HMS Skate (1917)

Skate at Liverpool in 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Skate
Ordered:	8 December 1915
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Laid down:	12 January 1916
Launched:	11 January 1917
Commissioned:	19 February 1917
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 1947
General characteristics
Class and type:	R-class destroyer
Displacement:	900 long tons (910 t) standard 1,220 long tons (1,240 t) full
Length:	265 ft (81 m) p/p 276 ft (84 m) o/a
Beam:	26 ft 9 in (8.15 m)
Draught:	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m) full load
Propulsion:	3 Yarrow-type water-tube boilers Brown-Curtis single reduction geared steam turbines, 27,000 shp
Speed:	36 knots (41 mph; 67 km/h) 32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h) full
Range:	3,440 nmi (6,370 km) at 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) 1,860 nmi (3,440 km) at 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Complement:	90
Armament:	As designed : 3 × QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) L/40 Mark IV guns on single mounting P Mark IX 1 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II on mount HA Mk.II, later; 5 × 0.303 in machine guns 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×2) As Escort : 1 × QF 4 in (102 mm) L/40 Mk.IV mount P Mk.IX 1 × QF 12 pdr L/40 Mk.V mount HA Mk.VIII 4 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns single mount P Mk.III 2 racks and 8 throwers for depth charges

HMS Skate was an R-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that was laid down and completed during the First World War. She was built at John Brown Shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland and launched on 11 January 1917.^[1]

Service

Skate was the sole survivor of her class by 1939, and saw extensive service during the Second World War as a convoy escort. This gave her the honour of being the oldest destroyer to see service with the Royal Navy in the latter conflict.^[2]

During the First World War, Skate was torpedoed and damaged in the North Sea off the Maas Lightship by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-69 with the loss of a crew member on 12 March 1917.^[3] She was converted into a minelayer while undergoing repairs, which is likely why she remained active on the Navy List in 1939. Initially she served as an influence minesweeper to combat the threat of magnetic mines, but such was the need for escorts that she was rearmed in 1941 to take part in the Battle of the Atlantic. She was on North Atlantic duties until 1942 and was part of the escort for the Normandy landings in June 1944.^[3]

After the Second World War she was transferred to the Torpedo school at HMS Vernon in 1945, before being sold in 1947 and broken up in July at Newport in Wales.^[1]

References

R-class destroyers
Royal Navy	Admiralty R class Romola Sarpedon Radstock Raider Sable Rowena Rocket Restless Setter Rob Roy Sorceress Starfish Rigorous Salmon / Sable Redoubt Simoon Stork Sylph Redgauntlet Recruit Satyr Thruster Skate Sturgeon Tempest Skilful Torrid Sharpshooter Thisbe Springbok Tarpon Sceptre Tetrarch Telemachus Tenacious Tormentor Tancred Tornado Torrent Modified Admiralty R class Trenchant Tristram Undine Ulysses Tower Tirade Urchin Umpire Ursa Ursula Ulster Thornycroft R class Rosalind Radiant Retriever Taurus Teazer Yarrow R class or Yarrow Later M class Sabrina Strongbow Surprise Sybille Truculent Tyrant Ulleswater
Royal Thai Navy	Thornycroft R class Phra Ruang (ex-Radiant)
Preceded by: Admiralty M class Followed by: Admiralty S class
List of destroyers of the Royal Navy

Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in March 1917
Shipwrecks	3 Mar: Connaught 5 Mar: Copenhagen 8 Mar: Storstad 10 Mar: SM UC-43 12 Mar: HMS E49 13 Mar: SM UC-68 17 Mar: HMS Paragon 18 Mar: HMS Duchess of Montrose, SM UB-6 19 Mar: Danton 20 Mar: HMHS Asturias 23 Mar: HMS Laforey 26 Mar: HMS Myrmidon Unknown date: SM U-85
Other incidents	1 Mar: HMHS Glenart Castle 12 Mar: HMS Skate 14 Mar: Orsova 19 Mar: HMS E50, SM UC-62 27 Mar: Ultonia 31 Mar: HMHS Gloucester Castle
1916 1917 1918 February 1917 April 1917