How Can We Help?
You are here:
< Back

HMS Success was a B-class torpedo boat destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 21 March 1901. On 27 December 1914 she was wrecked off Fife Ness during heavy gales.[1]

Design and construction

HMS Success was ordered on 30 March 1899 from William Doxford & Sons as part of the British Admiralty's 1899–1900 shipbuilding programme,[2] one of twelve "thirty-knotter" destroyers ordered from various shipyards under this programme.[3] Success closely resembled Doxford's Lee, ordered under the 1897–1898 programme, with the major difference being that the ship had three funnels rather than four.[4]

Success was 215 feet (65.53 m) long overall and 210 feet (64.01 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 21 feet (6.40 m) and a draught of 8 feet 10 inches (2.69 m).[4] Displacement was 380 long tons (390 t) light and 425 long tons (432 t) full load.[5] Four Thornycroft boilers fed two triple-expansion engines rated at 6,000 indicated horsepower (4,500 kW) which drove two propeller shafts, giving a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph).[4][6] Armament was as standard for the "thirty-knotters", with a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt[a] (3 in (76 mm) calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's conning tower (also used as the ship's bridge), with a secondary armament of five 6-pounder guns, and two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.[7][8]

Success was laid down at Doxford's Sunderland shipyard as yard number 282 on 18 September 1899, launched on 21 March 1901 and completed in May 1902.[2]

Service history

Success was commissioned at Portsmouth on 9 June 1902 by Commander Douglas Nicholson and the crew of HMS Dove, which had been docked for repairs after going aground.[9] She succeeded the latter ship in the Portsmouth instructional flotilla,[10] and took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII.[11] Commander Hubert Brand was appointed in command on 20 December 1902,[12] but left after only three weeks in mid-January 1903 to take the command of HMS Arab, which succeeded the Success as senior officer′s ship in the Portsmouth flotilla.[13]

Notes

  1. ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12cwt referring to the weight of the gun.

Citations

  1. ^ "The Great War Diary" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
  2. ^ a b Lyon 2001, p. 84.
  3. ^ Lyon 2001, p. 25.
  4. ^ a b c Lyon 2001, pp. 83–84.
  5. ^ Chesneau and Kolesnick 1979, pp. 96.
  6. ^ Brassey 1902, p. 275.
  7. ^ Lyon 2001, pp. 98–99.
  8. ^ Friedman 2009, p. 40.
  9. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36790. London. 10 June 1902. p. 12.
  10. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36786. London. 5 June 1902. p. 7.
  11. ^ "Naval Review at Spithead". The Times. No. 36847. London. 15 August 1902. p. 5.
  12. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36951. London. 15 December 1902. p. 6.
  13. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36976. London. 13 January 1903. p. 8.

Bibliography

  • Brassey, T.A. (1902). The Naval Annual 1902. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
Categories
Table of Contents