| Career (United Kingdom) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Fairy |
| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, Scotland |
| Laid down: | 19 October 1896 |
| Launched: | 29 May 1897 |
| Completed: | August 1898 |
| Fate: | Sank after ramming a submarine, 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Gipsy-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 355 long tons (361 t) |
| Length: | 215.5 ft (65.7 m) |
| Beam: | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Draught: | 8 ft 2 in (2.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | vertical triple-expansion steam engines Coal-fired Normand boilers 6,300 hp (4,698 kW) |
| Speed: | 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
| Complement: | 63 |
| Armament: | 1 × QF 12-pounder gun 2 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes |
HMS Fairy was a Gipsy-class destroyer (later C-class destroyer) which served with the Royal Navy before and during World War I. She was built by Fairfield and launched in 1897. On the last day of May in 1918 she was escorting an East Coast convoy off Flamborough Head when the merchant steamer Blaydonian sighted and rammed the German U boat UC-75. The stricken U-boat surfaced only to be rammed more twice by Fairy. The submarine sank after the second impact, holed between her gun and conning tower. Two of the German crew escaped drowning by leaping onto the destroyer's forecastle. The collision took its toll on the destroyer as well and she foundered.
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