H.M.S. Lynx (1894)

H.M.S. Lynx (1894)
Builder:	Laird
Ordered:	1893
Laid down:	Jul, 1893
Launched:	24 Jan, 1894
Commissioned:	Aug, 1895
Broken up:	1912

H.M.S. Lynx was one of six 26 Knotters, early Torpedo Boat Destroyers built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s.

Like the other 26 knotters, her useful life ran its course before the Great War.

Construction & Service

During trials conducted on 23 August, 1894, Lynx made a surprisingly good 28.3 knots before a pipe fitting burst, necessitating the postponement of the trial to the next day.

On a passage from Birkenhead to Plymouth on 24 December 1894 under the temporary command of Lieutenant D. E. R. Brownrigg, Lynx ran aground along the Cornish coast and suffered a wedge-shaped hole near the keelson under the wardroom which varied from one to three inches in shape as well as a bent starboard propeller shaft. A day-long Court Martial was convened on 27 December, 1894 with Brownrigg, the boatswain, the look-out man, the quarter-master and the chief engine-room artificer giving evidence. A telegram to dockyard officials directed them to accept the boat immediately to relieve Laird Brothers of any further responsibility.

The boat burst another steam pipe which caused her to miss the Annual Manoeuvres of 1895, as it was not repaired at Devonport before early August. Commander Bennett then took her on an economic trial run in the Channel during which she averaged 22.2 knots on 152 psi pressure, 309.3 rpm and 1,853 hp starboard and 303.4 rpm and 1,685 hp port. Despite the seemingly low stress of this trial, an inspection upon her return showed significant leaking her water-tube boilers. Nonetheless, she had already been ordered placed into commission to replace the disabled H.M.S. Surly at Milford Haven.

On 12 December 1895, she began a series of tests at Plymouth with the aim being to develop an indicated horsepower of 4,500.

By January 1896, she had been fitted with a permanent installation of electric lights in her boiler and engine room – a luxury which was provided only temporarily for other destroyers recently commissioned at Devonport.

On 26 February, the Devonport Torpedo Flotilla left harbour, consisting of Banshee, Lynx, and Ferret for a ten day cruise in the English and Irish Channels. She would participate in the Annual Manoeuvres of 1896.

On 10.40am 29 September 1897, Thrasher and Lynx ran aground in fog off the Cornish coast at Dodman's Point. Lynx and her more heavily damaged consort were floated free and sent to Devonport. A Court Martial convened on 13 October aboard the torpedo training school H.M.S. Defiance under president Captain W. M. Lang of gunnery training school H.M.S. Cambridge. Lynx's captain, Lieutenant John Garnet Armstrong, was charged with having negligently or by default stranded his ship. The Court Martial lasted three days, and it emerged that Lynx had been astern Thrasher by a cable length, and this much relieved Armstrong of any possible fault. His sounding machine, though worked by an experienced man, had fouled and his patent log, which lost him his dead reckoning. That he had relied on the leadership of the ship ahead seemed right.

In 1909, Lynx twice suffered misfortune at the hands of her then-master, Lieutenant Henry Taprell Dorling. She first ran aground, a misfortune for which Dorling received a caution directly from the C-in-C. A later collision with a schooner Mary was more ambiguous; both ships were judged to be at fault.

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

• Lieutenant & Commander Douglas E. R. Brownrigg, c. December, 1894
• Commander Robert H. Travers, 7 November, 1895 – 7 November, 1896  (in command for Annual Manoeuvres of 1896)
• Lieutenant & Commander Oscar V. de Satgé, 7 November, 1896 – 10 August, 1897  (participated in the Jubilee Naval Review and the Annual Manoeuvres of 1897)
• Lieutenant & Commander John G. Armstrong, 3 August, 1897 – 1 December, 1897
• Lieutenant & Commander Stephen H. Radcliffe, 6 January, 1900 – 1900
• Lieutenant & Commander Reginald E. Carr, 21 July, 1903  (for Annual Manoeuvres of 1903)
• Lieutenant & Commander John C. H. Lindsay, 14 July, 1904 – late 1904  (for Annual Manoeuvres of 1904)
• Gunner in Command Alfred Reep, 5 November, 1904 – 5 November, 1905
• Lieutenant & Commander Evelyn L. B. Boothby, 9 May, 1906 – 17 December, 1907
• Lieutenant & Commander John G. Neligan, 17 December, 1907 – 17 November, 1908
• Lieutenant Taprell Henry Dorling, 1 December, 1908 – November, 1909
• Lieutenant & Commander Arthur F. Crutchley, 19 October, 1909 – 4 April, 1911
• Lieutenant & Commander Ralph W. Wilkinson, 4 April, 1911 – c. mid 1911

See Also

• Wikipedia