HMS Ardent (1894)

Ardent
Career
Name:	HMS Ardent
Builder:	Thornycroft, Chiswick
Laid down:	December 1893
Launched:	16 October 1894
Commissioned:	30 April 1895
Motto:	Death rather than disgrace
Fate:	Sold for breaking 10 October 1911
General characteristics
Class and type:	Thornycroft 27 knot - 2 funnel destroyer
Displacement:	265 tons (1901)
Length:	201 ft 8 in (61.47 m)
Beam:	19 ft (5.8 m)
Draught:	7 ft 3 in (2.21 m)
Installed power:	4,300 ihp (forced draught)
Propulsion:	2 × Thornycroft vertical triple-expansion steam engines 4 × Thornycroft coal-fired water-tube boilers 2 × shafts
Speed:	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Endurance:	60 tons of coal 1,750 nm at 13 knots
Complement:	53 officers and men
Armament:	1 × 12-pounder 12 cwt QF Mark I naval gun on a P Mark I low angle mount 5 × QF 6-pounder 8 cwt Mark I naval guns on a P Mark I* low angle mount 2 × 18-inch (45 cm) torpedo tube (single launchers)

HMS Ardent was a Royal Navy 27 knot torpedo boat destroyer ordered from John I Thornycroft & Company under the 1893 – 1894 Naval Estimates. She was the sixth ship to carry this name.^[1]

Construction

She was laid down in December 1893 at the Thornycroft shipyard at Church Wharf, Chiswick and launched on 16 October 1894 by Mrs C.T. Cornish, the daughter of the company founder John Isaac Thornycroft.^[2][3] During her builder’s trials at Maplin Sound on 9 November 1894 she achieved an average speed of 29.182 knots on her full power run. Her boiler pressure was 210 pounds per square inch with shafts turning at an average of 407 revolutions per minute.^[4] Upon completion of trials she proceeded to Portsmouth to have her armament fitted. During her acceptance trials and workups her average sea speed was 23 knots.

Service history

She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 30 April 1895 at Portsmouth under the command of Lieutenant & Commander Godfrey H B Mundy for service on the Mediterranean Station based at Malta.^[5] She departed Portsmouth on 14 May 1895 stopping at Plymouth to join the cruiser Pique. They departed for Malta on 15 May.^[6] Upon her arrival she was tendered to the fleet flagship, HMS Ramillies. Part of her duties was the training of the stokers in the management of water-tube boilers.^[3] On 31 March 1901 she was listed as being at Malta for the British Empire census. In April 1902 she was on tactical and gunnery exercises with the Mediterranean Fleet.^[7]

Disposal

Upon her return to home waters in early 1911, she was paid off into reserve. She was listed on the July 1911 (Quarterly) Navy List as being for sale.^[8] Ardent was sold on 10 October 1911 for breaking.^[1]

Citations

References

• Jane’s Fighting Ships 1905/06, first published by Sampson Low Marston, London 1905, Reprinted ARCO Publishing Company, New York, 1969, Library of Congress No: 69-14519, ARCO # 668-02269-8, p.78
• Jane’s All The Worlds Fighting Ships 1898, first published by Sampson Low Marston 1898, Republished by David and Charles (Publishers), 1969, 7153 4476 5, pp 84-85
• Illustrated Guide to the Royal Navy and Foreign Navies, Fred T.W. Gibbs, 2nd Edition edited and revised by E.W.C. Gibbs, Waterlow Brothers & Layton Ltd, London – 1896, p. 102
• The British Navy – Past and Present, Rear-Admiral S. Eardly-Wilmont, Second Edition 1904, The Navy League, London, pp 99-101
• The Royal Navy, by H. Lawrence Swinburne, illustrated by Norman L. Wilkinson, published by Adams & Charles Black, London, 1907, pp 302-303 & 312-314
• Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860 to 1906, edited by Roger Chesneau & Eugene M. Kolesnik, published by Conway Maritime Press, London, 1979, ISBN 0 85177 133 5, p.91
• Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1906 to 1921, edited by Robert Gardner & Randal Gray, published by Conway Maritime Press (1985), reprinted 2006, ISBN 0 85177 245 5, ISBN 9 780851 772455, pp 17-19
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.