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HMS Oriole (1916) was a repeat M class destroyer that served with the Grand Fleet from November 1916 to the end of the First World War, and was involved in an unusually large number of accidental collisions.
The Oriole was ordered under the Fourth War Programme of February 1915. She was laid down at Palmers, launched on 31 July 1916 and completed in November 1916.
1916
From November 1916 to September 1917 the Oriole served with the 13th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet
1917
On 23 February 1917 the Oriole and Abdiel collided at Queensferry, to the west of Edinburgh.
On 9 May the Oriole and the oiler Griven collided at Rosyth.
On 14 August 1917 the Patriot and the Oriole collided.
On 30 September 1917 the Oriole grounded on Drake’s Island, off Plymouth.
From October 1917 to December 1918 the Oriole served with the 4th Destroyer Flotilla at Devonport
On 12 December the Oriole and SS Obinsi collided.
Unsurprisingly a file in the National Archive dated to 1917 records damage to the ‘boiler etc’ on HMS Oriole ‘due to collision’.
1918
On 16 January 1918 the oiler Calcutta was reported to have collided with HM torpedo boat Oriole, almost certainly a reference to this destroyer.
On 21 March 1918 the Oriole and the Porpoise collided.
On 11 May the Oriole was damaged off Start Point, on the same day that HMS Midge grounded in the same place.
In December 1919 she was in the charge of a Care and Maintenance Party on the Nore.
She was sold to be broken up on May 1921.
Service Record
November 1916-September 1917: 13th Destroyer Flotilla, Grand Fleet
October 1917-December 1918: 4th Destroyer Flotilla, Devonport
Displacement (standard) |
1,025t (Admiralty design) |
Displacement (loaded) |
1,250t |
Top Speed |
34 knots |
Engine |
3-shaft Brown-Curtis or Parsons turbines |
Range |
|
Length |
273ft 4in (Admiralty) |
Width |
26ft 8ft (Admiralty) |
Armaments |
Three 4in/ 45cal QF Mk IV |
Crew complement |
80 |
Laid down |
- |
Launched |
31 July 1916 |
Completed |
November 1916 |
Sold for break up |
May 1921 |
British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War, Norman Friedman. A very detailed look at the design of British destroyers from their earliest roots as torpedo boat destroyers, though the First World War and up to the start of the Second World War, supported by vast numbers of plans and well chosen photographs [read full review]
