H.M.S. Pheasant (1916)

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H.M.S. Pheasant (1916)
Pendant Number: G.74 (Sep 1915)
G.89 (Jan 1917)[1]
Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company[2]
Launched: 23 Oct, 1916[3]
Completed: Dec, 1916[4]
Commissioned: 10 Nov, 1916[5]
Mined: 1 Mar, 1917[6]
Fate: off Orkneys[7]

H.M.S. Pheasant was one of one hundred and three destroyers of the "M" class built for the Royal Navy during the Great War.

Service

Pheasant joined the Grand Fleet's Fifteenth Destroyer Flotilla in December, 1916.[8]

She was lost with all hands when taking her turn as part of the "Hoy Patrol". She left Scapa Flow at 0530 to patrol west of the anchorage, and at 0610, eleven men aboard two trawlers reported an explosion. Black smoke was observed to the north west. The Grouse went to find the source of this blast, variously reported as two or five miles off, but found nothing. An hour later, a routine trawler sweep for mines found oil and flotsam and the body of Midshipman Cotter of the Pheasant in two life belts. A second body sank out of reach; Cotter died soon after.

An inquiry determined that a mine may have drifted free from a field laid by Template:DE-Moewe and set off a magazine in Pheasant. Her wreck, the last of the 67 Royal Navy destroyers lost in the War to be accounted for, was located by the Army Sub-Aqua Club on 13 May, 1996.[9]

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 67.
  2. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. pp. 79-80.
  3. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 80.
  4. Friedman. British Destroyers. p. 309.
  5. Date is not certain. K. D. McBride. Mariner's Mirror, Vol 83. No. 3.
  6. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 80.
  7. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 67.
  8. Supplement to the Monthly Navy List. (December, 1916). p. 12.
  9. Note by K. D. McBride. Mariner's Mirror, Vol. 83, No. 3.
  10. Griffith Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51/58. f. 64.
  11. The Navy List. (December, 1916). p. 396n.
  12. Griffith Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51/58. f. 64.
  13. Kindell. Royal Navy Roll of Honour Part 2. p. 328.

Bibliography


"M" Class Destroyer
Admiralty Design (Three Funnels)
Matchless Murray Myngs Milne Moorsom
Morris Mons Marne Mystic Maenad
Manners Mandate Magic Moresby Marmion
Martial Mary Rose Menace Mameluke Marvel
Mischief Mindful Nonsuch Negro Nessus
Noble Nizam Nomad Nonpareil Norman
Northesk North Star Nugent Obedient Obdurate
Onslaught Onslow Opal Ophelia Opportune
Oracle Orestes Orford Orpheus Octavia
Ossory Nestor Napier Narborough Narwhal
Nicator Norseman Oberon Observer Offa
Orcadia Oriana Oriole Osiris Paladin
Parthian Partridge Pasley Plucky Portia
Pheasant Phoebe Pigeon Plover Penn
Peregrine Pelican Pellew Petard Peyton
  Prince Pylades Medina Medway  
Thornycroft Specials (Three Funnels)
Mastiff Meteor Michael Milbrook Minion
Munster Nepean Nereus Patrician Patriot
  Rapid Ready  
Yarrow Specials (Two Funnels)
Miranda Minos Manly Moon Morning Star
Mounsey Musketeer Nerissa Relentless Rival
Hawthorn Leslie Specials (Four Funnels)
  Mansfield Mentor  
<– Laforey Class Destroyers (UK) Medea Class –>