HMS Recruit (1896)

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.[2]

Thomson's design was an enlarged version of their successful "twenty seven-knotter" design with more powerful engines to reach the higher contract speed.[2][3] The design had an overall length of 214 feet 0 inches (65.23 m) and a length between perpendiculars of 210 ft 0 in (64.01 m), with a beam of 20 ft 0 in (6.10 m) and a draught of 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m). Design displacement was 345 long tons (351 t) light and 385 long tons (391 t) full load. Four Normand boilers fed steam at 230 pounds per square inch (1,600 kPa) to triple expansion steam engines rated at 5,800 indicated horsepower (4,300 kW) and driving two propeller shafts.[2][4] Three funnels were fitted.[3] 80 tons of coal were carried, giving a range of 1,465 nautical miles (2,713 km; 1,686 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph).[4] The ship had a complement of 63 officers and men.[5]

Armament was specified as a single QF 12-pounder 12 cwt (3 in (76 mm) 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.[6][7]

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 4 feet (1.2 m), giving an overall length of 218 ft (66.45 m) and a length between perpendiculars of 214 ft (65.23 m). Displacement increased to 380 long tons (390 t) light and 425 long tons (432 t) full load. She was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in October 1900, the last of this group to be completed.[2]

Recruit was deployed in Home waters for her entire service life.[2] 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.[8] She was refloated with the help of tugs, and towed to Penzance, where she had temporary repairs.[9] 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.[10] After finishing repairs in December 1902, she went to Portsmouth where her crew turned over to the Hasty to navigate her to Devonport.[11]

A Cody Man-lifting kite being towed by Recruit

Recruit was based at Isle of Portland in 1905, and at Portsmouth as a tender to the depot ship HMS Hecla between 1906 and 1907.[12] Recruit, attached to the gunnery school HMS Excellent, 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.[13] 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.[12][14]

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.[15][16] The class letters were painted on the hull below the bridge area and on a funnel.[17]

In February 1913, Recruit was based at Sheerness, attached to HMS Actaeon, the torpedo training school.[18][19] Recruit remained at Sheerness as a tender to Actaeon in July 1914, on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War.[20]

With the outbreak of hostilities Recruit was assigned to the Nore Local Defence Flotilla.[12][21] Her duties included anti-submarine and counter mining patrols in the Thames Estuary.

On 1 May 1915 Recruit was patrolling with sister ship Brazen 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 UB-6. 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.[22][23][24]

• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M, eds. (1979). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Corbett, Julian S. (1920). History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Volume II. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
• Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
• Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
• Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Jane, Fred T. (1969) [First published by Sampson Low Marston, London 1898]. Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships 1898. New York: ARCO Publishing Company.
• Jane, Fred T. (1969) [First published by Sampson Low Marston, London 1905]. Jane's Fighting Ships 1905. New York: ARCO Publishing Company.
• Layman, R. D. (1994). Roberts, John (ed.). "Naval Kite Trials". Warship. London: Conway Maritime Press. 1994: 35–51. ISBN 0-85177630-2.
• Lyon, David (2001) [1996]. The First Destroyers. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-3648.
• Manning, T. D. (1961). The British Destroyer. London: Putnam & Co. OCLC 6470051.
• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.
• Moore, John (1990) [Content originally published by Jane's Publishing Company, 1914, 1919]. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. London: Studio. ISBN 1-85170-378-0.

• "Arrowsmith" List: Royal Navy WW1 Destroyer Pendant Numbers