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HMS Plover (1916) was a repeat M class destroyer that served with the 14th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet from 1916 to the end of the First World War, narrowly avoiding being sunk by UB-21 in 1917.
The Plover was ordered under the Fifth War Programme of May 1915. She was laid down at Hawthorn on 30 July 1915, launched on 19 April 1916 and completed on 30 June 1916.
1916
From July 1916 to December 1918 the Plover served with the 14th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet
1917
On 14 February 1917 Plover, Partridge, Portia and Rob Roy were ordered to patrol the area between Peterhead and Aberdeen in response to a series of attacks carried out by UC-44. However by this point UC-44 was on her way home and she reached Heligoland on 16 February.
On 12 September UB-21 fired a torpedo at the Plover when she was fifteen miles east of the Orkneys, but missed. The U-boat was driven off by the resulting hunt and was next seen off the east coast of Scotland.
On 13 November 1917 the Plover collided with the examination drifter Felicia off Lerwick.
1918
On 15 March 1918 the Plover and Moon damaged timber fences belonging to Messrs Holms & Frazer at Port Glasgow.
The 14th Flotilla took part in the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet on 21 November 1918.
In December 1919 she was in the charge of a Care and Maintenance Party at Portsmouth.
She was sold to be broken up in May 1921.
Service Record
July 1916-December 1918: 14th Destroyer Flotilla, Grand Fleet
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 |
30 July 1915 |
Launched |
3 March 1916 |
Completed |
30 June 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]
