View source for HMS Cheerful (1897)

{{short description|Destroyer of the Royal Navy}}
{{Other ships|HMS Cheerful}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2017}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=HMS Greyhound (1900) underway at Portland IWM N20856.jpg
|Ship caption=The visually identical ''Greyhound'' underway in 1906
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header= 
| Ship country=United Kingdom
| Ship flag= [[File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg|60px|Royal Navy Ensign]]
| Ship name=HMS ''Cheerful''
| Ship ordered=1896 – 1897 Naval Estimates
| Ship builder=[[Hawthorn Leslie|R.W. Hawthorn Leslie & Co.]], [[Hebburn-on-Tyne]]
| Ship yard number=343<ref name="Lyon p93"/>
| Ship original cost=£54,509<ref name="Lyon p93"/>
| Ship laid down=7 September 1896
| Ship launched=14 July 1897{{refn|name=launch|group=Note|Lyon has a launch date of 22 February 1898 (and shows ''Mermaid'' as launched 14 July 1897) but notes that it is "not clear from the records consulted why ''Mermaid'' should be launched before, but completed after, her sister."<ref name="Lyon p93"/>}}
| Ship acquired=
| Ship commissioned=June 1899
| Ship decommissioned=
| Ship in service= 
| Ship out of service=
| Ship struck= 
| Ship reinstated= 
| Ship fate=Mined on 30 June 1917
| Ship honours= 
| Ship badge= 
| Ship motto=
| Ship identification=
| Ship notes= 
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=no
|Header caption=<ref name="Lyon p93">{{harvnb|Lyon, The First Destroyers|page=93}}</ref>
|Ship class=[[C class destroyer (1913)|Hawthorn Leslie three-funnel, 30-knot]] [[destroyer]]
|Ship displacement=*{{Convert|355|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} light
*{{convert|400|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} full load
|Ship length={{convert|215|ft|m|abbr=on}} [[Length overall|o/a]]
|Ship beam={{convert|21|ft|1|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught={{convert|8|ft|2|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship power={{Convert|6100|ihp|kW|abbr=on|lk=in}}
|Ship propulsion=
*4 × Thornycroft [[water tube boiler]]s
*2 × vertical triple-expansion [[steam engine]]s
*2 shafts
|Ship speed= {{convert|30|kn|km/h|abbr=on}}
|Ship range=*95&nbsp;tons coal
*{{convert|1,615|nmi|km|abbr=on}} at {{convert|11|kn|abbr=on}}
|Ship complement= 63 officers and men
|Ship armament=
*1 × [[QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun|QF 12-pounder 12 cwt Mark I L/40 naval gun]] on a P Mark I low angle mount
*5 × [[QF 6-pdr 8 cwt naval gun|QF 6-pdr 8 cwt L/40 naval gun]] on a Mark I* low angle mount
*2 × single [[Torpedo tube|tube]]s for [[British 18 inch torpedo|18-inch (450mm) torpedoes]]
| Ship notes= 
}}
{{Infobox service record
|is_ship=yes
|is_multi=
|label= 
|partof=
|codes=
|commanders=
|operations=[[World War I]] 1914 - 1918
|victories=
|awards=
}}
|}
'''HMS ''Cheerful''''' was a [[C class destroyer (1913)|30-knot, three-funnel]] [[torpedo boat destroyer]] built by Hawthorn Leslie. She was ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1896–1897 Naval Estimates, launched in 1898, and saw action during World War I. She was mined off the [[Shetland Islands]] in 1917 and sank with the loss of 44 officers and men.

==Construction==
She was laid down on 7 September 1896, at the [[Hawthorn Leslie|R.W. Hawthorn Leslie and Company]] shipyard at [[Hebburn-on-Tyne]], and launched on 14 July 1897.  During her builder's trials, she made her contract speed of {{convert|30|knots}}.  She was completed and accepted by the Royal Navy in February 1900,<ref name="Jane-p84-85">{{cite book |last=Jane |first=Fred T. |title= Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships 1898 |orig-year=1898, Sampson Low Marston, London |year=1969 |publisher=ARCO Publishing Company |location=New York |pages=84–85}}</ref><ref name="Jane-p76">{{cite book |last=Jane |first=Fred T. |title=Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I |year=1990 |orig-year= 1919, reprinted |publisher= Jane’s Publishing |isbn=1-85170-378-0 |page=76}}</ref> and passed into the [[Medway]] Fleet Reserve at [[HMNB Chatham|Chatham]].<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=12 February 1900 |page=11 |issue=36063}}</ref>

==Service==
After commissioning, she was assigned to the [[Chatham Dockyard|Chatham]] Division of the [[Harwich Flotilla]]. She was deployed in home waters for her entire service life. On 6 March 1900, she was commissioned at Chatham to take the place of [[HMS Mermaid (1898)|HMS ''Mermaid'']] in the Medway instructional flotilla,<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=7 March 1900 |page=10 |issue=36083}}</ref> with Commander [[Mark Kerr (Royal Navy officer, born 1864)|Mark Kerr]] transferring from ''Mermaid'' to take command of ''Cheerful''.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=20 March 1900 |page=7 |issue=36094}}</ref> In April 1900, she was present at an accident at [[Brighton]]'s [[West Pier]], when seven sailors from [[HMS Desperate (1896)|HMS Desperate]] were drowned in bad weather as they approached the pier.<ref name=NOTW>{{cite news |title= Disaster to Bluejackets - Boat Swamped at Brighton - Seven Seamen Drowned. |newspaper= [[News of the World]] |date=15 April 1900}}</ref><ref name=pbenyon>{{cite web |title= HMS Bittern |publisher= Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels and a few of their movements |url= http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/B/00569.html |access-date= 13 January 2014 |archive-date= 21 September 2004 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040921115615/http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/B/00569.html |url-status= dead }}</ref>

On 30 August 1912, the Admiralty directed all destroyer classes were to be designated by letters.  She was assigned to the {{nobr|C class}} along with the other 3-funnel, 30-knot destroyers.  After 30 September 1913, she was known as a C-class destroyer and had the letter ‘C’ painted on the hull below the bridge area and on either the fore or aft funnel.<ref>{{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|orig-year=1985 |year= 2006|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|isbn=0-85177-245-5|pages=17–19}}</ref> Between 1912 and 1914 she had a wireless radio set installed.

In July 1914, she was in active commission in the [[8th Destroyer Flotilla]] based at Sheerness and tendered to {{HMS|Tyne|1878|6}}, the flotilla depot ship.  Her duties included anti-submarine and counter-mining patrols.

On 26 September, two torpedoes were fired at her, {{convert|3|mi}} west of [[Fidra]] in the [[Firth of Forth]]. At the end of September 1914, she was redeployed to the [[Shetland]] patrol based out of [[Scapa Flow]].  Here, she was deployed in anti-submarine operations and defending the main fleet anchorage. In December 1914, she was given the pennant number P13; at the start of September 1915, this was changed to D49.<ref name="gwpda" />

On 30 June 1917, while on patrol off the Shetland Islands, she struck a contact mine that had been laid by German submarine {{SMU|UC-33||2}}.  She sank with the loss of 44 officers and men in position {{coord|60|02|N|01|07|W}}.<ref name="gwpda">{{cite web |title="Arrowsmith" List – Part 1 Destroyer Prototypes through "River" Class |url=http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s0420000.htm|access-date=1 Jun 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Loss data from U-Boat.net |url= http://uboat.net/wwi/ships_hit/1237.html }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|title=Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|year=1979 |name-list-style=amp |publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London |isbn=0-85177-133-5}}
* {{Cite Colledge2006}}
* {{cite book|last1=Dittmar|first1=F. J.|last2=Colledge|first2=J. J.|title=British Warships 1914–1919|year=1972|publisher=Ian Allan|location=Shepperton, UK|isbn=0-7110-0380-7|name-list-style=amp}}
* {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War|year=2009|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|location=Barnsley, UK|isbn=978-1-84832-049-9}}
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Gardiner|editor1-first=Robert|editor2-last=Gray|editor2-first=Randal|title=Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|year=1985|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|isbn=0-85177-245-5|name-list-style=amp}}
* {{cite book|last=Lyon|first=David|title=The First Destroyers|year=2001|orig-year=1996 |publisher=Caxton Editions |location=London|isbn=1-84067-3648|ref={{harvid|Lyon, The First Destroyers}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Manning|first=T. D.|title=The British Destroyer|year=1961|publisher=Putnam & Co.|location=London|oclc= 6470051}}
* {{cite book|last=March|first=Edgar J.|title=British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans|year=1966|publisher=Seeley Service|location=London |oclc=164893555}}

{{C class destroyer}}
{{June 1917 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheerful (1897)}}
[[Category:Ships built on the River Tyne]]
[[Category:1897 ships]]
[[Category:C-class destroyers (1913)]]
[[Category:World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1917]]
[[Category:Ships sunk by mines]]