On conversion to a minesweeper in 1914 two torpedo tubes were removed
HMS Dryad was the name ship of the Dryad-class torpedo gunboats. She was launched at Chatham Dockyard on 22 November 1893, the first of the class to be completed. She served as a minesweeper during World War I and was broken up in 1920.
Ordered under the Naval Defence Act of 1889, which established the "Two-Power Standard", the class was contemporary with the first torpedo boat destroyers. With a length overall of 262ft 6in (80.01m),[1] a beam of 30ft 6in (9.30m)[1] and a displacement of 1,070 tons,[1] these torpedo gunboats were not small ships by the standard of the time; they were larger than the majority of World War I destroyers. Dryad was engined by Maudslay, Sons & Field with two sets of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, two locomotive-type boilers, and twin screws. This layout produced 3,500 indicated horsepower (2,600kW),[1] giving her a speed of 18.2 knots (33.7km/h).[1] She carried between 100 and 160 tons of coal and was manned by 120 sailors and officers.[1]
In December 1899, Dryad was commissioned for more service on the Mediterranean Station. On 14 January 1900 Dryad left Chatham for the Mediterranean in order to relieve Hussar, which returned to Devonport to pay off.[4] She was stationed at Souda Bay until March 1900, when she returned to the station garrison at Malta.[5] Later the same month she was posted to Alexandria as a port ship.[6] In June 1902 she was lent to the East Indies Squadron for special service in the Gulf of Aden,[7] returning to Malta in late September.[8]
Tender to the Navigation School
In 1906 she was chosen as the tender to the Navigation School, conducting navigation training of officers at sea. In due course her name came to be used for the Navigation School itself, and then for HMSDryad, the shore establishment at Southwick House in Hampshire.
HMS Dryad Floated at Chatham, 25 November 1893, by Miss Cecil Heneage, Daughter of Sir Algernon C F Heneage, KCB
By 1914 Dryad had been converted to a minesweeper and was operating in the North Sea from the port of Lowestoft. Four gunners from Dryad were assigned to the Q-shipInverlyon.[10] which on 15 August 1915 sank the German submarine UB-4 with gunfire.[10]
Disposal
She was renamed Hamadryad in 1918 and was sold to H Auten & Co on 24 September 1920 for breaking.[1]
Notes
↑ British "18 inch" torpedoes were 17.72 inches (45.0cm) in diameter
Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC52620555.
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