HMS Recruit (1896)

HMS ''Recruit'' was a Clydebank three-funnel, 30-knot destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1895–1896 Naval Estimates. She was the fifth ship to carry this name since it was introduced in 1806 for an 18-gun brig-sloop, sold in 1822.Jane 1898, pp. 84–85.

Construction

The British Admiralty's 1895–1896 shipbuilding programme included orders for 20 "thirty-knotter" torpedo-boat destroyers, with four destroyers ordered from the Clydebank shipbuilder J & G Thomson.Lyon 2001, p. 67.

Thomson's design was an enlarged version of their successful "twenty seven-knotter" design with more powerful engines to reach the higher contract speed.Friedman 2009, p. 52. The design had an overall length of and a length between perpendiculars of , with a beam of and a draught of . Design displacement was light and full load. Four Normand boilers fed steam at to triple expansion steam engines rated at and driving two propeller shafts.Friedman 2009, p. 291. Three funnels were fitted. 80 tons of coal were carried, giving a range of at . The ship had a complement of 63 officers and men.Manning 1961, p. 41.

Armament was specified as a single QF 12-pounder 12 cwt ( calibre) 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.Lyon 2001, pp. 98–99.Friedman 2009, p. 40.

''Recruit'' was laid down as yard number 290, on 18 October 1895, and launched on 22 August 1896. Like the other Thomson destroyers built under the 1895–1896 programme, she had problems making her contract speed of 30 knots, and was therefore lengthened by , giving an overall length of and a length between perpendiculars of . Displacement increased to light and full load. She was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in October 1900, the last of this group to be completed.

Early service

''Recruit'' was deployed in Home waters for her entire service life. After commissioning she was assigned to the Chatham Division of the Harwich Flotilla. Lieutenant and Commander Cecil Rooke was in command when on 27 May 1902, ''Recruit'' ran aground in thick fog off Cornwall. She was refloated with the help of tugs, and towed to Penzance, where she had temporary repairs. The damage was extensive, including a large hole under the forward boiler leading the engine room to be filled with water, and she was taken to Devonport for further repairs. A court-martial held the following month severely reprimanded Lieutenant Rooke for having ''"negligently, or by default, hazarded"'' the vessel. After finishing repairs in December 1902, she went to Portsmouth where her crew turned over to the ''Hasty'' to navigate her to Devonport.

''Recruit'' was based at Isle of Portland in 1905, and at Portsmouth as a tender to the depot ship between 1906 and 1907. ''Recruit'', attached to the gunnery school , was used for trials of the use of man-lifting kites designed by Samuel Cody for observation purposes (particularly associated with attempts to spot mines from the air) in August–October 1908. In 1910, ''Recruit'' was based at Devonport as part of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, and in 1912, when older destroyers were allocated to Patrol Flotillas, ''Recruit'' was assigned to the 6th Flotilla, based at Portsmouth.Manning 1961, p. 25.

On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyer classes were to be designated by alphabetical characters starting with the letter 'A'. Since her design speed was 30-knots and she had three funnels she was assigned to the C Class on 30 September 1913.Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 18.Manning 1961, pp. 17–18. The class letters were painted on the hull below the bridge area and on a funnel.Manning 1961, p. 34.

In February 1913, ''Recruit'' was based at Sheerness, attached to HMS ''Actaeon'', the torpedo training school. ''Recruit'' remained at Sheerness as a tender to ''Actaeon'' in July 1914, on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War.

First World War

With the outbreak of hostilities ''Recruit'' was assigned to the Nore Local Defence Flotilla. Her duties included anti-submarine and counter mining patrols in the Thames Estuary.

On 1 May 1915 ''Recruit'' was patrolling with sister ship in the southern North Sea, 30 miles south-west of the Galloper Lightvessel off the Thames Estuary, when she was struck by a single torpedo fired by the German submarine . ''Recruit'' broke in two and sank quickly with the loss of 39 men, 4 officers and 22 crewmen were rescued. The Royal Navy search for this submarine resulted in the Battle off Noordhinder Bank, in which two German torpedo boats were sunk.Corbett 1921, pp. 401–402.

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External links

"Arrowsmith" List: Royal Navy WW1 Destroyer Pendant Numbers

{{DEFAULTSORT:Recruit (1896)
Ships built on the River Clyde
1896 ships
C-class destroyers (1913)
Maritime incidents in 1902
World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom
Maritime incidents in 1915
Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I
World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea