Name HMS Decoy Yard number 288 Completed June 1895 Launched 7 February 1894 Draft 2.1 m | Cost c.£36,000 Laid down July 1892 Construction started July 1892 Length 61 m | |
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Fate Sunk in collision, 13 August 1904 Builder John I. Thornycroft & Company | ||
HMS Decoy was a Daring-class torpedo boat destroyer which served with the Royal Navy in home waters. She was launched in 1895 and sunk in a collision with the destroyer HMS Arun in 1903.
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Construction
She was built by John I. Thornycroft & Company at Chiswick and was launched on 7 February 1894.
Although fitted with multiple torpedo tubes, her bow tube proved useless in practice as — while running at high attack speeds — the ship was prone to overtake its own torpedo. The clumsy tube also reduced living quarters and made the bridge very prone to flooding.
Service
Decoy took part in the 1896 British Naval Manoeuvres, attached to the Channel Fleet operation from Berehaven in southern Ireland. She served as instructional tender to the Cambridge, gunnery school ship, until August 1901. Lieutenant Cyril Asser was appointed in command in February 1902, when she was based at Plymouth, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Henry Ralph Heathcote on 1 July the same year. Heathcote transferred to the Contest the following month, and was succeeded in command by Lieutenant L. J. I. Hammond on 8 August 1902.
Fate
Decoy was lost in a collision with the destroyer Arun off the Scilly Islands on 13 August 1904. while taking part in night exercises. One man was killed while the remaining 40 members of the crew were rescued by Arun and Sturgeon.
Courts martial regarding the sinking were subsequently assembled aboard the battleship Conqueror. The first, on 22 August, attributed blame on the commander of Arun, Reginald Tyrwhitt. The second, an appeal, was held on 30 August, and dismissed the charge of neglect but confirmed the charge of hazarding both vessels.