H.M.S. Skate (1895)

H.M.S. Skate (1895)
Builder:	Vickers
Ordered:	1893-94
Laid down:	20 Mar, 1894
Launched:	13 Mar, 1895
Commissioned:	14 Jan, 1896
Broken up:	1907

H.M.S. Skate was one of thirty-six 27 Knotters, a broad meta-class of early Torpedo Boat Destroyers built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s.

She was broken up in 1907.

Service

Around 1904, Skate was involved in a collision with the destroyer Vixen.

Skate was the first of the Royal Navy's destroyers to be disposed of, being first used for trials of anti-torpedo guns off Shoeburyness in 1906, and then sold for scrap on 9 April, 1907 to Cox, Falmouth.

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

• Lieutenant & Commander Cecil F. Lambert, 14 January, 1896 – 2 March, 1896
• Lieutenant & Commander Hastings F. Shakespear, 20 February, 1896 – 13 March, 1896
• Commander Lionel de L. Wells, 18 August, 1896 – 7 November, 1896
• Commander Robert H. Travers, 7 November, 1896 – 10 September, 1897  (participated in the Jubilee Naval Review and the Annual Manoeuvres of 1897)
• Lieutenant & Commander John G. Armstrong, 1 December, 1897 – 10 August, 1898
• Lieutenant & Commander Francis E. Walters, 10 August, 1898 – 17 March, 1899
• Lieutenant & Commander Alan C. Bruce, mid 1902  (for passage home)
• Lieutenant James U. Farie, 1 August, 1902 – 2 September, 1902
• Lieutenant in Command Robert M. Haynes, 28 August, 1902 – late 1902
• Lieutenant & Commander Henry R. Heathcote, 7 July, 1903 – 15 October, 1903
• Lieutenant & Commander William H. Grieve, 14 July, 1904 – 1 October, 1904  (for Annual Manoeuvres of 1904)
• Lieutenant-Commander Arthur S. Chambers, 28 October, 1904 – 1 April, 1905

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Lyon, David (1996). The First Destroyers. London: Chatham Publishing. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).