HMS ''Thracian'' was an built for 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 early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

during the First World War.

Description

The S-class destroyers were improved versions of the preceding Modified R class. They displaced . The ships had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a beam of and a draught of . They were powered by two Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, each driving one

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

, using steam provided by three

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. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The ships carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave them a range of at . The ships' complement was 90 officers and ratings. ''Thracian'' was armed with three QF Mark IV guns in single mounts and a single 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun. The ship was fitted with two twin mounts for torpedoes. Two additional single mounts were positioned abreast the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

at the break of the

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 ...

for 18-inch (45 cm) torpedoes. All torpedo tubes were above water and traversed to fire.

Construction and career

HMS ''Thracian'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

on 17 January 1918 at

Hawthorn Leslie and Company 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 formed ...

, but she was not launched until 5 March 1920 due to financial constraints post-war limitation in naval expenditure. She was completed at

Sheerness Dockyard Sheerness Dockyard also known as the Sheerness Station was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the Sheerness peninsula, at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent. It was opened in the 1660s and closed in 1960. Location In the Age of Sail, the Roy ...

on 1 April 1922.

Battle of Hong Kong

The ship took part in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Arthur Luard Pears. She was the only destroyer defending the colony, after the departure of and for

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

on 8 December. On 10 December, she took part in a raid on Japanese crafts attempting to land on

Lamma Island Lamma Island, also known as Y Island or Pok Liu Chau or simply Pok Liu, is the third largest island in Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District. Name Lamma Island was named Lamma only because of a chart reading error by ...

. On 13 December, she participated in the evacuation of personnel from Kowloon and Green Island to

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, Hong Kong Island. On 16 December, she attacked Japanese boats that were preparing for the invasion of Hong Kong Island, but ran aground at Uk Kok. She was later refloated later that day and returned to Aberdeen dockyard. Further into the afternoon, she became the target of Japanese high-level bombing. A near miss caused several casualties. With the dockyard badly damaged, the damage ''Thracian'' suffered from running aground was considered too bad to fix. On the next day, she was deliberately run aground at Ngan Chau. The crew of ''Thracian'' continued to defend the colony as infantry, and would suffer heavy losses in the battle and subsequent captivity. On 24 December, Japanese troops began salvaging the ship, and she was later captured by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

Imperial Japanese Navy service (1942 – 1945)

On 1 October 1942, she was registered to the naval ship list in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

, and classified as a special service ship (patrol boat). She was renamed ''Patrol Boat No. 101''. On 25 November, repairs were completed by the Navy 2nd Construction Department, and she was assigned to the

Yokosuka Naval District was the first of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included Tokyo Bay and the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coasts of central and northern Honshū from the Kii Peninsula to Shimokita Peninsula. Its h ...

. Afterwards, she spent her time on convoy escort operations in the Yokosuka Area. On 15 August 1943, she was assigned to the torpedo warfare school at

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

. On 15 March 1944, she was classified as the miscellaneous ship (training ship), and renamed ''Special Training Ship No. 1''. She was used for a test bed for new weapons. By August 1945, she was found in Yokosuka after an unsuccessful scuttling. In December, she was recovered by , only to be broken up in Hong Kong in 1946.

Notes

Bibliography