Dryad underway in wartime grey paint
History
United Kingdom
Name	Dryad
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	15 April 1893
Launched	22 November 1893
Commissioned	21 July 1894
Renamed	HMSHamadryad in 1918
Fate	Broken up in 1920
General characteristics
Class & type	Dryad-class torpedo gunboat
Displacement	1070 tons
Length	262 ft 6 in (80.0 m)
Beam	30 ft 6 in (9.3 m)
Draught	13 ft (4.0 m)
Installed power	3,500 ihp (2,600 kW)
Propulsion	2 × 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines Locomotive boilers Twin screws
Speed	18.2 kn (33.7 km/h)
Complement	120
Armament	2 ×QF 4.7-inch (12 cm) guns 4 ×6-pounder 1 ×Nordenfelt machine gun 5 ×18-inch torpedo tubes On conversion to a minesweeper in 1914 two torpedo tubes were removed

HMSDryad was the name ship of theDryad-class torpedo gunboats. She was launched atChatham Dockyard on 22 November 1893, the first of the class to be completed. She served as aminesweeper during World War I and was broken up in 1920.

Ordered under theNaval Defence Act of 1889, which establishedthe "Two-Power Standard", the class was contemporary with the firsttorpedo boat destroyers. With a length overall of 262 ft 6 in (80.01 m),^[1] a beam of 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)^[1] and a displacement of 1,070 tons,^[1] these torpedo gunboats were not small ships by the standard of the time; they were larger than the majority of World War I destroyers.Dryad was engined by Maudslay, Sons & Field with two sets of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, two locomotive-type boilers, and twin screws. This layout produced 3,500 indicated horsepower (2,600 kW),^[1] giving her a speed of 18.2 knots (33.7 km/h).^[1] She carried between 100 and 160 tons of coal and was manned by 120 sailors and officers.^[1]

The armament when built comprised twoQF 4.7-inch (12 cm) guns, four6-pounder guns and a single 5-barrelled Nordenfelt machine gun. Her primary weapon was five18-inch (450-mm) torpedo tubes,^{[Note 1]} with two reloads.^[1] On conversion to a minesweeper in 1914 two of the five torpedoes were removed.^[1]

Dryad deployed toCrete in February 1897 to operate as part of theInternational Squadron, a multinational force made up of ships of theAustro-Hungarian Navy,French Navy,Imperial German Navy, Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina),Imperial Russian Navy, and Royal Navy that intervened in the 1897–1898 Greek uprising on Crete against rule by theOttoman Empire. On 21 February 1897, she joined the BritishbattleshipHMS Revenge and torpedo gunboatHMS Harrier, the Russian battleshipImperator Aleksandr II, the Austro-Hungarianarmored cruiserSMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, and the Germanprotected cruiserSMS Kaiserin Augusta in the International Squadron's first direct offensive action, a brief bombardment of Cretan insurgent positions on the heights east of Canea (nowChania) after the insurgents refused the squadron's order to take down aGreek flag they had raised.^[2][3]

In December 1899,Dryad was commissioned for more service on theMediterranean Station. On 14 January 1900Dryad leftChatham for theMediterranean in order to relieveHussar, which returned toDevonport to pay off.^[4] She was stationed atSouda Bay until March 1900, when she returned to the station garrison atMalta.^[5] Later the same month she was posted toAlexandria as a port ship.^[6] In June 1902 she was lent to theEast Indies Squadron for special service in theGulf of Aden,^[7] returning to Malta in late September.^[8] She paid off at station headquarters at Malta on 4 February 1903, then recommissioned the following day.^[9]

In 1906 she was chosen as the tender to the Navigation School, conducting navigation training of officers at sea. In due course her name came to be used for the Navigation School itself, and then forHMS Dryad, the shore establishment atSouthwick House inHampshire.

On 20 June 1907,Dryad rescued the crew ofHM Torpedo Boat 99 after thetorpedo boat sank without loss of life during afternoonsteamtrials in theEnglish Channel offTorquay,England, when herpropeller shaft broke and punctured herhull.^[10]

By 1914Dryad had been converted to aminesweeper and was operating in theNorth Sea from the port ofLowestoft.Four gunners fromDryad were assigned to theQ-shipInverlyon.^[11] which on 15 August 1915 sank the German submarineUB-4 with gunfire.^[11]

She was renamedHamadryad in 1918 and was sold to H Auten & Co on 24 September 1920 for breaking.^[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHMS Dryad (1893).

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.OCLC 67375475.
• Brown, Les (2023).Royal Navy Torpedo Vessels. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.ISBN 978-1-3990-2285-9.
• McTiernan, Mick,A Very Bad Place Indeed For a Soldier. The British involvement in the early stages of the European Intervention in Crete. 1897 - 1898, King's College, London, September 2014.
• Lyon, David & Winfield, Rif (2004).The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. Chatham Publishing.ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6.OCLC 52620555.

• Dryad-class torpedo gunboats
• Ships built in Chatham
• 1893 ships
• Victorian-era gunboats of the United Kingdom
• World War I minesweepers of the United Kingdom
• Maritime incidents in 1907

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