HMS ''Eden'' was a Hawthorn Leslie type River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1901 – 1902 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Eden in northern England, she was the second ship to carry this name since it was introduced in 1814.

Construction

She was laid down on 12 June 1902 at the

Hawthorn Leslie R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982. History The company was formed ...

shipyard at

Hebburn-on-Tyne Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district council, urban district from 1894 until ...

and launched on 13 March 1903. She was completed in June 1904. She differed from the other boats of the class by having Parsons turbines instead of reciprocating steam engines. On her trials she made , and was the fastest boat of the class. Her original armament was to be the same as the turtleback torpedo boat destroyers that preceded her. In 1906 the Admiralty decided to upgrade the armament by landing the five 6-pounder naval guns and shipping three 12-pounder 8 hundredweight (cwt) guns. Two would be mounted abeam at the fo'clse break and the third gun would be mounted on the quarterdeck.

Pre war

After commissioning she was assigned to the East Coast Destroyer Flotilla of the 1st Fleet and based at Harwich. She was used for a lot of test runs with her conventionally-powered sister ''Waveney'' to ascertain whether her turbines represented an improvement. In April 1909 she was assigned to the

3rd Destroyer Flotilla The British 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, also styled as Third Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from 1909 to 1939 and again from 1945 to 1951. History In 1907 the Channel Fleet had a large Channel Flotilla of destroyers in Fe ...

on its formation at Harwich. She remained until displaced by a ''Basilisk''-class destroyer by May 1912. She was assigned to the

5th Destroyer Flotilla The British 5th Destroyer Flotilla, or Fifth Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the ...

of the 2nd Fleet with a nucleus crew. In the early morning of 28 January 1910 while under the command of Lieutenant Oliver M F Stokes she broke loose from her moorings in bad weather and sank at the Harbour Jetty under the East Cliff at Dover. She was refloated on 30 January and repaired. On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyer classes were to be designated by alpha characters starting with the letter 'A'. The ships of the River class were assigned to the E class. After 30 September 1913, she was known as an E-class destroyer and had the letter ‘E’ painted on the hull below the bridge area and on either the fore or aft funnel.

World War I

In early 1914 when displaced by G-class destroyers she joined the

9th Destroyer Flotilla The 9th Destroyer Flotilla, or Ninth Destroyer Flotilla, was a military formation of the British Royal Navy from January 1913 to December 1925 and again in January to July 1940. History Established in January 1913 when it was assigned to the Pa ...

based at Chatham tendered to HMS ''St George''. The 9th Flotilla was a patrol flotilla tasked with anti-submarine and counter mining patrols in the Firth of Forth area. By September 1914, she was deployed to the Dover Patrol based at Portsmouth. Here she provided anti-submarine, counter mining patrols and defended the Dover Barrage.

Loss

On the night of 18 June 1916 HMS ''Eden'' collided with the transport SS ''France'' in the English Channel. She sank with the loss of her commander, Lieutenant A C N Farquhar and 42 officers and men. The damaged transport rescued 33 officers and men. Today, her wreck lies in in the waters near

Fécamp Fécamp () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in north-western France. Geography Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Alabaster Coast. It is around ...

Pennant numbers

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eden (1903) River-class destroyers Ships built on the River Tyne 1903 ships Ships sunk in collisions Maritime incidents in 1916 World War I shipwrecks in the English Channel