HMS ''Waveney'' was a Hawthorn Leslie-type ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1902–1903 Naval Estimates. Named after the

River Waveney The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The "ey" part of the name means "river" thus the name is tautological. Course The source of the River Wavene ...

eastern England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

, she was the first ship of the Royal Navy to carry this name.

Construction

''Waveney'' was laid down on 20 October 1902 at the Hawthorn Leslie shipyard at Hebburn-on-Tyne and launched on 16 March 1903. She was completed in June 1904. The original armament provided was to be the same as the turtleback torpedo boat destroyers that preceded her. In 1906 the Admiralty decided to upgrade the armament by landing the five 6-pounder naval guns and shipping three 12-pounder 8 hundredweight (cwt) guns. Two were mounted abeam at the foc'x'le break and the third gun was mounted on the quarterdeck.

Service history

Pre-War

After commissioning ''Waveney'' was assigned to the East Coast Destroyer Flotilla of the 1st Fleet and based at Harwich. In 1906 ''Waveney'' was part of the First Destroyer Division. On 26 July 1907 ''Waveney'' and the destroyer collided off

Sandown Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake, Isle of Wight, Lake in between. Together ...

, damaging both ships. On 27 April 1908 the Eastern Flotilla departed Harwich for live fire and night manoeuvres. During these exercises the

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

rammed and sank the destroyer and damaged the destroyer . In April 1909 she was assigned to the

3rd Destroyer Flotilla The British 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, also styled as Third Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from 1909 to 1939 and again from 1945 to 1951. History In 1907 the Channel Fleet had a large Channel Flotilla of destroyers in Fe ...

on its formation at Harwich. She remained until displaced by a by May 1912. She was assigned to the

5th Destroyer Flotilla The British 5th Destroyer Flotilla, or Fifth Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the 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 ...

of the 2nd Fleet with a nucleus crew. On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyer classes were to be designated by alpha characters starting with the letter 'A'. The ships of the River class were assigned to the E class. After 30 September 1913, she was known as an E-class destroyer and had the letter ‘E’ painted on the hull below the bridge area and on either the fore or aft funnel.

World War I

In early 1914 when replaced by G-class destroyers, ''Waveney'' joined the

9th Destroyer Flotilla The 9th Destroyer Flotilla, or Ninth Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the British Royal Navy from January 1913 to December 1925 and again in January to July 1940. History Established in January 1913 when it was assigned to the Pa ...

based at Chatham tendered to . The 9th Flotilla was a patrol flotilla tasked with anti-submarine and counter-mining patrols in the Firth of Forth area. On 16 December 1914 in company with the division leader , ''Waveney'', and were sent to patrol off Hartlepool. During the German battlecruiser raid on Hartlepool, she was undamaged and suffered no casualties. In August 1915 with the amalgamation of the 9th and 7th Flotillas she was deployed to the

7th Destroyer Flotilla The 7th Destroyer Flotilla, also styled as the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish ki ...

based at the River Humber. ''Waveney'' remained employed on the Humber Patrol participating in counter mining operations and anti-submarine patrols for the remainder of the war.

Disposition

In 1919 ''Waveney'' was paid off and laid up in reserve awaiting disposal. On 20 February 1920 the ship was sold to

Thos. W. Ward Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire, steel, engineering and cement business, which began as coal and coke merchants. It expanded into recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, and then the supply and manufacture of machinery. I ...

of Sheffield for breaking at Grays, Essex on the Thames Estuary.

Pennant numbers

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waveney (1903) River-class destroyers Ships built on the River Tyne 1903 ships