HMS Colne (1905)

HMS Colne was a Thornycroft type River Class Destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1903 – 1904 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Colne in eastern England, north east of London, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy.

Construction
She was laid down on 21 March 1904 at the Thornycroft shipyard at Chiswick and launched on 21 May 1905. She was completed in July 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.

On 27 April 1908 the Eastern Flotilla departed Harwich for live fire and night manoeuvres. During these exercises HMS Attentive rammed and sank HMS Gala then damaged HMS Ribble.

In 1909/1910 she was assigned to China Station.

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 July 1914 she was on China Station based at Hong Kong tendered to HMS Triumph. She deployed with China Squadron to Tsingtao to blockade the German base. On 24 November 1914, after the Japanese declaration of war she returned to Hong Kong. With the fall of Tsingtao and the sinking of the SMS Emden, she was redeployed to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean Fleet in November of 1914 accompanying HMS Triumph, to support the Dardanelles campaign.

On 3 March while inshore shelling a battery near Erenkeui, she was taken under fire by HMS Amethyst. HMS Wolverine informed the cruiser she was firing on HMS Colne and she ceased fire. HMS Colne was not hit and suffered no casualties during this friendly fire incident.

On 18 March 1915 she in conjunction with HMS Jed and HMS Chelmer assisted with the rescue of the crew of the battleship HMS Ocean after she struck a mine in the Dardanelles.

On 25 April 1915 under the command of Commander C. Seymour, she supported the landings at ANZAC Cove.

On 25 May 1915 she provided fire support for ground forces during their capture of some Turkish outpost trenches.

Disposition
In 1919 she returned to Home waters, was paid off and laid up in reserve awaiting disposal. On 4 November 1919 she was sold to J.H. Lee for breaking at Dover.

She was awarded the Battle Honour Dardanelles 1915 - 1916 for her service.

Pennant Numbers
It is not known if she was assigned a pennant number as no record has been found.