HMS Velox (1902)
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| History | |
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 UK
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| Name: | HMS Velox |
| Builder: | Hawthorn Leslie and Company |
| Laid down: | 10 January 1901 |
| Launched: | 11 February 1902 |
| Commissioned: | February 1904 |
| Fate: | Mined 25 October 1915 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Viper-class torpedo boat destroyer |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | |
| Beam: | 21 ft 0 3⁄8 in (6.41 m) |
| Draught: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Propulsion: | Parsons turbines, |
| Speed: | 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) (full load) |
| Complement: | 63 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Velox was a turbine-powered torpedo boat destroyer (or "TBD") of the British Royal Navy in 1899 by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Hebburn on the River Tyne. Velox was built speculatively by Hawthorn Leslie and Company with machinery by Parsons Marine, being launched in 1902, and was purchased by the Royal Navy, entering service in 1904. Velox served in the First World War, being sunk by striking a mine in 1915.
The British Admiralty, eager to investigate the use of steam turbines in warships, ordered the experimental destroyer Viper from Parsons Marine in 1898, and purchased Cobra, also turbine-powered, built as a private venture by Armstrong Whitworth, in 1900. Both ships were quickly lost however, with Viper running aground off Alderney on 3 August 1901, and Cobra broke in half while on her delivery voyage on 19 September 1901. The Admiralty was still keen to adopt turbines, and so decided to buy a turbine-powered destroyer that was being built as a private venture by Parsons, the Python.
Python had been laid down at Hawthorn Leslie and Company's Hebburn, Tyneside shipyard (as for Viper, Parsons had sub-contracted build of the hull to Hawthorn Leslie, with the ship's machinery to be provided by Parsons) on 10 April 1901 and launched on 11 February 1902.
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