of a formal order), Myrmidon and Syren, for the Royal Navy under a supplement to the 1899–1900 shipbuilding programme,^{[lower-alpha 1]} with a contract price being £47149 per ship.^[2][1] Myrmidon was laid down (as Yard number 751) on 23 October 1899, and was launched on 26 May 1900, completing in May 1901.^[2] She was the fifth ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy.^[3]

Myrmidon closely resembled Spiteful, built by Palmers under the previous year's shipbuilding programme, and like Spiteful had four funnels. She was 219 feet 6 inches (66.90 m) long overall, with a beam of 20 feet 9 inches (6.32 m) and a draught of 8 feet 11 inches (2.72 m). Displacement was 370 long tons (380 t) light and 420 long tons (430 t) full load.^[4] Four Reed boilers fed steam at 250 pounds per square inch (1,700 kPa) to triple expansion steam engines rated at 6,200 indicated horsepower (4,600 kW) and driving two propeller shafts, giving a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph).^[5][6] 91 tons of coal were carried.^[6]

Armament was a single QF 12 pounder 12 cwt (3 in-calibre or 76 mm) gun on a platform on the ship's conning tower (in practice the platform was also used as the ship's bridge), backed up by five 6-pounder guns, and two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.^[7][8]

Service history

Myrmidon was commissioned in August 1901 to serve on the Mediterranean Station.^[9] Commander Cecil Lambert was appointed in command in January 1902, and in September that year she was part of a squadron visiting Nauplia and Souda Bay off Crete for combined manoeuvres of the Mediterranean and Channel Fleets, during which she was declared as being sunk by the umpires of the exercise when she engaged two destroyers of an opposing fleet, mistaking them for torpedo boats.^[10][11] Myrmidon returned from the Mediterranean in 1905 and then served with the Atlantic Fleet for a year.^[12]

In September 1907, Myrmidon, based at Portsmouth as part of the First Destroyer Flotilla of the Channel Fleet, started a refit at Sheerness dockyard, with her boilers being retubed and her hull and machinery refurbished, with the refit completing in April 1908.^[13][14] Mrymidon was a member of the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla, based at Portsmouth, in 1910 and remained part of that Flotilla in 1912.^[15][16] On 30 August 1912, the Admiralty directed all destroyers were to be grouped into classes designated by letters based on contract speed and appearance. As a four-funneled 30-knotter destroyer, Myrmidon was assigned to the B Class.^[17][18] In 1912, older destroyers were organised into Patrol Flotillas, with Myrmidon being part of the 6th Flotilla, based at Portsmouth, in March 1913.^[16][19] She remained part of the 6th Flotilla in July 1914, on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War.^[20]

First World War

The 6th Flotilla mobilised and transferred to its war station at Dover (as part of the Dover Patrol) on 31 July–1 August 1914. The Flotilla's role was to prevent German warships from passing into the English Channel.^[21][22] Myrmidon was operating off the Belgian coast on 24 October 1914 when she reported being attacked by a submarine.^[23][24]

Myrmidon remained part of the 6th Flotilla at the beginning of March 1917.^[25] Myrmidon sank after a collision with the merchant ship Hamborn on 26 March 1917 off Dungeness. Her crew were rescued by HMS Mermaid and SS Tambour, with the loss of one life.^[26]

Pennant numbers

Pennant number[27]	Date
P83	1914
D85	Sep 1915

Notes

1. In total this supplement to the programme authorised the purchase of four battleships, four cruisers and twelve destroyers.^[1]

References

1. Friedman 2009, p. 55
2. Lyon 2001, pp. 80–81
3. Colledge & Warlow 2006, p. 237
4. Lyon 2001, pp. 78, 80–81
5. Lyon 2001, p. 78
6. Brassey 1902, p. 275
7. Lyon 2001, pp. 98–99
8. Friedman 2009, p. 40
9. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36525. London. 5 August 1901. p. 8.
10. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36883. London. 26 September 1902. p. 8.
11. Brassey 1903, pp. 167, 171, 175–177
12. Lyon 2001, p. 81
13. "Naval Matters—Past and Prospective: Sheerness Dockyard". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. Vol. 30. October 1907. p. 98.
14. "Naval Matters—Past and Prospective: Sheerness Dockyard". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. Vol. 30. May 1908. p. 402.
15. "NMM, vessel ID 370451" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol ii. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
16. Manning 1961, p. 25
17. Gardiner & Gray 1985, p. 18
18. Manning 1961, pp. 17–18
19. "Fleets and Squadrons in Commission at Home and Abroad: Patrol Flotillas". The Navy List. March 1913. p. 269d. Retrieved 17 September 2020 – via National Library of Scotland.
20. "Fleets and Squadrons in Commission at Home and Abroad: Patrol Flotillas". The Navy List. August 1914. p. 269c. Retrieved 17 September 2020 – via National Library of Scotland.
21. Naval Staff Monograph No. 7 1921, pp. 78–79, 86–87
22. "Ships of the Royal Navy — Location/Action Data 1914–1918: Admiralty "Pink Lists", 5 August 1914". World War 1 at Sea. naval-history.net. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
23. Corbett 1920, p. 228
24. Naval Staff Monograph No. 24 1924, p. 142
25. "Supplement to the Monthly Naval List Showing Organisation of the Fleet, Flag Officers' Commands &c.: V.—The Dover Patrol". The Navy List. March 1917. p. 15. Retrieved 19 September 2020 – via National Library of Scotland.
26. Hepper 2006, p. 84
27. Dittmar & Colledge 1972, p. 57

Bibliography

• Brassey, T.A. (1902). The Naval Annual 1902. Portsmouth, UK: J. Griffin and Co.
• Brassey, T.A. (1903). The Naval Annual 1903. Portsmouth, UK: J. Griffin and Co.
• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Corbett, Julian S. (1920). Naval Operations: Vol. I: To the Battle of the Falklands December 1914. History of the Great War. London: Longman's Green & Co.
• Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J.J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
• Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Hepper, David (2006). British Warship Losses of the Ironclad Era, 1860–1919. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 9781861762733.
• Lyon, David (2001) [1996]. The First Destroyers. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-3648.
• Manning, T. D. (1961). The British Destroyer. London: Putnam & Co. OCLC 6470051.
• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.
• Monograph No. 7: The Patrol Flotillas at the Outbreak of the War (PDF). Naval Staff Monographs (Historical). Vol. III. Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division. 1921. pp. 71–107.
• Monograph No. 24: Home Waters: Part II.: September and October 1914 (PDF). Naval Staff Monographs (Historical). Vol. XI. Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division. 1924.