HMS Squirrel (1904)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Squirrel |
| Builder | Workman, Clark & Co Ltd[1] |
| Launched | 21 December 1904[1][2] |
| Commissioned | 1905[1] |
| Fate | Sold, 16 November 1921 and renamed Vedra[2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 230 long tons (260 short tons)[2] |
| Length | 103 ft (31 m)[2] |
| Beam | 21 ft (6.4 m)[2] |
| Propulsion | 300 ihp steam engine[3] |
| Speed | 10 knots[3] |
| Armament | 2 × 3 pdr guns[2] |
HMS Squirrel was built for the Royal Navy as a coast guard vessel, commissioned in 1905 to replace the previous HMS Squirrel.[1] She was built at Belfast by Workman, Clark and Company as yard number 215, launched on 21 December 1904 and completed early in 1905. The displacement of Squirrel was 230 t (250 short tons), her dimensions 103 ft (31 m) length overall and 21 ft (6.4 m) beam,[2] and she was fitted with a 300 ihp steam engine giving her a speed of 10 knots.[3] She was armed with two 3-pounder guns.[2][3]
From 1905 to 1912 Squirrel was nominally tender for HMS President and possibly HMS Halcyon, and in October 1906 she was recorded as being under the command of Chief Officer C H Coleman.[1] From 1914 to 1917 she was a tender to HMS Vivid, and in February 1914 she was under the command of Chief Officer James B Newman.[1] The coastguard role continued until 1917, when she became a cable vessel.[1][2]
Surplus to requirements, Squirrel was sold on 16 November 1921 to the Sunderland Pilotage Authority for conversion to the pilot tender Vedra.[2][4] Registered in 1923 at Sunderland with Official Number 146924, she was measured as 158 GRT and 52 NRT.[5] In the mid-1930s several attempts were made to sell Vedra, and in 1936 Thomas Young & Sons (Shipbreakers) Ltd purchased her for local demolition.[4] However, she was resold to Captain Vernon Sewell for use during the making of the Michael Powell film The Edge of the World in Scotland during 1937.[6] Thereafter Vedra was sold to foreign owners and renamed, but again became a British ship in 1938 as the yacht Sea-Serpent, registered at Famagusta, Cyprus, then a British colony.[7] Sea-Serpent was reported sunk on 22 April 1941 by German aircraft between Syros and Souda.[8]
