HMS Roebuck was a Hawthorn Leslie three-funnel, 30-knot destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1898–1899 Naval Estimates. She was the twelfth ship to carry the name. She served during World War I and was broken up in 1919.

Description and construction

On 30 March 1899, the British Admiralty ordered three destroyers (Roebuck, HMS Greyhound (1900) and HMS Racehorse (1900)) from the Newcastle shipbuilder Hawthorn Leslie, as part of the 1898–1899 shipbuilding programme. The three ships closely resembled the two thirty-knotter destroyers, HMS Cheerful (1897) and HMS Mermaid (1898) built by Hawthorn Leslie under the 1896–1897 programme. They were 214 ft long overall and 210 ft between perpendiculars, with a beam of 21 ft and a draught of 8 ft. Displacement was 385 LT light and 430 LT full load. Four Yarrow boilers (in place of the Thornycroft boilers used by Cheerful and Mermaid) fed steam to two three-cylinder triple expansion steam engines, rated at 6100 ihp. Up to 85 LT of coal could be carried, giving a range of 1555 nmi at 11 kn. The ship had the standard armament of the Thirty-Knotters, i.e. a QF 12-pounder 12 cwt (3 in calibre) gun on a platform on the ship's conning tower (in practice the platform was also used as the ship's bridge), with a secondary armament of five 6-pounder guns, and two 18 in torpedo tubes. The ship was manned by 63 officers and ratings. Roebuck was laid down on 2 October 1899 at Hawthorn Leslie's Hebburn-on-Tyne shipyard and launched on 4 January 1901. She arrived at Chatham Dockyard 18 September 1901 to be armed and prepared for sea trials, during which she reached a speed of 30.346 kn. She was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in March 1902.

Service history

After commissioning she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. She spent her operational career mainly in home waters. In May 1902 she received the officers and men from HMS Greyhound, and was commissioned by Commander Marcus Rowley Hill at Chatham for service with the Medway Instructional Flotilla. She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII. In August 1906, Roebuck, part of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, was due to be refitted at Devonport Dockyard. In 1910, Roebuck, commanded by Andrew Cunningham, later Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord, was part of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla based at Portsmouth. On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyers were to be grouped into classes designated by letters based on contract speed and appearance. As a three-funneled destroyer with a contract speed of 30 knots, Roebuck was assigned to the C class. The class letters were painted on the hull below the bridge area and on a funnel. July 1914 found her in the Portsmouth local flotilla tendered to HMS Pomone (1897). She was deployed to Devonport under orders of the Commander in Chief, Portsmouth for the training of cadets until the Armistice. By December 1918 she was paid off and laid-up in reserve awaiting disposal. She was broken up at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1919.

Pennant numbers

Citations