HMS ''Viper'' was a ''Viper''-class

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 1 ...

(or "TBD") built for 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 F ...

in 1899 by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at

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 south ...

on the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...

. She was notable for being the first warship to use

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

propulsion and was manufactured by Parsons Marine. There were four shafts, with two

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s on each, one inboard and one outboard of the shaft A-bracket. ''Viper'' and another turbine-powered ship, the Armstrong Whitworth special-type were both lost to accidents in 1901: ''Viper'' foundered on rocks in fog during naval manoeuvres near

Alderney Alderney (; french: Aurigny ; Auregnais: ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The island's area is , making it the third-largest ...

on 3 August 1901, while ''Cobra'' broke her back in a storm in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

on 18 September 1901.

Construction and design

Following the success of the

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...

-powered yacht ''

Turbinia ''Turbinia'' was the first steam turbine-powered steamship. Built as an experimental vessel in 1894, and easily the fastest ship in the world at that time, ''Turbinia'' was demonstrated dramatically at the Spithead Navy Review in 1897 and set ...

'', the British Admiralty, whose previous attempts at acquiring destroyers faster than the standard "thirty-Knotters", the reciprocating-engined ''Albatross'', ''Express'' and ''Arab'' had been unsuccessful, placed an order on 4 March 1898 with Parsons Marine for a turbine-powered destroyer, HMS ''Viper''. Parsons subcontracted the ship's hull to Hawthorn Leslie and Company of

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 published i ...

, with ''Viper'' being laid down later that year.Lyon 2001, p. 30.Friedman 2009, p. 59. The turbines, supplied by Parsons, drove four shafts, with two propellers per shaft. The outer shafts were driven by high-pressure turbines and the inner shafts by low-pressure turbines, while the inner pair also was fitted with separate turbines for running astern. No cruising engines were fitted. Four Yarrow boilers fed the turbines, the uptakes from which were routed to three funnels.Manning 1961, p. 43. The ship had a contract speed of , although Parsons expected the ship to reach speeds of at least . ''Viper'' carried a gun armament of a single QF 12 pounder 12 cwt ( calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...

(in practice the platform was also used as the ship's bridge) and five 6-pounder (57 mm) guns, together with two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, the standard armament for contemporary Royal Navy destroyers.Lyon 2001, pp. 98–99. ''Viper'' was launched on 6 September 1899. On trials, she comfortably met the contract speed, reaching during her fuel consumption trial on 16 August 1900, and over a measured mile during full speed trials on 31 August 1900, making her the fastest destroyer in the world. Reports indicate that ''Viper'' may have reached even higher speeds during trials, variously reported as or even . While the ship's turbines allowed the ship to reach very high speeds in trials, with low levels of vibration, fuel consumption was very high, and the ship's turbines, which had been optimised for high speed, were inefficient at slower speeds. This made ''Viper'' of limited use to the Fleet, being capable of patrolling off

from her base at

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

for only 24 hours before being forced to return to base due to lack of fuel.Friedman 2009, pp. 59–61.Lyon 2001, pp. 30–31.

Loss of ''Viper''

On 3 August 1901 ''Viper'' sailed from

to take part in a search as part of the annual fleet exercises. Arriving off Alderney's Casquet Rocks in mid-afternoon, she spent some time searching the area. Visibility was generally good, although there were patches of mist, and she was able to sight a vessel playing the 'enemy' in the exercise. By early evening the mist had become fog and she slowed to 10 knots. At 17:23 breakers were spotted on the starboard bow and she turned to port, but found rocks all around and soon grounded. The destroyer fought clear, but soon grounded again and lost her propellers, finally drifting broadside onto the rocks. By 18:45, with the engine room flooded and ''Viper'' heeling over, she was abandoned. A local pilot's launch arrived to offer assistance and towed the boats ashore with the crew. Daylight on the following day showed her on Renonquet Rocks and beyond recovery. The damage increased until her back was broken and the bow section sheared around perpendicular to the keel. The subsequent enquiry found that the commanding officer, Lieutenant William Speke, had failed to exercise proper precautions while steaming in fog. In particular, he had not ensured that an accurate record of the courses steered was maintained. He was reprimanded. The navigating officer, Sub-Lieutenant Kenneth Mackenzie Grieve, was informed that he had "incurred their Lordships' displeasure", having inserted the missing data into the log following the wreck. In December 1901 ''Viper''s wreck was sold to Messrs. Agnes and Co., of Southampton, for £100.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * Hepper, David (2006). ''British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era 1860-1919'' Chatham Publishing. * * *

External links

Photo of ''Viper'' after having run aground
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viper Viper-class destroyers 1899 ships Ships built on the River Tyne Maritime incidents in 1901 Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean