HMS Ferret (1893)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Ferret
Builder:	Laird, Son & Co., Birkenhead
Laid down:	July 1893
Launched:	9 December 1893
Completed:	March 1895
Fate:	Sunk as target, 1911
General characteristics
Class & type:	Ferret-class destroyer
Displacement:	280 long tons (284 t)
Length:	199 ft (60.7 m)
Beam:	19.25 ft (5.9 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion:	Vertical triple-expansion steam engines Coal-fired Normand boilers 4,475 hp (3,337 kW)
Speed:	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Armament:	1 × QF 12-pounder gun 2 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes

HMS Ferret was a Ferret-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy from 1893 and was sunk in 1911.

Construction

Ferret was armed with one 12-pounder gun and two bow torpedo tubes. Later in her career she was fitted out for boom breaking as an experiment. Her forebridge, gun and bow tube were removed and the turtle backed forecastle was strengthened for this purpose.

Service history

Ferret was launched in 1893 and completed in 1895.

She served in the Devonport instructional flotilla, when in early February 1900 she was transferred to become tender to HMS Cambridge, gunnery ship off Plymouth.^[1]

She underwent repairs to re-tube her boilers in 1902.^[2]

She was sunk as a target in 1911.

References

• Lyon, David (1996). The First Destroyers. ISBN 1-84067-364-8.
• Captain T.D. Manning, (1961). The British Destroyer. Putnam and Co.

1. "Navel & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Thursday, 1 February 1900. (36054), p. 6.
2. "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Wednesday, 14 May 1902. (36767), p. 12.