HMS Patriot (1916)

HMS ''Patriot'' was a that served in the British Royal Navy. The destroyer entered service in 1915 during the First World War and saw service with the Grand Fleet. Following the war, the destroyer was declared surplus and in 1920, the ship was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. Recommissioned as HMCS ''Patriot'', the destroyer was used primarily as a training ship. ''Patriot'' was taken out of service in 1927, sold for scrap in 1929 and broken up.

Design and description

''Patriot'' was a Thornycroft M-class destroyer that displaced and was long overall with a beam of and a draught of . The ship was propelled by three shafts driven by Brown-Curtis turbines powered by three Yarrow boilers creating . This gave the ship a maximum speed of . The destroyer carried of fuel oil.Gardiner and Gray, pp. 79–80

The destroyer was armed with three quick-firing (QF) /45 calibre Mark IV guns in single mounts. The No.2 4-inch gun was placed on a bandstand, unlike earlier M-class destroyers. For secondary armament, the destroyer was equipped with a single QF 2-pounder "pom-pom" Mk.II and four torpedo tubes in two twin mounts. As a Thornycroft "special", ''Patriot'' resembled the standard Admiralty version of the class with the exception of her flat-sided funnels and higher freeboard.

Service history

Royal Navy

''Patriot'' was one of two Thornycroft M-class destroyers ordered in February 1915 as part of the Fourth War Construction Programme, along with 15 of the standard Admiralty design. She was laid down at Thornycroft & Company's Southampton shipyard in July 1915. The ship was launched on 20 April 1916 and completed in June 1916.Friedman 2009, p. 309.

''Patriot'' saw extensive service for the remainder of the First World War. On commissioning, ''Patriot'' joined the recently formed 14th Destroyer Flotilla, part of the Grand Fleet.Manning 1961, p. 27. In early July 1917, ''Patriot'' took part with another five destroyers (the leader , together with , , and ) in a mission against German submarines transiting the North Sea. The other five destroyers carried Kite balloons to aid the spotting and tracking of enemy submarines. The patrol made several sightings of a submarine, but did not manage to bring it to action before a shortage of hydrogen for the balloons on 8 July forced the flotilla to return to Scapa Flow.Jones 1930, p. 62. On 11 July, ''Patriot'' set out as part of another sweep by kite balloon equipped destroyers against German submarines. On 12 July, the observer aboard ''Patriot''s balloon spotted a submarine on the surface. When the submarine submerged as ''Patriot'' approached and engaged with gunfire, the balloon directed ''Patriot'' in a depth charge attack against the submarine, which resulted in a small amount of oil coming to the surface, followed about an hour later by an apparent underwater explosion and a large slick of oil, which was believed to mark the sinking of the .Jones 1930, pp. 62–63. In October 1917, ''Patriot'' formed part of a large-scale operation, involving 30 cruisers and 54 destroyers deployed in eight groups across the North Sea in an attempt to stop a suspected sortie by German naval forces. Despite these countermeasures, the two German light cruisers and , managed to evade the patrols and attacked the regular convoy between Norway and Britain, sinking nine merchant ships and two destroyers, and before returning safely to Germany.

She maintained continuous operations both as a convoy escort, and in harbour protection. ''Patriot'' remained part of the 14th Destroyer Flotilla at the end of the war. Following the end of the war, the Grand Fleet was abolished, forming the Atlantic Fleet, with more modern destroyers (mainly the V and W classes and the S class) supporting the fleet, while older destroyers went to subsidiary tasks or were laid up.Manning 1961, pp. 27–28. ''Patriot'' was sent to the Firth of Forth, joining the Local Defence Flotilla. By November 1919, she was laid up in reserve at HMNB Portsmouth.

Royal Canadian Navy

In March 1920, the Canadian government accepted the British offer of a cruiser and two destroyers. The three ships were offered by the Royal Navy to replace the aged cruisers and .Macpherson and Barrie, p. 13 ''Patriot'', along with her sister were chosen for transfer in September 1920, needing some modernization which included enclosing the bridge.Colledge, p. 472 ''Patriot'', ''Patrician'' and the cruiser were commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 1 November 1920 at Devonport and departed for Halifax, Nova Scotia one month later.

''Patriot'' saw immediate service patrolling the waters off Canada's Atlantic coast. The destroyer performed training duties and patrols for the next five years while based out of Halifax. On 10 May 1921, ''Patriot'' went aground, for which the commanding officer and navigation officer were later court martialled. ''Aurora'', ''Patrician'' and ''Patriot'' performed a training cruise to the West Indies in spring/summer 1921. During a visit to Puntarenas, Costa Rica, the Canadian vessels supported negotiations by the Royal Bank of Canada in a dispute over oil with the Costa Rican government. In September 1921, ''Patriot'' assisted Alexander Graham Bell's hydrofoil research by towing his high speed experimental hydrofoil ''HD-4''. This experiment was conducted on the waters of Baddeck Bay in the Bras d'Or Lake estuary near the village of Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

''Patriot'' remained as the only major warship of the Royal Canadian Navy in Halifax following budget cuts in 1922. She was used to train the newly formed Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve.German, p. 57 Roughly once a year, ''Patriot'' sailed to the West Indies to take part in naval exercises with the Royal Navy. By 1927, the Royal Canadian Navy began looking for replacements for ''Patriot'' and ''Patrician''. By the end of the year, the Canadian government had purchased two new destroyers from the United Kingdom. ''Patriot'' was paid off in December 1927 and sold for scrap and broken up at Briton Ferry, Wales in 1929.

Commanding officers

With Royal Canadian Navy

* LT C.T. Beard ( RCN) 1/11/1920 – 2/9/1922
*LT George C. Jones (RCN) 3/9/1922 – 23/8/1923 A future Chief of Naval Staff, and the first graduate of the Royal Naval College of Canada to command a ship in the Royal Canadian Navy
*LT H.E. Reid (RCN) 24/8/1923 – 6/10/1926
*LT C.R.H. Taylor (RCN) 7/10/1925 – 4/4/1926
*LCDR C.R.H. Taylor (RCN) 5/4/1926 – 23/10/1927

References

Notes

Citations

References

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External links

HMCS ''Patriot'' at readyayeready

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patriot
Thornycroft M-class destroyers
Ships built in Southampton
1916 ships
World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom
World War I naval ships of Canada