HMS Hoste (1916)

HMS Hoste was a Parker-class flotilla leader of the Royal Navy. She was built by Cammell Laird during the First World War, completing on 13 November 1916, but was lost in a collision with the destroyer HMS Negro (1916) on 21 December that year.

Construction and design
In July 1915, the British Admiralty ordered three Parker-class flotilla leaders (i.e. large destroyers intended to lead flotillas of smaller destroyers in action), Hoste, HMS Seymour (1916) and HMS Saumarez (1916), from the Birkenhead shipyard Cammell Laird. The Parker-class was an improved version of the earlier Marksman-class flotilla leader with the ships' bridge moved rearwards, and an improved gun layout.

The Parkers were 325 ft long overall and 315 ft between perpendiculars, with a beam of 31 ft and a draught of 12 ft. Displacement was between 1660 LT and 1673 LT normal and about 1900 LT full load. Four Yarrow boilers fed steam to three sets of Parsons steam turbines, rated at 36000 shp and giving a speed of 34 kn. Three funnels were fitted. 515 LT of oil fuel were carried, giving a range of 4290 nmi at 15 kn.

The ship's main gun armament consisted of four QF 4 in Mk IV guns mounted on the ships centreline, with the forward two guns superfiring so that one could fire over the other, with one gun between the second and third funnel and one aft. Two 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns were fitted, while torpedo armament consisted of two sets of twin 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. The standard anti-submarine armament for flotilla leaders such as Hoste from June 1916 onwards was two Type D depth charges on chutes. This was not increased until after Hoste's loss. The ship's complement was 116 officers and men.

Hoste, named for William Hoste, was laid down on 1 July 1915, launched on 16 August 1916 and commissioned on 13 November 1916.

Service
On commissioning, Hoste joined the Thirteenth Destroyer Flotilla, part of the Grand Fleet, with the pennant number G90. On 19 December 1916, the Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow to carry out exercises between Shetland and Norway. On the morning of 20 December, Hoste suffered a failure of her steering gear at high speed, almost colliding with several other ships, and was detached to return to Scapa with the destroyer HMS Negro (1916) as escort. At about 01:30 hr on 21 December, in extremely poor weather, with gale-force winds and a heavy sea, Hoste's rudder jammed again, forcing the ship into a sudden turn to port. Negro, following about 400 yd behind, collided with Hoste. The collision knocked two depth charges off Hostes stern which exploded, badly damaging the rear end of Hoste and blowing in the bottom of Negros hull, flooding her engine room. Negro sank quickly, and despite the efforts of the destroyer HMS Marmion (1915) to rescue survivors, 51 officers and men of Negro's crew were killed. Marmion and HMS Marvel (1915) attempted to tow the crippled Hoste back to Scapa, but after three hours, Hoste began to founder. Despite the severe conditions, Marvel went alongside Hoste to rescue the crew of the sinking ship, and when repeatedly forced apart by the heavy seas, repeated the manoeuvre another twelve time. While Marvel sustained damage to her forecastle from repeated impacts between the two ships, she managed to rescue all but four of Hoste's crew before Hoste finally sank. Eight officers and 126 men were rescued by Marvel.

Wreck
In August 2023, the wrecks of Hoste and Negro were located and identified. Hoste is lying at a depth of 100 m in two pieces, the stern section about 3 nmi from the main wreck, in approximately 59°16’N 1°55’W, 16 nmi south of Fair Isle.