HMS Stag (1899)

She was laid down as yard number 324 on 16 April 1898 at the John I Thornycroft and Company shipyard at Chiswick on the River Thames. She was launched on 18 November 1899. During her builder's trials her maximum average speed was 30.5 knots. She proceeded to Portsmouth to have her armament fitted. She was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in September 1900. During her acceptance trials and work ups her average sea speed was 25 knots.[1][2]

Lieutenant and Commander B. A. Austen was appointed in command of the Stag on 14 February 1902,[3] and commissioned her at Chatham on 25 February for service with the Instructional Flotilla.[4] Only weeks later, Lieutenant John Maxwell D. E. Warren was appointed in command from 18 March 1902.[5] In May 1902 she transferred her officers and crew to HMS Sturgeon.[6] She was commissioned at Chatham on 2 September 1902 by Commander Sir Douglas Egremont Robert Brownrigg for outbound journey to the Mediterranean, where she was placed in the fleet reserve at Malta. Her crew returned home, while Brownrigg succeeded in command of HMS Coquette, tender to HMS Orion, depot ship for destroyers on the Mediterranean Station.[7]

She remained with the Mediterranean Fleet until 1913. On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyer classes were to be designated by alpha characters starting with the letter 'A'. Since her design speed was 30-knots and she had two funnels she was retrospectively assigned to the D class. After 30 September 1913, she was known as a D-class destroyer and had the letter ‘D’ painted on the hull below the bridge area and on either the fore or aft funnel.[8]

On her return to the UK she was assigned to the 8th Destroyer Flotilla based at Sheerness.

In July 1914 she was in active commission assigned to the 8th Destroyer Flotilla based at Sheerness tendered to the destroyer depot ship Tyne. In August 1914 the 8th was re-deployed to the River Tyne. The 8th was a patrol flotilla tasked with anti-submarine and counter-mining patrols.[9]

On 25 September while on patrol off the Isle of May at the mouth of the Firth of Forth she was missed by two torpedoes fired by an unknown submarine.[10] In November 1917 she was deployed to the Irish Sea Hunting Flotilla until the cessation of hostilities providing anti-submarine and counter-smuggling patrols.

In 1919 she was paid off and laid-up in reserve awaiting disposal. She was sold on 17 May 1921 to Thos W Ward of Sheffield for breaking at Grays, Essex on the Thames Estuary.[11]

• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
• 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.
• Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J. J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
• Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Jane, Fred T. (1969) [1898]. Jane’s All the World's Fighting Ships 1898. New York: first published by Sampson Low Marston, London 1898, Reprinted ARCO Publishing Company.
• Jane, Fred T. (1990) [1919]. Jane’s Fighting Ships of World War I. Jane’s Publishing. ISBN 1 85170 378 0.
• Lyon, David (2001) [1996]. The First Destroyers. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-364-8.
• Manning, T. D. (1961). The British Destroyer. London: Putnam & Co. OCLC 6470051.
• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.