HMS Chamois (1896)

HMS Chamois
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Chamois
Ordered:	9 January 1896
Builder:	Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company
Cost:	£52,410
Yard number:	713
Laid down:	28 May 1896
Launched:	9 November 1896
Commissioned:	November 1897
Fate:	Foundered in the Gulf of Patras, 26 September 1904
General characteristics
Class and type:	Palmer three-funnel, 30-knot destroyer
Displacement:	390 t (384 long tons) standard 420 t (413 long tons) full load
Length:	219 ft 9 in (66.98 m) o/a
Beam:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Draught:	8 ft 11 in (2.72 m)
Installed power:	6,000 shp (4,500 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Reed water tube boilers 2 × vertical triple-expansion steam engines 2 shafts
Speed:	30 kn (56 km/h)
Range:	80 tons coal 1,490 nmi (2,760 km) at 11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement:	60 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-pdr 8 cwt L/40 naval gun on a Mark I* low angle mount 2 × single tubes for 18-inch (450mm) torpedoes

HMS Chamois was a Palmer three-funnel, 30-knot destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1895–1896 Naval Estimates. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to carry this name. She was commissioned in 1897 and served in both the Channel and the Mediterranean. She foundered in 1904 after her own propeller pierced her hull.

She was laid down on 28 May 1896 as yard number 713 at the Palmer shipyard at Jarrow-on-Tyne and launched on 9 November 1896. During her builder’s trials she met her contracted speed requirement. Chamois was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in November 1897.

After commissioning she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. She was re-commissioned at Portsmouth 5 September 1901 by Lieutenant Walter Egerton Woodward, with the crew of Albatross, to replace that vessel on the Mediterranean Station. Woodward was replaced by Lieutenant Percy William Pontifex later the same year. She was later deployed as a tender to the destroyer depot ship HMS Leander at Malta.

On 26 September 1904, while under the command of Lieutenant and Commander Sydney Harold Tennyson, she was the victim of a bizarre accident. While conducting a full power trial in the Gulf of Patras off the Greek coast she lost a propeller blade. The loss of the blade unbalanced the shaft, which was spinning at high speed. The resulting vibration broke the shaft bracket and tore a large hole in the hull. She sank by the stern in 30 fathoms (55 m) of water about 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) from the coast north of the modern village of Araxos. All hands were saved, but one engineer was wounded and another scalded.

Coordinates: 38°14′N 21°24′E / 38.233°N 21.400°E / 38.233; 21.400

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