HMS Bat (1896)

HMS Bat
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Bat
Ordered:	8 January 1896
Builder:	Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow
Laid down:	28 May 1896
Launched:	7 October 1896
Commissioned:	August 1897
Out of service:	Laid up in reserve, 1919
Fate:	Sold for breaking, 10 June 1919
General characteristics
Class and type:	Palmer three funnel - 30 knot destroyer
Displacement:	390 t (384 long tons) light 420 t (413 long tons) full load
Length:	220 ft (67 m) o/a 215 ft (66 m) pp
Beam:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Draught:	12 ft 5.5 in (3.797 m)
Installed power:	6,200 ihp (4,600 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Reed water tube boilers 2 × vertical triple-expansion steam engines 2 shafts
Speed:	30 kn (56 km/h)
Complement:	63 officers and men
Armament:	1 × QF 12-pounder 12 cwt Mark I L/40 naval gun on a P Mark I low angle mount 5 × QF 6-pounder 8 cwt L/40 naval gun on a Mark I* low angle mount 2 × single tubes for 18-inch (450mm) torpedoes
Service record
Operations:	World War I 1914 - 1918

HMS Bat was a Palmer three funnel, 30 knot destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1895 – 1896 Naval Estimates. She was the third ship to carry this name since it was introduced in 1815 for a revenue cutter in service until 1848.

HMS Bat was one of four 30-knotter destroyers (Bat, Chamois, Crane and Flying Fish) ordered from Palmer's of Jarrow on 8 January 1896 as part of the 1895–1896 shipbuilding programme, following on from two destroyers (Star and Whiting) ordered from Palmer's on 23 December 1895 as part of the same programme.

She was laid down on 28 May 1896 at the Palmer shipyard at Jarrow-on-Tyne and launched on 7 October 1896. During her builder’s trials she made her contracted speed requirement. She was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in August 1897.

After commissioning Bat was assigned to the 2nd Fleet and based at Devonport on training duties.

In October 1898, the ship became the first destroyer in the Royal Navy to receive a torpedo fitted for a gyroscope.

In 1899 she was the leader of the Devonport Flotilla under the command of Commander Alexander Ludovic Duff during exercises in July. Commander Pennant Lloyd was appointed in command in January 1900. The following month she had her starboard propeller damaged while in the Falmouth harbour, when the destroyer Fairy dragged her moorings and drifted into Bat and other ships of the flotilla. Following repairs in Devonport, she was to go back to the flotilla, but had to withdraw for a longer period as there was an accident in the enigne-room during power trials in late February. She paid off into the Dockyard reserve at Devonport on 8 March 1900. Her next commanding officer, from 1901, was Commander Roger Keyes, who pioneered new aggressive tactics for destroyers during this period. Bat was paid off on 4 January 1902, when her crew was turned over to the destroyer Falcon, which took her place in the Flotilla. After paying off, she underwent repairs to re-tube her Reed boilers.

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Wikipedia