HMS Ostrich (1900)

History


Name:	HMS Ostrich
Ordered:	1898 – 1899 Naval Estimates
Builder:	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, Glasgow
Laid down:	28 June 1899
Launched:	22 March 1900
Commissioned:	December 1901
Out of service:	Laid up, December 1918
Fate:	Sold for breaking, 29 April 1920
General characteristics
Class and type:	Fairfield three-funnel, 30-knot destroyer
Displacement:	355 t (349 long tons) standard 400 t (394 long tons) full load
Length:	215 ft 6 in (65.68 m) o/a
Beam:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Draught:	8 ft 2 in (2.49 m)
Installed power:	6,000 shp (4,500 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Thornycroft water tube boilers 2 × vertical triple-expansion steam engines 2 × shafts
Speed:	30 kn (56 km/h)
Range:	80 tons coal 1,615 nmi (2,991 km) at 11 kn (20 km/h)
Complement:	63 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-pounder 8 cwt L/40 naval gun on a Mark I* low angle mount 2 × single tubes for 18-inch (450mm) torpedoes
Service record
Operations:	World War I 1914 - 1918
Awards:	Battle honour "Belgian Coast 1914 – 17"

HMS Ostrich was a Fairfield three-funnel, 30-knot torpedo boat destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1898 – 1899 Naval Estimates. In 1913 she was grouped as a C-class destroyer. She was the first Royal Navy ship to carry this name. She spent most of her operational career in home waters, operating with the Channel Fleet as part of the Portsmouth Instructional Flotilla, and was sold for breaking in 1920.

On 30 March 1899, the British Admiralty placed an order with the shipbuilder Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company for two "Thirty-Knotter" torpedo-boat destroyers, Falcon and Ostrich. As with other early Royal Navy destroyers, the design of Ostrich was left to the builder, with the Admiralty laying down only broad requirements.

Ostrich was 214 feet 6 inches (65.38 m) long overall and 209 feet 9 inches (63.93 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 12 feet 2 inches (3.71 m) and a draught of 8 ft 9 in (2.67 m). Displacement was 375 long tons (381 t) light and 420 long tons (430 t) full load. Four Thornycroft boilers, with their out-takes routed to three funnels, drove triple-expansion steam engines rated at 6,300 indicated horsepower (4,700 kW). The ship had the standard armament of the Thirty-Knotters—a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt (3 in (76 mm) 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-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes.

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