HMS Gala (1905)

HMS Gala was a Yarrow type River Class Destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1903 – 1904 Naval Estimates. Named after the Gala Waters in the Scottish Borders area south of Edinburgh, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy.

Construction
She was laid down on 1 February 1904 at the Yarrow shipyard at Poplar and launched on the 7 January 1905. She was completed in April 1905. Her original armament was to be the same as the Turleback 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 foc'x'le 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.

Loss
On the afternoon of 27 April 1908, the Eastern Destroyer Flotilla, consisting of 15 vessels, in company with the scouts HMS Adventure and HMS Attentive, left Harwich for the purpose of firing exercise and night manoeuvres. A little after midnight all the vessels having their lights masked, HMS Gala one of the destroyers came into collision with HMS Attentive being struck by the latter's ram in the after part of the engine room and cut in two. Fortunately in this case all the crew was saved, except Engineer Lieutenant F A Fletcher, who was drowned. HMS Attentive afterwards came into collision with HMS Ribble and holed her below the waterline. She had to put into Sheerness for repairs. The after part of HMS Gala sunk almost immediately, but the fore section, with all the crew clinging to it remained afloat for some time, sinking while an attempt was being made to tow it into shallow water.

Pennant Numbers
She was not assigned a pennant number during her service life.