HMS Halcyon (1894)

The third HMS Halcyon was a Dryad-class torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. Once described as "perhaps the smallest and least formidable vessel that ever crept into the 'Navy List'", she was launched in 1894 and was put up for sale before World War I. She was recommissioned in 1913, was converted to a minesweeper and served under the orders of the Admiral Commanding Coast Guard and Reserves. She was sold for breaking in 1919.

Design
Ordered under the Naval Defence Act of 1889, which established the "Two-Power Standard", the class was contemporary with the first torpedo boat destroyers. With a length overall of 262 ft, a beam of 30 ft and a displacement of 1,070 tons, these torpedo gunboats were not small ships by the standard of the time; they were larger than the majority of World War I destroyers. Halcyon was engined by Hawthorn Leslie and Company with two sets of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, two locomotive-type boilers, and twin screws. Halcyon produced 6000 ihp, nearly twice the power of the rest of her class. She was capable of 19 or 20 kn. She carried between 100 and 160 tons of coal and was manned by 120 sailors and officers.

Armament
The armament when built comprised two QF 4.7 in guns, four 6-pounder guns and a single 5-barrelled Nordenfelt machine gun. Her primary weapon was five 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, with two reloads. On conversion to a minesweeper in 1914 two of the five torpedoes were removed.

Construction
Halcyon was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 2 January 1893 and launched on 6 April 1894.

Naval review of 1897
On 26 June 1897 Halcyon was present at the Fleet Review at Spithead in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

Mediterranean station
HMS Halcyon was commissioned to serve at the Mediterranean Station by Commander Scott W. A. Hamilton Gray in March 1898. She was stationed at Souda Bay in early March 1900, but later the same month left for Port Said to temporary relieve HMS Rupert (1872) as coast defence ship. In May 1901 she left the Mediterranean and paid off at Devonport, to be placed in the Fleet Reserve for refitting.

Pre-war service
Although being offered for sale, she was recommissioned with a new crew from the Chatham Depot by Commander A.A. Ellison, R.N., at Sheerness on 5 July 1913, to do duty as Senior Naval Officer’s Ship, North Sea Fisheries, under the orders of the Admiral Commanding Coast Guard and Reserves.

World War I service
She was involved in the Raid on Yarmouth on 3 November 1914, when she was surprised by enemy cruisers, whom she challenged, and who responded shortly after 7 a.m. with gunfire.

“Halcyon, perhaps the smallest and least formidable vessel that ever crept into the ‘Navy List’ [sic], engaged the enemy imperturbably when they fled, losing one man from a fragment of shell, though practically unhurt herself. Private letters speak of salvoes falling short and over in the most disconcerting manner, and of the ship being so drenched with water as to be in danger of foundering.”

On 29 July 1917, Halcyon spotted a periscope near the Smiths Knoll buoy east of Yarmouth, and carried out a ramming attack, followed by dropping two depth charges. Halcyon was credited with sinking the submarine, SM UB-27.

Disposal
She was sold to J H Lee of Dover for breaking on 6 November 1919.