HMS Negro (1916)

HMS Negro was an Admiralty M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built by Palmers at Jarrow, Tyneside and launched 8 March 1916, but was sunk after colliding with HMS Hoste (1916) in the North Sea on 21 December 1916; depth charges from Hoste exploded and blew out Negro's hull plating. The ship was the second Royal Navy warship to bear the name Negro with the first being the 1813 Negro, ex-Niger.

Description
The Admiralty M class were improved and faster versions of the preceding Laforey-class destroyer. They displaced 971 LT. The ships had an overall length of 273 ft, a beam of 26 ft and a draught of 9 ft. They were powered by three Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four Yarrow boilers. The turbines developed a total of 25000 shp and gave a maximum speed of 34 kn. The ships carried a maximum of 237 LT of fuel oil that gave them a range of 2100 nmi at 15 kn. The ships' complement was 76 officers and ratings.

The ships were armed with three single QF 4 in Mark IV guns and two QF 1.5-pounder (37 mm) anti-aircraft guns. These latter guns were later replaced by a pair of QF 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns. The ships were also fitted with two above water twin mounts for 21 in torpedoes.

Construction
The outbreak of the First World War meant that the Royal Navy had a requirement for large numbers of extra destroyers to replace expected war losses, and a number of large orders were quickly placed, with existing types such as the M class being favoured to allow rapid construction. Negro was one of ten M-class destroyers ordered as part of the Second War Programme in early November 1914. She was laid down at Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company's Jarrow shipyard in January 1915, was launched on 8 March 1916 and completed in May 1916.

Service
On commissioning, Negro joined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet. Having only recently been completed, Negro did not sail with her Flotilla on 30 May 1916 to take part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June, although in the aftermath of the battle she did help to escort the damaged battleship HMS Warspite (03) back to Rosyth. On 18 August 1916, the Grand Fleet sailed in response to a sortie by the German High Seas Fleet. The two fleets failed to meet each other before the Germans withdrew, but as the Grand Fleet was heading for home, the light cruiser HMS Falmouth (1910) was torpedoed twice by the German submarine SMU U-66 at 16:52hr. Negro along with the destroyers HMS Pasley (1916) and HMS Pelican (1916) came to Falmouth's aid and after U-66 was driven off by Pelican, escorted the damaged cruiser as she slowly made her way towards the Humber estuary. Despite a strong destroyer escort, which grew to nine destroyers, Falmouth was struck by two more torpedoes from SMU U-63 at noon on 20 August. Falmouth eventually sank at 08:10hr on 21 August near Flamborough Head.

Sinking
On 19 December 1916, the Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow to carry out exercises between Shetland and Norway. On the morning of 20 December, the Flotilla leader HMS Hoste (1916) suffered a failure of her steering gear at high speed, almost colliding with several other ships, and was detached to return to Scapa with Negro 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, fifty-one 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 times. 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. Negro is lying at a depth of 100 m in two pieces, close to each other, north-east of Fair Isle. She was firmly identified by the ship's bell.