HMS ''Opossum'' was a "twenty-seven knotter"

torpedo boat destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. Built by the

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as publishe ...

shipbuilder

Hawthorn Leslie R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982. History The company was form ...

, ''Opossum'' was one of three destroyers built by Hawthorns that were ordered in 1894. She was launched in 1895 and completed in 1896. She remained in service during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, where she was used for local patrol duties based at Plymouth and sank the German submarine on 8 August 1918. She was sold for scrap in 1920.

Design and construction

HMS ''Opossum'', along with sister ships and , was one of three destroyers ordered for the Royal Navy from

on 7 February 1894 as part of the 1893–1894 Naval Estimates. A total of 36 destroyers were ordered from 14 shipbuilders as part of the 1893–1894 Naval Estimates, all of which were required to reach a contract speed of . The

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

laid down broad requirements for the destroyers, including speed, the use of an arched turtleback

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

and armament, with the detailed design left to the builders, resulting in each of the builders producing different designs. ''Opossum'' was long

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was light and full load. Eight

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

s, with their uptakes trunked together to three funnels, fed steam at to two triple-expansion steam engines, rated at . Armament consisted of a single QF 12 pounder 12 cwt gun and three 6-pounder guns, with two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes. One of the torpedo tubes could be removed to accommodate a further two six-pounders. The ship's crew was 53 officers and men. On 17 September 1895 ''Opossum'' was laid down as Yard Number 326 at Hawthorn Leslie's

Hebburn Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the sout ...

shipyard, and was launched on 9 August 1895. The ship reached a speed of during

sea trials A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and i ...

,. and was completed in February 1896.

Service

On 26 June 1897, ''Opossum'' took part in the

naval review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire ...

to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

. ''Opossum'', based at Devonport, took part in the 1901 Royal Navy Naval Manoeuvres in July–August that year. In 1905, ''Opossum'' was one of a number of old destroyers which the Rear Admiral (Destroyers) condemned as being "..all worn out", with "every shilling spent on these old 27-knotters is a waste of money". In November 1907, ''Opossum'' was paid off for refitting at

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century ...

, where her boilers were retubed, this refit continuing until June 1908. On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyers were to be grouped into classes designated by letters based on contract speed and appearance. After 30 September 1913, as a 27-knotter, ''Opossum'' was assigned to the . By February 1913, ''Opossum'' was not part of an active flotilla, but was attached as a tender to the shore establishment at Devonport, with a nucleus crew and was still attached to ''Vivid'' in July 1914, on the eve of the outbreak of the

. By January 1915, ''Opossum'' was allocated to the Devonport Local Defence Flotilla. On 1 April 1917, ''Opossum'' took part in the salvage of the merchant ship SS ''Valacia'', and her crew was later awarded salvage money. On the evening of 20 December 1917, ''Opossum'', together with the destroyers and , five

Motor Launch A Motor Launch (ML) is a small military vessel in Royal Navy service. It was designed for harbour defence and submarine chasing or for armed high-speed air-sea rescue. Some vessels for water police service are also known as motor launches. ...

es, four drifters and two fishing trawlers, was ordered to patrol

Lyme Bay Lyme Bay is an area of the English Channel off the south coast of England. The south western counties of Devon and Dorset front onto the bay. The exact definitions of the bay vary. The eastern boundary is usually taken to be Portland Bill on the ...

to search for a German submarine that had sunk three merchant ships the previous night. The submarine had already left the area, however. On 8 August 1918, the German submarine was laying a minefield off Start Point, Devon, when the submarine fouled one of her own mines. The resulting explosion was spotted by ''Opossum'', which was on a routine anti-submarine patrol nearby. ''Opossum'' and several Motor Launches started a search for the submarine using

Hydrophone A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potenti ...

s and sweeps. ''UC-49'' was assumed to by lying on the sea bed, and when the submarine restarted motors at 15:20 hr, the noise attracted several depth charges, and more depth charges were dropped at 17:57 hr. ''Opossum'' then noisily withdrew a distance of in order to convince the submarine's commander that the hunt had been abandoned, and after 17 minutes the U-boat surfaced, only from one of the Motor Launches and from ''Opossum'', and was brought under a heavy fire. After 20 seconds, the submarine descended under the surface again, with her bows at an angle of 50 degrees, and several more depth charges were dropped, bringing up oil and bubbles. The next day, the wreck, which had been located by sweeps, was plastered with depth charges in order to break it up to confirm that the submarine had been sunk. When debris including a light bulb manufactured in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

came to the surface, it was confirmed that the submarine had been destroyed. ''Opossum'' remained part of the Devonport Local Defence Flotilla at the end of the war in November 1918. By March 1919, ''Opossum'' was laid up in reserve at Devonport, She was sold on 29 July 1920 to Ward for breaking up at their Preston yard.

Pennant numbers

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

H.M.S. Opossum
''The Dreadnought Project''. * Rickard, J

''HistoryOfWar.org''. 28 December 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Opossum (1895) Ships built on the River Tyne 1895 ships A-class destroyers (1913) Sunfish-class destroyers